An Engineer, Inventor, Explorer – Elon Musk is the man of the moment. He is the second man on Earth to have founded three companies, SpaceX, Tesla Motors and SolarCity, each having a valuation of a billion dollars or more. Musk is Silicon Valley’s most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneur – a real-life Iron Man!
Here are five takeaways for distance education students from this exceptional entrepreneur:
Self-learn
Musk learnt how to make rockets all by himself, seriously. He literally learnt rocket science through self-learning. He spoke to experts, devoured books and scoured the internet to learn everything about rockets.
As a student, if you want to learn something, Musk proves that there’s nothing that can stop you irrespective of your circumstances. You could learn as much as you can from online resources or from a distance learning program and learn something new.
Network
As a college student, Elon Musk made cold-calls to interesting people he wanted to meet. Once he met Peter Nicholson, a top executive at the Bank of Nova Scotia. The meeting landed Musk an internship at the bank and eventually fueled him to create a digital payment service, PayPal.
“I could either watch it happen, or be a part of it” – Elon Musk
So, don’t just watch it happen, try and be a part of it. When you pursue distance education, you don’t get a chance to interact too much with your classmates. But when you do, put your best foot forward and make an effort to get to know them. Keep in touch with them regularly whether it is via phone, email, SMS or even social media and build your professional network.
Manage your time wisely
Musk, being a billionaire, still invests time in two of his companies, Tesla and SpaceX. He actively splits about 80 – 90 hours a week (on average) between these two companies to make things happen. That’s more than 14 hours a day!
“Constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”
– Elon Musk
Remember, he is as human as you are, with the same number of hours per day! He truly gives us the inspiration to maximize our productivity and make the best use of our time. If he can run multiple billion dollar companies, you can definitely manage your work and distance educationcourse simultaneously, and excel at both!
Be ambitious
Musk started SpaceX (whose long term goal is to make humans a multi-planetary species) after selling an online payments company without any prior knowledge of rocket science. He then led Tesla to make electric cars that are fast AND luxurious! Something nobody had ever imagined.
“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favour.” – Elon Musk
No matter where you are, if you are keen on learning, you should continue to do so even if the odds are not in your favour. Especially as distance learning students, if you’ve put your mind in studying MBA in Marketing, MBA in Finance, MBA in HR (or any other subject of your interest) and achieving a career goal, there’s no excuse not to do it. There’s always a way you can do it – you’ve just got to find it.
Focus on the bigger picture
Elon Musk didn’t ask himself, “How can I make money?” Instead, he asked, “What are some of the problems that are likely to affect the future of humanity?”
“People should pursue what they’re passionate about. That will make them happier than pretty much anything else.” – Elon Musk
If you’re passionate about a particular subject, go ahead and pursue it. Musk started SpaceX to ensure the longevity of the human species. He led Tesla to make fantastic electric cars that are a viable alternative to gas cars, which are deteriorating the environment. Can’t get more long term than that!
If you imagined yourself as a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) – sign-up for a distance learning marketing course or take up a marketing internship. If you want to become a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) – take up a distance learning in Finance. It’s all about taking small, but solid steps towards achieving your goal.
If you’re able to implement even some of these ideas into your everyday life, you’ll go a long way in life. Who knows, you might just achieve more than Elon Musk someday! This quote from Musk simply summarizes the essence of this article.
“I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.” – Elon Musk
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