Elon Musk – Dutch Uncles

Amazon Denies Plans to Accept Bitcoin, What Does This Mean?

Aakash Sharma — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 12:35:08 +0000

Amazon Inc. posted a job opening for a digital currency and blockchain product lead on July 22, 2021. This led to speculations across industry experts and media circles that Amazon has finally started on its path toward accepting cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as a payments mode for the transactions on its e-commerce platform. But yesterday, the e-commerce and retail giant denied such media reports.

The report about Amazon’s acceptance of Bitcoin by the year-end published by some of the most prominent news groups sent the world’s biggest cryptocurrency up as much as 14.5% before it trimmed gains to last trade 6% higher at $37,684.04.

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As per an Amazon spokesperson, notwithstanding the company's interest in the space, the speculation that has ensued around its specific plans for cryptocurrencies is not true.

However, the e-retail giant remains focused on exploring what such a move could look like for customers shopping on Amazon without a particular timeline.

Not Amazon, but other big companies have already embraced Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin adoption as a payment option for businesses is proliferating. This acceptance is bringing the previously untrusted and looked-down-upon cryptocurrencies closer to significant financial inclusion. Fast-food chains, major tech companies, and even auction houses are embracing cryptocurrencies.

Tesla Inc., Elon Musk’s leading electric vehicle company, has announced plans to accept Bitcoin as a payment method after carefully researching the amount of renewable energy used to mine the coin. More and more companies, including PayPal and Xbox, accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, and others are evaluating their options. Starbucks and Microsoft are other big names that have taken a big step forward.

What are the benefits of Cryptocurrencies as the Payment method?

The main attraction of cryptocurrency for many businesses and users is the autonomy that digital currency gives. They can control the use of money without intermediaries such as banks or governments. Although cryptocurrency exchanges generally charge the “manufacturer” and “consignee” fees, along with potential deposit and withdrawal fees, cryptocurrency users are not restricted by traditional bank fees. This means, among other things, that there is no minimum account maintenance or balance, no current account costs, and no refundable deposits.

Like many online payment modes, crypto users can pay for their coins wherever they have Internet access. This means that purchasers never have to visit a bank or a store to buy a product. The fact that some of the world’s biggest companies are embracing crypto-trade and people are also jumping on this digital bandwagon is proof enough to show the potential of this future mainstream currency.

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Entrepreneurship Lessons from the Business Magnate Elon Musk

Monica Behura — Sat, 24 Apr 2021 03:35:03 +0000

Elon Musk, one of the richest men on the planet, needs no introduction in the entrepreneurial world. The billionaire was recently in news for Tesla’s purchase of the controversial cryptocurrency- Bitcoin worth $1.5 billion will give Tesla liquidity in the cryptocurrency once it starts accepting it as a payment mode for its cars. He created a flutter on twitter on the Bitcoin shopping, raising Tesla’s stock price as well as the cryptocurrency’s market price and demand. Musk has taken a risk in investing on the Bitcoin that has so far not found acceptance in many markets, governments and companies.

Musk never fails to draw attention of the regulators, investors, all stakeholders and the media alike with his tweets that often land him in the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) office. Coming back to Musk’s entrepreneurial skills, he is a visionary, a chief executive officer extraordinaire, of iconic cult brands like Tesla and PayPal. Musk has revolutionized space travel, online payments and electric cars. With a futuristic mindset, he is aiming to develop supersonic electric airplanes as a part of his dream to travel to Mars. Musk is the man behind SpaceX, Tesla Motors, Hyperloop, and SolarCity.

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Elon Musk co-founded, funded and ideated SolarCity which became the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States.

Elon Musk: The Entrepreneurial Journey

Elon Reeve Musk, is a South African born American business magnate, industrial designer and engineer. He started his entrepreneurial journey at a young age of 24. He gave up studying in Stanford University after receiving his dual bachelor’s degree in Economics and Physics from University of California. This bright young mind pursued his business career by co-founding a web software company Zip2 in 1995, four years later it was acquired by Compaq for $307 million. Musk co-founded Paypal in 1999 which was subsequently bought by eBay, three years later in 2002 for $1.5 billion. This young billionaire and a serial entrepreneur had nothing to look back. He looked way forward into the future. This young visionary went on to form SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company, of which he is the CEO, CTO and lead designer.
Musk in his heydays as a dreamer was fascinated by the Silicon Valley, the success stories and innovations. He visualized that the future lies beyond the internet, artificial intelligence, space exploration, renewable energy and reprogramming of human genetic code.

In 2004, he joined as Chairman of Tesla Motors, an electric car manufacturer and led a series of funding of the newly formed company. In 2008, Musk took the leadership mantle up his sleeves following a financial crisis engulfing the company ousting its founder Martin Eberhard. Being the product architect, Musk produced the world’s first all-electric car using lithium-ion battery cells. Musk took Tesla public in its Initial Public Offering (IPO) making it a valuable company.
Musk co-founded, funded and ideated SolarCity with his cousins in 2006. By 2013, it became the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States. Three years later in 2016, SolarCity was acquired by Tesla for $2 billion following liquidity issues with the company. But not without Musk facing multiple lawsuits by the Tesla’s shareholders who claimed being kept in the dark about SolarCity’s liquidity crunch.

The same year, the serial entrepreneur co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup that would create devices that will integrate human brain with Artificial Intelligence (AI), to improve memory and invent devices that could cure paralysis, deafness, blindness and other disabilities. Neuroscientists have however rubbished such claims describing it as ‘highly speculative’.
Musk however is unperturbed by criticism as he continues to invest in companies built to help humanity upgrade lives through technology. The year 2016 seems to be the busy year for the tech billionaire as he continued his quest for founding companies- The Boring Company, Hyperloop – a vactrain, a high speed transportation system incorporating reduced-pressure tubes to move pressurized capsules on an air cushion making driving cheaper at half the time.

Ten Takeaways from the Life of Elon Musk

To innovate use “first principle thinking”

The tech billionaire’s ability to use “first principles thinking” to solve problems simply means stripping things down to their fundamental principles or core elements and reasoning up from those principles to create something new. For instance, expensive batteries are a limiting factor to electric car companies like Tesla Motors. However, using first principles thinking, Musk was able to find an innovative solution to this problem- he stripped the battery down to its material costs- the cobalt, nickel, aluminium, lithium) and reasoned up from there to create “the best and cheapest battery cell.”

Musk claims to have left his competition behind on two of the most important factors for batteries- cost and energy. He has since ‘reasoned up’ by building a Gigafactory that will produce batteries to power over 1 million electric cars per year at full capacity. He aims to capitalize on economies of scale to further reduce battery prices to as low as $100 per kilowatt hour by 2020, beating industry projections by five years.

Musk has used the first principles thinking in every industry- e cash, energy services, electric cars and rocket technology; that is why he has been able to provide innovative solutions to all these industries.

How to apply the first principle thinking in your business?

The first step to applying first principle thinking is identifying your business’s core value proposition, you need to clearly outline yours. Once its done, find a way of reasoning up from that principle to provide value to your customers in a unique way. Using this principle leads to unique business ideas that makes your business innovative and competitive.

Make problem solving an upmost task

Musk is trying to make the world a better place to live in. Environmental problems are being sorted by him through innovations. He is known to solve problems that are affecting the present and future of humanity. Tesla Motors for instance, solves the problem of limited fossil fuel supplies. Musk capitalized on humanity’s need to have more sustainable and less fuel intensive transportation. He fulfilled this demand of the market as opposed to simply focussing on profit. He found an untapped business opportunity. He believed if you solve a problem first earnings and profitability will follow.

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Persistence is important, you should not give up unless you are forced to give up.

-Elon Musk

Perseverance is key

Musk’s entrepreneurial journey hasn’t been a bed of roses, he has had to overcome numerous obstacles to get to the top. He was demoted to chief

Technical officer (CTO) from CEO by investors at Zip2, the first company he started. He was again thrown out by the CEO of PayPal. Musk put his entire life’s savings to start Tesla when it went into bankruptcy to keep it afloat. He faced multiple lawsuits.

Musk faced numerous challenges with SpaceX as the company’s first three rocket launches failed and drew eyeballs from his investors. SpaceX had to bootstrap for its third launch which was finally a success and received a contract from NASA for $1.6 billion.

Hire best minds not big numbers

Musk hires the best talent in numbers that is needed to build a team and does not believe in hiring big numbers to bulk up. Musk once said that it is a mistake to hire huge numbers as it will never compensate for talent in getting the right answer, numbers will tend to slow down progress, and will make the task incredibly expensive.”

Musk, however, added that talent cannot compensate for a lousy personality. So, hiring the best mind combined with a good heart is a must.

Execution of an idea is vital

Musk is a visionary that we all know of. His ideas are revolutionary and transformational and powerful. However, he believes that the success of an idea is in its execution. One that receives no action simply remains an idea while one that is executed effectively can grow into a profitable business. He says that hiring an innovative team that will come up with solid business models to execute your ideas is key. This will lead to healthy financial returns and successful execution of your vision.

Practice integrity

Musk led rounds of funding from financial institutions to fund Tesla Motors at its inception. After a few years, the electric car company was in a deep financial crisis. But Elon got his act together and borrowed heavily to get it back on its feet. The company became a huge success and started selling 2400 units from its first batch of electric cars produced. After which Elon paid back his $400 million loan money. He cleared his debt. Conducting honest business, practising integrity as a part of company policy yields long term goodwill for the company.

Consider failure as part of your plan

Being afraid of failure only restricts us to pursue our dream. We let our fear stop us. Musk says instead of fear lets you take a back seat, you should acknowledge it and come up with a plan to handle its effects. Before he started the SpaceX project, Musk dedicated $100 million to the endeavour. He said if he failed to launch a rocket into space with that budget, he would shut down operations. His first two launches cost him $90 million and failed. The third one cost him $10 million and it succeeded- he was not afraid of failure for the third time and went for it.

No alternative to hard work

Musk has been a hard worker ever since he started his company back in 1995, he worked round the clock. He says he has worked 100 hours a week to reach where he has. He says if you work 100 hours a week while others work 40 hours a week, it will take you four months to achieve what they can in a year. Whatever great idea you have, you can meet your fortune only through hard work

Focus on quality of your product

Elon Musk, runs billion dollar enterprises and understands the power to focus on quality. They believe that it is better to focus your effort on making a product better instead of focusing your effort on how to sell it to the market. Musk says that he would rather under-market a revolutionary product than promote a mediocre one.

Accept challenges

The most revolutionary inventions of Musk is Tesla Energy– an initiative that creates battery packs which have enough power to sustain homes- an idea his engineers rejected. He found ways to adjust the parts of the battery such that it was cheaper to produce and store more energy. Musk challenged the methods of doing things and emerged with an innovative affordable new result.

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What Principles Does Elon Musk Live by For Growth and Self-Improvement?

Richa Bansal — Sun, 21 Mar 2021 00:35:05 +0000

The derring-do to think out of the box, nay boxes. To chart the uncharted even in the face of skid-offs. To simplify the toughest issue at hand applying an Aristotelian principle – these are just some of the rules that have perhaps helped the most influential serial entrepreneur of this century to up and emend his game, project after project. Read how.

How does one write of a man one has only read about, only on the World-Wide Net? How does one sift and sort through all those thousands of clicks that talk about the man, his businesses, his principles, his life story, his maverick play to venture where no man has gone before ever since he was 12, and what makes him one of the most influential entrepreneurs of the 21st century.

I am talking about Elon Musk, who with an estimated net worth at $200+bn is counted among the richest in the world. No silver spoon at birth, this self-confessed self-learner, self-made man must have thought through and thoroughly each project and done many things right (along with the many skid-offs) to chart the uncharted. There was a time, I glean, when this then millionaire was all set to move into his wife’s parents’ basement as he was almost going broke!

What could be the principles that govern his life that make him so successful through all the ups, downs and downs, and then up and up? Let’s try and sneak a peek into his mind through his quotable quotes (!) on his mantras for growth and self-improvement.

With interests and business straddling the worlds of automotive (Tesla), aerospace (SpaceX), satellite (Starlink), solar energy (SolarCity), ultra-fast ground transportation (The Boring Company), energy storage (MegaPack), neurotech (Neuralink), artificial general intelligence (OpenAI) and perhaps a few more, Pretoria-born Elon Reeve Musk once famously said – “If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it’s not… There have to be reasons that you get up in the morning and you want to live. Why do you want to live? What’s the point? What inspires you? What do you love about the future? If the future does not include being out there among the stars and being a multi-planet species, I find that incredibly depressing.’

The first mantra to growth is to find a purpose, a dream that you can dream, and the gumption to work towards that dream. Be an innovator. Look for the blank spaces. Think out of the box, nay boxes! Elon Musk gives the example of Henry Ford. “When Ford made cheap, reliable cars, people said, ‘Nah, what’s wrong with a horse?’ That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.”

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A dream to dream that dream and then go chase it to the beyond to make it come true! But before it all, gain all the knowledge you can.

But even as you dream remember to ask questions. He tells how as a kid he would “question things… It would infuriate my parents… That I wouldn’t just believe them when they said something because I’d ask them why. And then I’d consider whether that response made sense given everything else I knew.” Cross-question yourself, look for the quintessential devil’s advocate to warn you of the pits and falls. He stresses on the “feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better… constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”

Build on your knowledge. But before that it is “important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree – make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e., the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there’s nothing for them to hang on to… The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur.” The serial entrepreneur counsels and exhorts: Make books your best friend. “Imagine – if you read 25 pages every day, it is 750 pages /month (2-4 books), it’s 9000 /year (30-40 books) … And it makes a difference.” Don’t sell yourself short, says he who graduated from the Wharton School with a Bachelor of Science (BS) in economics and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in physics, and dropped out of his PhD course at Stanford University in only two days to chase his entrepreneurial dreams. He was all of 24 years and the Internet had just about begun to explode, and Silicon Valley was roaring ahead.

Your ‘I-Can’ is more important than your IQ. Go innovate!

Elon Musk was just 12 when he sold his first innovation – a computer game for a handsome $500, and thereafter years down the line he co-founded PayPal and the rest. What set him apart was his derring-do in taking risks and pursuing what he had set his mind to, relentlessly.

“Your ‘I-Can’ is more important than your IQ. When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favour…Take risks and do something bold. You won’t regret it. Constantly think about how you could be doing things. Keep questioning yourself… Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is a disaster. Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to… I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary… No results? Keep working! Bad results? Keep working! Great results? Keep working. Consistency is key.”

While not all can be an Elon Musk, innovation can be the only game-changer. “Banks don’t like Bitcoin, taxis don’t like Uber, hotels don’t like Airbnb, bookstores don’t like Amazon, cinemas don’t like Netflix, 9-5s don’t like remote work. Innovation is not always liked… If you go back a few hundred years, what we take for granted today would seem like magic – being able to talk to people over long distances, transmit images, flying, accessing vast amounts of data like an oracle. These are all things that would have been considered magic a few hundred years ago… If you’re trying to create a company, it’s like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion… Starting and growing a business is as much about the innovation, drive and determination of the people behind it as the product they sell… A failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough… Going from Paypal, I thought, well, ‘What are some of the other problems that are likely to most affect the future of humanity?’ Not from the perspective, ‘What’s the best way to make money?’ which is ok, but it was really, ‘What do I think is going to most affect the future of humanity”.

Complicated and aiming literally for the stars? Yes! But then that’s what had the Ted Talks chief guy describe Elon Musk as the “world’s most remarkable living entrepreneur”. And while talking about innovation in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk said: it (innovation) is “absolutely learnable… It is not some mysterious thing. It’s basically being just an absolute perfectionist about the product or service that you make. Just make your product better. This is the thing that really matters.” Get out of the conference room, the mercurial Musk warns, and he speaks with firm conviction. “When I spend too much time in conference rooms, that’s generally when things have gone awry. And when I go spend time on the factory floor, or really using the cars, or thinking about the rockets, that’s when things have gone better.”

He adds: “If you find yourself spending a lot of time getting presentations and reviewing spreadsheets, you’re barking up the wrong tree. That’s the effect, not the cause. So just get out there on the factory floor. Get out there in stores and talk to customers. Being on the factory floor makes for more employee engagement.” And watch how you improve, how business grooves.

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Elon Musk, who with an estimated net worth at $200+bn, is counted among the richest in the world. No silver spoon at birth, this self-confessed self-learner, self-made man must have thought through and thoroughly each project and done many things right (along with the many skid-offs) to chart the uncharted.

Simplify! Simplify! Simplify! Apply ‘first principles’, says Elon Musk

Simplify! Simplify! Simplify! Is yet another golden rule that the genius innovator swears by. “First-principles” – a decision-making strategy which goes back to more than 2,000 years, propounded as it was by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. The first principles method can perhaps be applied across all streams of life – from the personal to the professional which includes entrepreneurial growth and improvement!

Musk explains: “I do think there’s a good framework for thinking. It is in physics. You know, the sort of first principles reasoning. Generally, I think there are — what I mean by that is, boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there, as opposed to reasoning by analogy. Through most of our life, we get through life by reasoning by analogy, which essentially means copying what other people do with slight variations. And you have to do that. Otherwise, mentally, you wouldn’t be able to get through the day. But when you want to do something new, you have to apply the physics approach. Physics is really figuring out how to discover new things that are counterintuitive, like quantum mechanics. It’s really counterintuitive. So, I think that’s an important thing to do, and then also to really pay attention to negative feedback, and solicit it, particularly from friends. This may sound like simple advice, but hardly anyone does that, and it’s incredibly helpful”.

Musk has spoken about first principles many times over the years. He explained it once while talking about the early days at SpaceX, and the physics graduate reiterated on physics: “Physics teaches you to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. So, I said, okay, let’s look at the first principles. What is a rocket made of? Aerospace-grade aluminium alloys, plus some titanium, copper, and carbon fibre. Then I asked, what is the value of those materials on the commodity market? It turned out that the materials cost of a rocket was around two per cent of the typical price… It’s very hard to do,” he said on another occasion, adding “You can’t think that way about everything. It takes a lot of effort, but if you’re trying to do something new, it’s the best way to think. It’s really a powerful, powerful way of thinking.”

Thus, he dwells not on the riff-raff, instead of cutting straight and into the chase. His daily schedule smacks of that as he slices out minutes in each day to ensure he gives equal attention to all his projects – even his 5 boys — one set of twins and another triplet!

Work like hell, he encourages. “I mean you just have to put in 80-to-100-hour weeks every week. (This) improves the odds of success. If other people are putting in 40-hour workweeks and you’re putting in 100-hour workweeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing, you know that you will achieve in four months what it takes them a year to achieve.”

Mantras that speak to the heart and the brain. Go follow!

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What can we learn from Tesla’s approach to innovation?

Shalmoli Sarkar — Sat, 27 Feb 2021 02:35:04 +0000

The world was mesmerised and kept people hooked on to the screens when the privately developed spaceflight by SpaceX ‘Crew Dragon’ completed its space voyage with a precise landing on the Atlantic Ocean. For the first time in the USA’s space mission that used to be primarily driven by NASA, we witnessed a new possibility where private companies like SpaceX could complete the space mission with a spaceflight that had minimal human interference. SpaceX’s success in space mission is a testimony that displays excellence driven by hard work, creativity, and innovation. Same in the automated car segment innovations from Tesla is an inspiration to many.

4 Key Innovations by Tesla

Speaking of the innovation displayed by SpaceX, there are numerous learnings for an entrepreneur to learn from Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla and SpaceX, who began with his entrepreneurial journey in the tech space with several ups and downs. Below are some that we can learn from Tesla’s approach to innovation:

Providing excellent customer service

Many companies fail here. Providing excellent customer service is central to receive repeat businesses. Tesla has a chain of dedicated service centers. Its service centers are powered by a mobile technical service named ‘Rangers’ who travels to customer’s residence to assess and repair any problems. Besides, the Rangers Tesla’s cars can wirelessly upload grievances or issues to the company to which the remote technical support team can attend to the problems and resolve the malfunctions.

Increasing the product demand

To stimulate demand for electric vehicles, a common concern for such vehicles is the power charging aspect. For this, Tesla has developed a vast network of supercharging stations where owners can charge cars for free and could increase the adoption rate of electric vehicles.

Unique sales model

Tesla did not follow the suit of franchisees, instead it sells directly to the consumers. It has developed its own showrooms and galleries. By gaining autonomy on the sales channels, Tesla wanted to provide a better consumer experience. Customers coming to the showroom will be dealt by Tesla-employed sales and service staff. They have also created showrooms which are a combination of retail and service centers. Tesla also leverages an online platform where customers can buy a tesla online.

Tesla -the risk-taker

Any new business would have adopted strategies firstly to conquer the mass market, but Tesla swam against the waves by not building products for the masses. Instead, it focussed on developing a compelling car that would create a demand for electric vehicles. Elon Musk believed that if he had followed the suit of building mass products, then, as a startup, Tesla could have never built a car with technology iterations and achieve no economies of scale. Elon was determined to introduce expensive electric cars that can be the best alternative against the gasoline cars. With this idea, Tesla introduced in the market, its first high-performance electric luxury car, the Tesla Roadster, which generated a whopping sales of 2500 cars.

What’s in it for Startups?

Had Tesla followed the same suit as their competitors of manufacturing products and solutions for the masses, it could have never been possible to carve out a niche for itself in the automobile market. Hence, startups and small businesses should always think doing things differently, be it providing customer service or developing solutions that add value.

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