Elon Musk’s INSANE Work Ethic Will Blow Your Mind

Elon Musk is known for being one of the most hardworking people on the planet.

He is currently the CEO of five companies which include Tesla, SpaceX, Xcore, and XAI. And he's the co-founder of Neuralink if you want to include that. He is just playing an insane

that. He is just playing an insane amount of roles right now. But what's so interesting is not how many companies he runs, but it's how he's able to run so many companies. Elon is an absolute

many companies. Elon is an absolute workaholic. One time saying that he was

workaholic. One time saying that he was working 20 hours a day for weeks on end.

I've been studying Elon for years now, watching any interview that he's a part of, reading everything that I can get my hands on of him. And after studying for this long, I've been able to get a grasp

on how he's able to be so productive, how he's able to have this maniacal hard work ethic. This video is for anyone who

work ethic. This video is for anyone who wants to reach those insane levels of work, the people who want to be as productive as humanly possible. And let

me tell you that if you watch this video all the way through, you will not only understand how Elon goes about his work philosophy, but you will also be able to incorporate parts of that philosophy

into your own life. So the following are seven habits that Elon incorporates into his own life that make him the most productive person on planet Earth.

Okay. So the first thing you need to understand about how Elon is able to work so hard is his style of focus. and

he uses a style of focus called sequential focus. His biographer, Walter

sequential focus. His biographer, Walter Isacson, actually spent two years shadowing Elon, watching his every move before writing this biography. And about

Elon's style of focus, here's what he says. One of the things that's one of

says. One of the things that's one of his strengths and weaknesses in a way is that in a given day, he'll focus sequentially on many different things.

And when he's focused on any of these things, you cannot distract him. Focus

is the foundation to productivity because there are so few people in the world who can actually genuinely sit down at their desk and just focus. And

the more that you have the ability to narrow your focus down, the more that you're able to advance in whatever you narrow down to. Elon knows this extremely well. And that's why what he

extremely well. And that's why what he does is that he chooses one thing to place his entire focus on until that task is completely done. And only then will he move on to the next thing. And

when I say focus, I don't just mean focus, but I mean focused. Like a

maniacal sense of urgency to get the thing in front of you done. A person who is focused plus a sense of urgency is always going to be someone who is focused but lacks that sense of urgency and maybe goes more casually about their

work. And so the way Elon goes about his

work. And so the way Elon goes about his work is by having this maniacal sense of urgency and focusing on one thing at a time until that task is completely done and then moving on to the next task and then the next task and then the next

task. But the point is that he is only

task. But the point is that he is only ever focusing on one thing at a time. He

is never multitasking. That's the key takeaway here. You should focus on one

takeaway here. You should focus on one thing at a time until that thing is completely done. And only then you

completely done. And only then you should move on to the next thing.

Sequential focus is actually something that's seen with a lot of the greats in history. But one thing that's quite

history. But one thing that's quite unique about the way that Elon does it is something that Walter Isacson writes about. He says he'll in between these

about. He says he'll in between these sessions process information then let off steam. And for better or for worse,

off steam. And for better or for worse, he lets off steam by either playing a friend in Polytopia or fire off some tweets, which is often not a healthy thing, but it's a release for him. This

part is actually a really interesting concept that I haven't really heard or read anywhere before, but I've been applying it in my own life, and it is a complete gamecher. The perfect way to

complete gamecher. The perfect way to describe Elon's work ethic is a man eating sushi. On a plate of sushi, you

eating sushi. On a plate of sushi, you usually have a few different types of sushi along with a piece of ginger on the plate. This piece of ginger is known

the plate. This piece of ginger is known as a pallet cleanser. And after you finish a certain type of sushi, you use the pallet cleanser to remove any of the taste from the last sushi so you can then have a more accurate taste of the

next one. For Elon, playing a game of

next one. For Elon, playing a game of Polytopia or firing off some tweets is exactly this. It's a pallet cleanser in

exactly this. It's a pallet cleanser in between these intense sessions of focus.

This in large part is how Elon is able to work so hard and get so much done in a single day. Because throughout the day, he is focused on many things, but they are all sequential. I mean, his entire day is literally just a task

followed by a pallet cleanser and then onto the next task and that just repeats throughout the day. Napoleon actually

operated in a very similar way and he actually thought of his mind as like a cupboard. Here's what he says. Different

cupboard. Here's what he says. Different

subjects and different affairs are arranged in my head as in a cupboard.

When I wish to interrupt one train of thought, I shut that drawer and open another. Do I wish to sleep? I simply

another. Do I wish to sleep? I simply

close all the drawers and there I am asleep. This exact same philosophy lives

asleep. This exact same philosophy lives on in Elon. So many people when they sit down at their desk to work, they're bogged down by all this other stuff going on in their life. They might be doing some work, but at the same time, they're also thinking about their

relationship problems or what they have going on later in the day or who knows what. But the truly great in history

what. But the truly great in history were able to shut everything out and just focus on what was in front of them.

Their mind was like a cupboard. Because

of this, when they're working, their entire being and their entire essence is completely focused on what's in front of them. Not multiple drawers opened up at

them. Not multiple drawers opened up at the same time or some drawers half open, but one drawer at a time and then close that drawer and move on to the next one.

This concept is super easy to apply in your own life and the next one will only help explain it further because when you combine this concept with the next one, then you really start to see how Elon is

able to get so much done.

One crazy thing that Elon once said was, "Being a CEO is not fun. You don't focus on what's going right. you deal with the hardest, most painful products no one else can solve. And in this quote, Elon

is telling us exactly what to focus on.

You need to be focusing on the hardest, most painful problems that only you can solve. And this is something known as a

solve. And this is something known as a bottleneck. A bottleneck by definition

bottleneck. A bottleneck by definition is a point in a system or process where capacity is limited, slowing down the overall flow and reducing efficiency. So

the bottleneck is quite literally the neck of the bottle. Because when you try to pour water out, it's the reason all the water doesn't come out at once is because of the bottleneck. If you remove the bottleneck, then you remove all the

barriers that stop the water from getting out. And Elon uses this exact

getting out. And Elon uses this exact philosophy in his work. How Elon runs his companies is pretty much he goes around from company to company and he asks all the people what is the biggest problem we have that right now that is stopping us from reaching our goals.

Sometimes it's a slow machine in the manufacturing line or sometimes it's a rocket test failing. But whatever it is, that's what Elon is focusing on. He

doesn't ask how can I work harder but instead he asks what is the one thing that if we can solve will make us move closer to our goals. That one thing is the bottleneck. Once he identifies all

the bottleneck. Once he identifies all the bottlenecks for all of his companies, he simply goes through the list and he works on the bottleneck one by one. To give an example, when Tesla

by one. To give an example, when Tesla began ramping up their production for the Model 3, Elon immediately began looking for the biggest bottleneck. And

he found out that it was this one robotic arm that moved really slowly and held up the entire line. This single

robot arm slowed down the entire line just like the bottleneck slows down the flow of water. So instead of trying to make the arm go faster, he literally just replaced the robot arm with humans and they were immediately able to speed

up the pace of the line. This is what dealing with the bottleneck actually looks like. How this relates to the

looks like. How this relates to the first concept is because this is pretty much Elon's entire work philosophy. He

first goes around and he finds all the bottlenecks at all of his companies and then he ranks them from most important to least important and then he just sequentially focuses on all of them until he goes through the entire list.

So he'll literally focus on the first problem until it is completely solved and then play Polytopia or whatever and then move on immediately to the next one. And he does this all day every day.

one. And he does this all day every day.

So his companies make a rapid amount of progress and he gets a massive amount done. A very easy way to apply this

done. A very easy way to apply this bottleneck philosophy in your own life is to simply ask yourself the question, what is the one thing that if I solve will move me fastest towards my goals?

Not three things, not two things, but one thing, one thing that if you solve will move you the fastest amount possible. And then focus all of your

possible. And then focus all of your heart and all of your mind and your entire essence into just getting that thing done. If you can do that and just

thing done. If you can do that and just repeat that exact same process for the entire day with these maniacal senses of urgency, then you will get so much done and you can truly reach these insane

levels of productivity.

Okay, this one is great because it's time to talk about how to get those maniacal senses of urgency. Elon says

for all of his companies, a maniacal sense of urgency is our operating principle. I'm going to repeat that

principle. I'm going to repeat that because that is insanely important. A

maniacal sense of urgency is our operating principle. that gets me every

operating principle. that gets me every time. The way Elon is able to get so

time. The way Elon is able to get so much done at his companies is by creating these crazy deadlines. He says,

"Stop being patient and start asking yourself, how do I accomplish my 10-year plan in 6 months? You'll probably fail, but you'll be a lot further along than the person who simply accepted it was

going to take 10 years." And he applies this in his personal life and also at all of his companies. One of the things that many of his employees have said is that his deadlines are near impossible.

But Elon has this philosophy that if the laws of physics don't prevent it, then it is possible. And so you end up with these insane deadlines. But these

deadlines are actually what cause that sense of urgency. It's the pressure of we have to get this done by this time or we have to get this done by this day that really motivates us to do things.

And I mean that kind of translates to all of life in general because we only have a limited amount of time and we have to choose what to do with it carefully. Steve Jobs once said,

carefully. Steve Jobs once said, "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life." This philosophy kind of comes down to a law called

Parkinson's law, which says that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. So when you set a deadline, the work will automatically just fill up the time that you give yourself to complete that task. And Elon

once said, "If you give yourself 30 days to clean your room, it'll take 30 days.

Give yourself 3 hours, it'll take 3 hours." And he even compared this

hours." And he even compared this concept to the toy industry right before Christmas. He said the process

Christmas. He said the process reinforced Musk's appreciation for the toy industry. They have to produce

toy industry. They have to produce things very quickly and cheaply without flaws and manufacture them all by Christmas or there will be sad faces. He

repeatedly pushed his teams to get ideas from toys such as robots and Legos. Elon

pushes Parkinson's law to its extreme limits both for himself and his employees. And this is how he's able to

employees. And this is how he's able to motivate his team to get so much done, but also how he motivates himself to get so much done. Once again, you can look towards history and find the same type of person applying the same type of

tactic. Thomas Edison literally set a

tactic. Thomas Edison literally set a date for when he was going to show people the light bulb before he even finished making the light bulb. And this

pressure forced him and his team to work extremely hard to actually create the light bulb by the date that they said it would be done. I mean, this is insane.

There are stories of his employees sleeping on the floor of the lab for weeks to achieve this goal, but it worked. Elon operates in a very similar

worked. Elon operates in a very similar way. Constantly announcing that they're

way. Constantly announcing that they're going to reach this target by this date.

Now, a lot of the times they don't actually reach that goal. They don't

finish the metric by the date, but simply by adding the deadline and putting the pressure on the team, it inspires them to work harder. This is a super easy thing to apply in your own life as well. And here's a quick framework that will let you do that.

Take your monthly goals, your weekly goals, and your daily goals. And I know this might sound crazy, but move them all one step down. Move your monthly goal to your weekly goal, your weekly goal to your daily goal, and your daily goal. Well, just hit multiple daily

goal. Well, just hit multiple daily goals in one day. It's very likely that you might not even hit those goals, but you'll condition your mind to think in the way Elon does. And even if you don't hit it that first week or that second week or that third week, you might hit

it that fourth week. But even if you don't, you'll be working that much harder simply because you have the pressure to reach above what might be humanly possible.

One of Musk's favorite words and concepts was hardcore. He used it to describe the workplace culture he wanted when he founded Zip 2. And he would use it almost 30 years later when he upended the nurturing culture at Twitter. Okay,

so from this video, you can probably already tell that Elon is insanely hardcore. And if you want to have these

hardcore. And if you want to have these hardcore work ethic levels, then you also need to adopt a little bit of this hardcore philosophy. It's hard to

hardcore philosophy. It's hard to explain just how hardcore Elon is, but there's a story in Walter Isacson's biography where he just bought Twitter and they're going over Twitter's rules of psychological safety. And here's what

the biography says. Musk let loose a bitter laugh when he heard the phrase psychological safety. It made him

psychological safety. It made him recoil. He considered it to be the enemy

recoil. He considered it to be the enemy of urgency, progress, orbital velocity.

His preferred buzzword was hardcore.

Discomfort, he believed, was a good thing. It was a weapon against the

thing. It was a weapon against the scourge of complacency. Vacations,

flower smelling, work life balance, and the days of mental rest were not his thing. Let that sink in. And there's a

thing. Let that sink in. And there's a main point here that Elon is always fighting complacency. And he does this

fighting complacency. And he does this by being hardcore, by knowing that there can always be better. You can always do more work. You can always make the

more work. You can always make the numbers go higher. There is always room for improvement. That's the thing about

for improvement. That's the thing about Elon. He is never satisfied. Even when

Elon. He is never satisfied. Even when

the companies do hit their goals, he is still not satisfied because they know that the goals could be higher. Right

before there was a surge in production at Tesla, he sent out an email to all of his employees and the email said, "Please prepare yourself for a level of intensity that is greater than anything most of you have experienced before.

Revolutionizing industries is not for the faint of heart." I really love this.

Revolutionizing industries is not for the faint of heart. And Elon knows this, and that's why he's always pushing for more out of his employees. Steve Jobs

was very much like this. After launching

the iPhone, which was one of the most successful products in all of history, he wasn't celebrating, but he was on to the next thing. He was getting after people with all the new changes he wanted to make to the current iPhone. He

wanted to change the keyboard, the speed, the battery, and this was because he was never satisfied. There can always be better. Elon is literally the exact

be better. Elon is literally the exact same way. He doesn't rest on his wins.

same way. He doesn't rest on his wins.

There are so many stories in this book about when they're having a successful rocket launch and Elon is already talking to his engineers. Literally at

the launch about the new version of the Raptor engine or about improvements that they can make on the rocket. Literally

at a successful rocket launch, great people are always looking to the next thing. They're always looking for the

thing. They're always looking for the next breakthrough to be more hardcore, to get more output out, to do more volume. And because of this, they're

volume. And because of this, they're never stationary. They're constantly on

never stationary. They're constantly on to the next thing, constantly looking for that next breakthrough. And this is part of what makes them so great.

Elon is an absolute workaholic. He

actually doesn't like vacations. And

when you look at his track record for vacations, it actually makes sense why he doesn't like vacations. First, he

went to Australia and contracted malaria where he almost died. And then he went on a trip to South Africa where his company staged a coup and managed to kick him out. Yeah, those are real stories. The point is that Elon is a

stories. The point is that Elon is a complete workaholic, often working over a 100 hours a week. And he once said in an interview, "Work like hell." I mean, you just have to put in 80 to 100hour

weeks every week. And it's simple math.

If you work 100 hours a week and someone else works 50, you will get twice as much done in the same amount of time.

And on top of that, you have to focus on one company and throw as many hours at it as you can. 7 days a week, no breaks, no sleep. This is truly intense. And his

no sleep. This is truly intense. And his

philosophy when starting a company is to just work maniacally hard all the time.

There are countless stories of him sleeping in his office. Countless

stories of employees getting calls and emails at 2:00 in the morning. Countless

stories of those same employees staying at the office with Elon trying to solve a problem past midnight. The work ethic at his companies is truly just around the clock 24/7. And he says, "The truth

is most people don't have a success problem. They have a work ethic

problem. They have a work ethic problem." The bottom line is that if you

problem." The bottom line is that if you truly want something, you will put in the time and the work that it takes to get that thing. And you can either spread those hours out over a decade or you can put all those hours in a single

year. But what one person accomplishes

year. But what one person accomplishes in a decade, the other will accomplish in a year. And you obviously know which camp Elon is in. The 24/7 grind happens over and over again in history. We

already talked about Thomas Edison's lab while creating the light bulb. Alexander

Hamilton, when he was writing his Federalist Papers, wrote 24/7, only sleeping for 2 hours. Some of his friends even saying that his energy was restless, feverish, and unending. Isaac

Newton had his two years of genius where he was constantly working, only occasionally pausing to walk outside for a second or two. And in those two years, he discovered calculus, developed the foundations for classical mechanics, and

began formulating his theories on gravity. Napoleon during battles would

gravity. Napoleon during battles would go on for days and slept in bursts of 3 to four hours, and he would get up immediately after those bursts, feeling refreshed and ready to give orders. I

could give examples for this all day.

The simple fact is that so many of these great human achievements have been accomplished through these sort of sprints of superhuman energy where someone became so obsessed with something and they just pour every bit

of their heart and energy into it. This

obsession allowed these people to work all day every day, barely sleeping, barely eating, and just completely obsessed to this craft or this goal or this mission. And it's in these moments

this mission. And it's in these moments where productivity is truly at its peak.

This definitely isn't something that's applicable for everyone's life and it's not something that you can sustain for decades, but it's definitely worth noting. And who knows, maybe you will be

noting. And who knows, maybe you will be captured by this sort of obsession that will make you more productive and hardcore than you ever have been.

This is actually another very common one among many of the greats, and that's two-fold vision, where you have only vision for two things. The next step you're about to take, and the long-term vision. Many people who fail at this

vision. Many people who fail at this specific step often overthink or they overanalyze or they have indecision.

Steve Jobs once said, "My observation is that the doers are the major thinkers.

The people that really create the things that change this industry are both the thinker and the doer in one person." And

so that's why many of the greats in history had this sort of two-fold vision. Elon is very clear that his

vision. Elon is very clear that his vision is making humanity a multilanetary species. He wants to put

multilanetary species. He wants to put people on Mars, but he is also hyper clear on what the next step is, what his company has to do next to accomplish this long-term vision. This is very similar to the way that past military

leaders have operated their campaigns.

When Julius Caesar set out to conquer Gaul in his ga campaign, he always had a very clear vision for what he wanted the end to look like and the role that it would play in expanding the Roman Empire. But while on campaign, he was

Empire. But while on campaign, he was always focused on the next step, the tiny details of his army and the next battle. Napoleon was the exact same way.

battle. Napoleon was the exact same way.

Every time he set out on campaign, he would already plan out the ending and his terms he would offer to his enemies when they surrendered. But once again on campaigns, he would simply look for the next step, the next battle, and he would

be extremely dedicated to the details. I

just wanted to mention this twofold vision because this is actually something that people struggle with a lot. They either very clearly know the

lot. They either very clearly know the next step that they want to take, but they don't have this grand vision or this destination everywhere. And so the step is sort of directionless. Either

that or they have the big picture extremely clear, but they get lost in this sort of grand vision that's not real and they forget to focus on the work that's actually in front of them.

That's why I like the sort of analogy of the twofold vision because it shows that you only need two things very clear. You

need to know the next step you need to take and you need to know the grand vision, the big picture, whatever you're reaching for in the end, the final destination.

A lot of people think creating companies is going to be fun. I would say it's really not that fun. Particularly if

you're the CEO of the company, you actually have a distillation of all the worst problems in the company. There's

no point in spending your time on things that are going right. So, you only spend your time on things that are going wrong. There's a friend of mine who

wrong. There's a friend of mine who says, "Starting companies is like staring into the abyss and eating glass." And there's some truth to that.

glass." And there's some truth to that.

This is a really great quote because it really is quite accurate and there's a maxim that goes, "Business is problems." And Elon would clearly agree with this.

But this philosophy of staring into the abyss and eating glass is kind of something that also lets him get a lot done. Just like working out, true work

done. Just like working out, true work is going to be painful. But that's good.

So many people shy away from feeling pain. But Elon actually moves towards

pain. But Elon actually moves towards it. He moved towards the problem to

it. He moved towards the problem to actually solve it. Because at the end of the day, business is problems. And so when you go about your day solving problem after problem after problem, it's sort of a harsh way to live. But

this is kind of the way that some of the most productive people in history have ever lived. They simply make a list of

ever lived. They simply make a list of the most important problems down to the least important problems and then they just go through the list. This is very much like staring into the abyss and eating glass because the list is never

ending because there's an endless amount of problems that you could solve. And

the eating glass part is obviously solving the problems because solving problems is painful. But there's also a sort of joy in the pain. Arnold loved

this pain and he always smiled in the gym. And he said, "I was smiling because

gym. And he said, "I was smiling because I knew that growth was on the horizon."

And as a wise Benjamin Franklin once said, "There are no gains without pains." Thank you so much for watching.

pains." Thank you so much for watching.

If you like this video, you might like this video, which is a whole other list of productivity tips directly from Elon's leaked emails. Please check out my new website. There are coaching services on there if you would like to

work with me personally to be more productive. And that's it. See you.

productive. And that's it. See you.