Elon Musk business advice

    by Nate: Elon Musk

    actually says chasing money directly doesn't work, just build useful products instead and the cash follows

    Transcript (en)

    I'm a big fan of anyone who wants to build. Anyone who wants to, you know, make more than they take has my respect. That's the main thing you should aim for. Aim to make more than you take. Be a net contributor to society. It's kind of like the pursuit of happiness. You know, if you want to create something valuable financially, you don't pursue that. It's best to actually pursue providing useful products and services. If you do that, then money will come as a natural consequence of that, as opposed to pursuing money directly. You can't sort of pursue happiness directly. You pursue things that lead to happiness. But there's not like direct happiness. You do things like, I guess, fulfilling work or study or friends, loved ones, that as a result make you happy. It sounds like very obvious, but generally, if somebody's trying to make a company work, they should expect to grind super hard, except that there's like some meaningful chance of failure. But just be focused on having the output be worth more than the input. That's what really matters. Make it more than you take.