Why does the maverick Elon Musk succeed in everything he undertakes?

On October 14th Beijing time, SpaceX's 11th test flight of the "Starship" completed all test objectives in a way that shocked the world.

How impressive was this test flight? Hot staging - this technology, called a "crazy operation", completely overturned the traditional rocket's logic of "shutting down the engine before separation": After the 30 booster engines shut down, the Starship directly ignited its own 6 engines and "blasted" out of the atmosphere.

Behind these "crazy" actions, Elon Musk used the method of "accumulating data" to turn each test flight into a stepping - stone to Mars. While everyone else was following the textbook, Musk had already started rewriting the textbook itself.

When the young engineers cheered after the successful launch, what we saw was not only the victory of technology but also the victory of the Musk - style thinking - it always challenges the definition of "impossible" and recalibrates the coordinates of human exploration.

In this article today, we will dissect Musk's underlying thinking logic through the conversation between Wang Yuquan and Zheng Yuhuang.

I. Seize the opportunities of the era and do the right thing at the right time

Any great success is inseparable from the specific historical background of the era.

The reason why Musk has achieved such great success is not only because he has excellent entrepreneurial qualities but also because he accurately grasped the historical opportunities of technological development.

1. The wisdom to recognize the tides of the era

Opportunities are not evenly distributed to everyone. If you don't jump into the tide, the opportunities have nothing to do with you.

From a historical perspective, each era has its unique opportunity window.

John D. Rockefeller (known as the "Oil King") keenly seized the opportunity in the oil industry, Cornelius Vanderbilt (known as the "Railroad Tycoon") firmly grasped the opportunity of railway development, and outstanding entrepreneurs in China such as Wang Shi, Wang Jianlin, and Zong Qinghou were all pioneers who bravely gave up their "iron rice bowls" and resolutely plunged into the tide of the market economy in the early days of reform and opening - up.

2. The historical transformation from geographical dividends to industrial dividends

In the past forty years, China has enjoyed the dividends of reform and opening - up and geographical advantages. Many people benefited from it even without taking the initiative. However, the next forty years will present completely different characteristics. This will be a typical era of "industrial dividends".

Cutting - edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, new energy, and space technology are dividing people into two major categories: "embracing new technologies" and "rejecting new technologies". Now, a lot of people are still complaining that artificial intelligence has taken away people's jobs, but smart people have already started using it.

In this process, Musk demonstrated his core ability by always standing at the forefront of technological development and seizing every key opportunity with extraordinary courage.

His success clearly shows that grasping the pulse of the era requires not only keen insight but also the courage to turn cognition into action.

3. The lack of opportunity recognition in the education system

All primary, secondary, and high schools have never taught students how to seize opportunities or how to grasp the pulse of the era. From basic education to top - tier business schools, our education system mainly imparts professional knowledge and practical skills but rarely systematically cultivates students' ability to recognize and seize opportunities.

What makes Musk unique is that he not only has the necessary knowledge reserve but also knows how to actively get close to the global innovation center.

Since his postgraduate studies, he has consciously entered Stanford University and actively integrated into the innovation ecosystem of Silicon Valley. His later circle of friends and entrepreneurial trajectory have hardly left this circle.

This continuous positioning at the world's innovation center provides him with an important advantage in accurately grasping technological development trends.

II. The core elements of innovative thinking: courage, creativity, and idealism

Musk's innovative thinking is based on three core elements: the courage to face risks, the creativity to break the norm, and the idealism to drive action. These three elements support each other and together form his unique way of thinking.

1. The essence of courage: rational adventurous spirit

"Seeing an opportunity and seizing it are two completely different things." This sentence reveals the dilemma of many people.

Jumping into the wave of opportunities means giving up the existing stable state and taking on unknown risks and challenges. Real opportunities often emerge before they become common knowledge, which requires vision and courage beyond the ordinary.

Musk's entrepreneurial journey is full of such "moments of courage".

For example, after successfully selling his early - stage Internet company, he didn't choose to enjoy the comfortable life brought by wealth. Instead, he invested almost all his money in a field that was considered only playable by countries at that time - space, and founded SpaceX.

When he went to Russia with the huge sum of money (about $180 million) he got from selling PayPal at that time to buy rockets, he was mercilessly laughed at by the Russians, who thought his money was just a pipe dream.

It was in the face of such humiliating setbacks that Musk not only didn't back down but was inspired to make up his mind to "build rockets by himself".

This courage to stick to his beliefs in adversity and even turn pressure into motivation is the fulcrum that enabled him to leverage a traditional industry.

The reason why Taobao achieved great success is not that it simply copied eBay's model but that it creatively launched a credit system like Alipay, which solved the key pain points in the development of Chinese e - commerce. This kind of innovation requires both keen insight and the courage to take the lead.

2. Creativity: a way of thinking that breaks the norm

When the entire aerospace industry thought rockets could only be used once, Musk asked a seemingly simple but extremely subversive question: "Why can't rockets be recovered and reused?"

This way of thinking that questions the norm is the core manifestation of creativity.

Technology companies adopt the platform - based thinking and the work mode of rapid iteration and small - step progress, and verify the feasibility of ideas through continuous trial - and - error.

If an idea fails, it can be quickly discovered and abandoned; if it is feasible, it can be quickly iterated. This work mode means there will be continuous mistakes, but it also enables rapid growth.

SpaceX advocates a cultural atmosphere that encourages trying and is not afraid of failure, which enables the team to learn quickly and continuously optimize, and finally achieve technological breakthroughs.

There are obvious cultural differences between SpaceX and Blue Origin. SpaceX is led by IT engineers who are not afraid of making mistakes and adopt the rapid - iteration approach; while Blue Origin is led by mechanical engineers who follow a step - by - step process, make fewer mistakes but develop slowly.

Although SpaceX is prone to making mistakes and failures due to its lack of rigor and the mistakes are uncontrollable, it does grow faster.

After multiple failed test flights, SpaceX finally succeeded in the last test flight and received funding from NASA. Otherwise, the company would have faced closure.

This rapid - iteration approach has enabled SpaceX to far exceed other countries in low - Earth - orbit carrying capacity, reaching 110 tons, while the best of other countries is only 28 tons, a difference of nearly four times.

SpaceX's spacesuit design also focuses on aesthetics, different from the traditional function - first design.

Astronauts found that the dashboard on a SpaceX spacecraft consists of three large touchscreens, similar to driving an iPhone, which is in sharp contrast to the traditional physical - button dashboard.

The cultivation of creativity is closely related to the environment and culture.

The education system in the era of the Industrial Revolution required people to perform tasks like screws and lacked creativity. In the era of artificial intelligence, repetitive work will be replaced by machines, and the cultivation of creativity has become particularly important.

Musk's life trajectory shows how he came up with the idea of rocket recovery through self - study and independent thinking and finally realized it.

4. The driving force of idealism

If it were just for wealth accumulation, Musk could have enjoyed a prosperous life after successfully selling PayPal.

However, he chose a more challenging path: building rockets, developing electric vehicles, and exploring the plan for Mars colonization. Behind these choices is a higher - level sense of mission and idealism that goes beyond material pursuits.

"He has a dream of making human beings immigrate to Mars." Although this goal seems crazy to ordinary people, it is precisely this sense of mission that transcends the limitations of reality that drives him to continuously break through technological boundaries.

When he visited Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, and was questioned and denied, his idealism became even stronger.

When SpaceX finally achieved success, Armstrong had already passed away. The regret Musk showed in an interview vividly demonstrated his sincere feelings for the aerospace industry deep in his heart.

This idealism not only drives Musk himself but also acts like a powerful magnetic field, infecting and uniting his team and even the entire industry.

In the Mojave Air and Space Port deep in the California desert in the United States, there are dozens of aerospace startups. The environment there is harsh, and starting a business is difficult. Most of these companies may end up in failure.

However, it is the common dream of the vast starry sky that supports these people to work silently in an unpromising corner. This spiritual power and internal bond derived from human instinct are the fundamental driving forces for the leap - forward development of civilization.

III. From ideal to reality, the power of execution and perseverance

Having a great ideal and innovative thinking is only half of the success. Turning the ideal into reality requires strong execution and unremitting efforts. Musk's performance in this regard is also impressive.

1. Engineering thinking: a systematic approach to problem - solving

Musk is not only a visionary dreamer but also an extreme pragmatist. He is good at using the "first - principles thinking" to analyze and solve problems, but many people misunderstand this concept.

The first - principles thinking is not about tracing the most fundamental physical laws of things but about finding the most essential path to achieve the goal.

Taking the improvement of the cruising range of electric vehicles as an example, it exquisitely illustrates this systematic engineering thinking: "To achieve a cruising range of 1000 kilometers, we can't rely on the miracle of a single technology. Instead, we need to promote it from four dimensions: improving the energy density of single - cell batteries, optimizing the management efficiency of battery packs, designing a lighter vehicle structure, and upgrading the overall performance of the electronic control system."

He further pointed out that if each link can achieve a 20% performance improvement, the overall effect will be 1.2 to the fourth power, resulting in exponential growth.

This "systematic performance optimization" thinking mode is the core method for startups to make the risky leap from laboratory technology to market - oriented products.

In the solar energy field, American solar energy companies also show similar innovative thinking.

Traditional solar panel manufacturing requires multiple processes such as silicon melting, purification, and cutting, while they innovatively adopted a process similar to the float - glass process, directly extracting silicon wafers from silicon liquid, which significantly reduced energy consumption and production costs.

Although the initial product looked poor, this process that broke the traditional route finally proved its value.

2. Perseverance and luck: the necessity and contingency behind success

"The probability of success in starting a business may be one in ten, but I'll try ten times. Right? Then I'll definitely succeed after ten tries." Musk understands the relationship between probability and perseverance in this way.

His entrepreneurial history is the best footnote to this statement:

SpaceX's first three rocket launches failed one after another, and the company was on the verge of collapse. It wasn't until the fourth launch that it finally succeeded and obtained a key order from NASA, which saved the company from bankruptcy;

Tesla also went through its darkest moment. When the company was on the verge of running out of cash, it was because Musk, although being squeezed out of the board of directors of PayPal in the early days