
Elon Musk's first wife on what it takes to become a billionaire - yuvals
http://www.quora.com/Will-I-become-a-billionaire-if-I-am-determined-to-be-one-and-put-in-all-the-necessary-work-required?share=1
======
tw04
I like how she skipped the part where one of the requirements was: found a
company during the dotcom explosion and sell out before it crashes.

Zip2 would've been a complete bust in 2003, and he wouldn't have had the funds
to move on to his subsequent ventures. The guy obviously has a lot of great
ides, but lots of people have great ideas. Without the financial backing...
good luck.

~~~
DenisM
Which is one of the positive effects of financial bubbles - they create
irrational local excess of cash that is largely wasted, but every now and
again it begets a new life form that couldn't come to existence in a more
rational bubble-free universe.

~~~
balabaster
The smart person [like Elon et. al.] knows when to jump on the bandwagon of
the bubble and jump off before the bubble bursts. Leveraging everyone else's
wasteful behaviour for their own gain.

------
enraged_camel
>>Choose one thing and become a master of it. Choose a second thing and become
a master of that. When you become a master of two worlds (say, engineering and
business), you can bring them together in a way that will a) introduce hot
ideas to each other, so they can have idea sex and make idea babies that no
one has seen before and b) create a competitive advantage because you can move
between worlds, speak both languages, connect the tribes, mash the elements to
spark fresh creative insight until you wake up with the epiphany that changes
your life.

This is absolutely true. People who can competently live in two different
"modes" definitely have an advantage over those who are residents of just one.
Steve Jobs, for instance, brought together engineering and design/aesthetics
in a way that got Apple noticed and gave it massive competitive advantage over
their competitors, who were perceived as boring, ugly and unoriginal. He
wasn't a master engineer like Wozniak, and he wasn't a master designer like,
say, Ive, but he had a very good understanding and appreciation for both and
that's what made him special.

As a side note, there's something about Ms. Musk's writing that really appeals
to me. It's clear, concise, and creative.

~~~
6stringmerc
Notably absent from the guidance is _be ruthless in applying business
principles for maximum effect_ because a lot of "memorable" success stories
are couched in sociopathic practical application tendencies.

------
stcredzero
_> Shift your focus away from what you want (a billion dollars) and get
deeply, intensely curious about what the world wants and needs._

Spend time with people. Listen to what they say in unguarded moments, like
moments of frustration, fatigue, or high emotion. Accumulate data. If you hear
someone who wishes in frustration that they could think of the right gimmick
so they can get their payout, then remember that as data about how they really
see the work of doing a startup.

In particular, pay attention to what people pay attention to and how they
filter information. Do they act to insulate themselves from unusual
information, or do they seek out data that contradicts their own mental model?
How well can they avoid "grinding an axe" in the way they seek information?
Are they giving a genuine effort at analyzing things from first principles,
and do they even know what that entails in the first place?

Now here's my self-serving advice: Get the help of someone who is insightful
and intelligent, but whom others are prone to _underestimate_. Such people
have a superpower: A social/tactical camouflage that puts them in a good
position to detect lip-service to the values embodied in the paragraphs above.

~~~
balabaster
How well can they look at the situation around them and find common problems
that have no solution? Provide that solution, get paid for the amount of value
that solution provides.

~~~
stcredzero
That's a very direct way to put it. That's the most direct application of
"first principles" that applies to startups. However, most people who "talk
startups" seem to do a hazy pattern match with other attempts that have
already succeeded.

EDIT: Also, the overarching first principle of startups will be of less direct
help when dealing with every-day minutiae. Often, these are _your_ problems on
the way to solving the customer's problem. However, applying the overarching
principle to such _schlepping_ may also help you find an even better problem
to solve.

------
throwaway12357
I found this other comment from her a lot more interesting. And somewhat eye
opening. [http://www.quora.com/How-can-I-be-as-great-as-Bill-Gates-
Ste...](http://www.quora.com/How-can-I-be-as-great-as-Bill-Gates-Steve-Jobs-
Elon-Musk-Richard-Branson?share=1)

> They are unlikely to be reading stuff like this. (This is _not_ to slam or
> criticize people who do; I love to read this stuff myself.) They are more
> likely to go straight to a book: perhaps a biography of Alexander the Great
> or Catherine the Great* or someone else they consider Great. Surfing the
> 'Net is a deadly timesuck, and given what they know their time is worth --
> even back in the day when technically it was not worth that -- they can't
> afford it.

This paragraph kind of reverberate with me. I like checking HN. It's
interesting and while most of the times you don't learn about X, at least you
know what it's out there. And I tell myself I'm "working" keeping myself
updated. And then spread thin across different subjects. Because, hey! these
days you have to know everything. Even more if you want to build a business
and have to wear all the hats.

OTOH the words of Richard Hamming on "keeping an open door" come to mind.

Timebox and prioritize seems to be the best solution.

------
wppick
I think one of the problems in the world, and maybe this is contributing to
the high income inequality, is that people want to be billionaires. There's
too many people trying to line their own pockets, over payed CEOs, hedge
funders doing questionable things to increase their fees. After like 10-20
million you can buy pretty much anything you want and do anything you want to
do. Is a 200 foot super yacht, better than a 40 foot? Sure, but you don't need
to own it you can rent it. Is a 50,000 sq. ft. house better than a 10,000 sq
ft house? Who cares.

~~~
stcredzero
_I think one of the problems in the world, and maybe this is contributing to
the high income inequality, is that people want to be billionaires._

This is a "problem in the world" in the same way that sex out of wedlock is a
"problem." It's just one of the many facets of human nature. Historically,
institutions and policies that take human nature into account fare better than
those railing against it. The United States is one of the biggest examples.

~~~
wppick
I wouldn't compare it to sex out of wedlock. I'd compare it to someone instead
of saying "I want to be in great shape", saying "I want to be so muscular that
I can't physically scratch my own chin".

~~~
stcredzero
Sex is actually more apt. People who find it easy to attain sex and let
themselves indulge often outperform the average population by orders of
magnitude. The drive for sex is operating at a fairly basic level, as is
greed. Both are probably supported by evolutionary biology, which made both
drives somewhat 'open ended,' driving people to want more than they actually
need. Getting more sex has a synergistic effect, often enabling people to get
even more sex, in a way analogous to money.

------
exelius
Haha, this is one of the greatest quotes I've read on the role of a successful
founder:

"Introduce hot ideas to each other, so they can have idea sex and make idea
babies that no one has seen before."

~~~
AtmaScout
That sounds like something Ulrich from Silicon Valley would say. Hilarious and
true.

~~~
jason_slack
Erlich?

------
lazyjones
It's "self-made billionaire" and the distinction is very important because
many billionaires just inherited wealth.

She has many good points though, especially about the web (waste of time...)
and such articles not being what successful people tend to be reading...

~~~
BurningFrog
273 out of the Forbes 400 (68%) made their money themselves.

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2013/09/18/how-
self-...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2013/09/18/how-self-made-
forbes-400-billionaires-earned-their-money/)

I'm aware this doesn't contradict what you said. Just wanted to give more
detail.

~~~
6stringmerc
Heh, I decided to take a look and see if one of my darker hunches might be
worthwhile:

"After technology, real estate produced the next largest group of self-made
Forbes 400 members."

Yeah I get that real estate is a good business to amass large scales of
wealth. From what I've studied about money laundering, real estate is the most
advantageous method for cleaning up dirty money...I'm not accusing all of the
self-made real estate moguls of money laundering, but I'd be suspicious that
not all of them saved up their tips from working minimum wage jobs to get
their start.

~~~
lkbm
Not minimum-wage, no. More likely a lawyer (or banker or doctor or programmer)
earns $100k+/yr., invests in real estate, and ends up a real estate
millionaire/billionaire.

When you look at the end millions, the initial few hundred thousand seem
inconsequential, but it's a lot easier to get there if you can invest $100k/yr
rather than from $5k/yr. (Saving $5k/yr while earning minimum wage is
difficult. Saving $100k/yr. while earning $150k/yr., not so much--assuming all
these earnings are after taxes.)

------
littletimmy
The single greatest factor in being a billionaire is luck.

Elon Musk and Peter Thiel would probably be languishing in obscurity if Paypal
had not been sold off right at the edge of the dotcom bubble and given them a
financial base to propel their future.

It is being at the right place, at the right time, with the right skill,
finding the right investors/employees, partners and much more. When all of
that aligns, you get a billionaire. It is only slightly less lucky than
playing lottery.

PS: This does not apply to being a millionaire. You can be a millionaire by
working hard, taking an upper middle class job and investing prudently.

~~~
kamaal
You will need a lot of luck to be a millionaire too, in fact for anything. If
that wasn't the case bulk of the world population would be millionaires.
Hunger and poverty would have been long eradicated.

Luck is the final ingredient, secret sauce of sorts that makes a hardworking
person rich. A person isn't successful just out of hard work, its because they
are lucky too.

And besides that you won't be rich if you are too nice, honest and sincere.

~~~
balabaster
It's a product of how people look for solutions to problems. When people look
at obstacles and constantly say to themselves "I can't do X because Y" they
will never be billionaires. If you look at something and say "If I can find a
way to circumvent or overcome Y, X will make me a million dollars, let's find
a way to solve Y and provide X." That's the reason most people are not
millionaires. So many look at all the hindrances preventing them from getting
to the finish line that the solution never gets realized and they never make
their millions.

~~~
kamaal
While many people who don't start never make it. This doesn't mean every who
starts does.

My point was you need to do all the hard work. But luck play a huge role after
that or at that stage.

Either way you can still get rich if you are lucky. In fact that is what luck
is about. Its an unfair advantage.

~~~
balabaster
While you may not hit 100% of the shots you take, you miss 100% of the shots
you don't take.

------
flying_whale
I'm pretty sure the answer wouldn't have garnered so much attention had a
normal person (not Elon's ex-wife) written it.

~~~
testguy34
Because then it would just be some random person's opinion.

~~~
flying_whale
The opinion is as generic as that of a random person. There's nothing in the
answer which provides an actual insight into the making of a billionaire.

Maybe there are no insights. Maybe it is all a sum of the generic things she
spoke of, and pure luck of having successful consecutive ventures.

But to put it simply, it's not that great of a Quora answer.

~~~
exelius
It's a generic answer because it's a stupid question.

------
plongeur
So, at the end of the day ...

... we are all just single, elementary experiments within a gigantic, global
monte carlo simulation :)

All you can hope for is that your random configuration plays well - b/c you
will never know for sure - it's the supervising virtual and hypthetical power
evaluating your performance after termination as a statistic.

Then again - don't strive for material satisfaction and you will be a
billionaire _immediately_ \- and your currency is happiness.

------
datalus
In other words, no one has a clear picture. It's beyond any one person's
understanding, including the would be billionaire. As of yet this makes it
impossible to determine between luck and inevitability.

Who ever thought Minecraft would make notch a billionaire? I didn't.

Edit: That is not to say you can't learn anything and it's futile to think
about these questions, just don't expect a treasure map to fall out of these
thought experiments :)

------
Crito
I am waiting for the billionaire that, when asked how they became a
billionaire, says _" Well I read an article/book by [some other billionaire]
on how to become a billionaire."_

~~~
stcredzero
Charlie Munger (Berkshire Hathaway) -- doesn't point to a single article, but
does very much recommend reading as a lifestyle choice that will give you an
advantage.

[http://www.businessinsider.sg/book-recommendations-from-
char...](http://www.businessinsider.sg/book-recommendations-from-charlie-
munger-2014-6/#.VTaaRq1VhBc)

~~~
phodo
The book mentioned, "Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters",
is a phenomenal book for those interested in the space
[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060894083/farnamstre...](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060894083/farnamstreet-20)

------
psykovsky
She forgot the marry a billionaire method.

~~~
axus
Well it works for several years, but you end up with "the house..., two
million cash minus the legal fees ..., alimony and child support for 17 years
(about $80,000 a month), no stock, and a Tesla Roadster...":

[http://moschus.livejournal.com/154079.html](http://moschus.livejournal.com/154079.html)

~~~
psykovsky
You say that like being a bi-millionaire was a bad deal. And she only got that
end of the deal because she wanted to stop being married to said billionaire
;)

------
throwawayaway
i'd just marry into it.

