7 Quotes by Elon Musk That Will Change How You See Remote Work Forever
“If you’re trying to create a company, it’s like baking a cake”
Elon Musk is an inspiration for many entrepreneurs because of what he has achieved so far. He even became the world’s richest person for a few days in 2021. That happened because of Tesla’s surging share price.
He is also known for his intense routine. Elon Musk leads different companies and projects such as SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and OpenAI.
He was born in South Africa and moved to Canada at age 17. A few years later, he moved to the US, where he started his first company with his brother Kimbal.
Understanding his story had a significant influence on my entrepreneurial journey. It helped to become a better founder and CEO of a profitable remote gaming company.
“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”
I founded a gaming company in 2012 with three partners. I had the dream of making a living from it.
After two years, my three partners decided to quit the entrepreneurial journey. We weren’t making enough money. They decided to get jobs in other companies for themselves.
I then become the only partner of the company. I needed to change a lot of things if I really wanted to build a profitable business.
I decided to get rid of the office to save money. I had to stop believing that I need an office for success.
“Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is a disaster.”
Working in an office was what I was used to doing. I was used to the routine of leaving home and going to the office to work. I didn’t know any other routine.
I was afraid when I became the only partner of my company. I didn’t have anyone to share the pains and challenges of being an entrepreneur. And now, I would have to do that with no physical office.
I didn’t want to give up, though. Embracing change was the only option in my head. I had to learn to lead a remote team to build a profitable remote business.
We don’t have control over many things that happen in our lives. Sometimes we have no other option than to change.
“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.”
For me, the incredible ingredient is getting the right people on the team. I wouldn’t have achieved what I have achieved without the help of my team.
Working from home isn’t for everyone. I had to organize different processes to allow remote work for my company and me. Also, I needed to hire people that could adapt to that environment.
Great people build great companies. However, some professionals aren’t prepared to work from home. You need to find, interview and hire the right people for your remote company.
If you want to build a successful remote business, you need to learn how to hire employees that can work from their homes.
“There have to be reasons that you get up in the morning and you want to live. Why do you want to live?”
People usually think that they will be happy when they achieve a specific goal.
They will be happy when they finish college. They will be happy when they get a job. They will be happy when they get married. It’s always something in the future.
True happiness is in the journey. As Shawn Achor wrote in his book, The Happiness Advantage, happiness is the precursor to success, not merely the result.
In 2018, I was facing burnout, and I also wasn’t enjoying my entrepreneurial journey anymore. I wasn’t happy in my own company, and because of that, my performance decreased drastically.
Through therapy, I learned what kind of life I wanted for myself.
Instead of thinking about what product to create or what service to offer, I started thinking about what type of life I wanted for myself. I also started thinking about how I want to spend my days. That helped me make better professional decisions as I could work backward from my personal goals.
Working remotely is one of the demands that I have for my life. I don’t want to lose my time and location independence.
“Patience is a virtue, and I’m learning patience. It’s a tough lesson.”
I raised US$1 million for my remote company. I met my investor in September of 2015 and raised the money in February of 2017. A lot happened during all this time. Raising money is a long-term game.
It didn’t matter to my investor that I was leading a remote company. What he wanted to see was results, and I was able to show him that. I sent him a weekly report showing the progression of my remote company.
I’ve talked to many different investors in my entrepreneurial journey. I had to learn to deal with rejection. It took one YES to change everything.
Building a remote company takes time. Impatience will only lead you to make the wrong decisions.
“I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.”
There is always space for improvement in a team. That’s something that never ends. You need to learn what is and isn’t working in your remote team.
Through feedback, we grow as we have the opportunity to learn from our mistakes. We’ll keep doing the exact wrong thing if we believe it’s right. People learn faster when giving and receiving feedback is common. That allows them to improve their performance at work.
As a leader, you should help to improve the performance of your remote team constantly.
“It is a mistake to hire huge numbers of people to get a complicated job done.”
I closed a big project in the first month of my gaming company. I got lucky. After that, I started hiring more people, even not being able to pay much. At some point, we were a total of 11 people.
I liked the idea of seeing the office full of people working. It was a fool vanity metric as we were still struggling to survive. A room full of people doesn’t mean you are a successful entrepreneur.
We didn’t have any focus at the beginning. We were trying to do much different stuff. As a gaming company, we developed our own game, but it wasn’t making any money.
At the same time, we worked on the project for this huge client and other small ones to pay the bills. Our days were a mess.
I didn’t have the right people working with me.
When I moved to remote work, I didn’t make the same mistake.
Understanding how to get the most of remote work helped me build a profitable six-figure business.
