This Is Elon Musk’s Key Strategy to Success (It’s Not Reading)

Elon Musk used to read for more than 10 hours a day.

And a lot of people cite that as a key reason for his success. 

I agree that reading is valuable – I read one book a week. But here’s the other thing that Elon Musk did, and it’s just as if not more important: 

He applied what he learned like a madman. (Well, he started multiple billion-dollar companies in different industries. How’s that for applying?) 

On the other hand, a lot of entrepreneurs or leaders who follow my work don’t take action. They are great people, they learn a lot, but they just aren’t taking action. What do I mean? 

They might be listening to a lot of podcasts including mine, they go to every industry show they can, they shake hands with every book author they come across… but they don’t apply what they learned back into the business. It’s ridiculous because I know that they can be a lot more successful! 

I don’t blame them though. Doing is much harder than learning, and here’s why…  

Taking action is scary. It means that you have to take risks or commit to following through. It’s easy to get stuck in one of the following limiting mindsets: 

• Procrastination: “Tommy, that’s great but I will apply that tomorrow, next week, next time…” Let’s be honest, if you don’t apply something now or on the same day, you will most likely forget about it. Things will always get in the way. 

• “I’m too late to the game/I don’t have X to be successful.” I started my business when I was $50,000 in debt and I was running a one-man show. I can give you a list of other examples, but my point is that you can start now.
• “I will fail/I will suck.” There’s no escaping failure when you’re starting out. And you will suck at what you do. You won’t look like you know what you’re doing. But that’s OK! It’s part of the process. When I made my first sale, I was bad at selling. When I wrote my first book, I was bad at writing. When I spoke at my first speaking event, I was bad at speeches.  

While there are other reasons why people don’t take action, the real key is, how do you get going now? 

The longer you wait, the more you will regret not taking action earlier.

“The best time to be an entrepreneur is when you’re young. “As you get older, your obligations increase, So I would encourage you to take risks now, to do something bold, you won’t regret it,” said Musk in an interview. 

Embrace as much feedback and criticism as you can. That’s how you improve faster than everyone else. 

Take Elon Musk’s advice on criticism: “Constantly seek criticism. A well thought out critique of whatever you’re doing is as valuable as gold and you should seek that from everyone you can but particularly your friends… your goal is to be less wrong.”

(What if you get haters? That’s even better! If you’re doing important things, you will get criticism. For me, I love my haters. They light a fire under my butt.) 

For all the ambitious goals that Elon Musk is known for, he’s surprisingly realistic. Just listen to what he said in his USC commencement speech:  

“When my brother and I were starting our first company, instead of getting an apartment, we just rented a small office and we slept on the couch.”

In another interview, he said:

“You have to start a company that requires a small amount of capital… It would have been hard for me to have done electric cars or rockets right from the start because those require money.”

In other words? Start small. Take on risks that you can afford. For example, if you go to Vegas and you aren’t an experienced poker player, don’t start on the million-dollar table – start on the small table, don’t make big mistakes and get good first. 

Doing is how you get the success you want in life. 

You’re one decision away from a different life.

Ask yourself “What if I’m successful? What if this changes everything?” 

So what’s the decision you need to make?