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Offtopic: Conventional wisdom says he who chases two rabbits, captures none. How is Elon Musk able to succeed on more than one Company? Even Steve Jobs is fam

Offtopic: Conventional wisdom says he who chases two rabbits, captures none. How is Elon Musk able to succeed on more than one Company? Even Steve Jobs is famous for focus. He once said, "I'm as proud of what we don't do as I am of what we do."

31reasons 12y ago
For that I think we have to study Elon's brain when he is free from his ventures. His trajectory looks like of a perfect brain/mind that never fails to delivery even in extreme pressures. By the way he also has photographic memory so that helps.
- grkvlt 12y ago
  > trajectory looks like [...] perfect Those are the important words. Never underestimate how much luck and chance factor into success, being in the right place at the right time and so on. Musk has done well, but studies show that corporate success only very loosely correlated with CEO skills (30%) and mostly luck. So, no, he's not a super-man with a perfect brain, although I expect you'd still have a hard time persuading him to part with it for 'study' ;)
icehawk219 12y ago
Usually the key is being able to find people who share your vision and are able to execute it without you needing to micromanage or devote a huge chunk of your time to that one venture. I'd argue that if that's how he's done it then that's his greatest success, even more so than SpaceX or Tesla. Because it can be very difficult to find those people.
erikpukinskis 12y ago
I can't tell if you're trolling. Steve Jobs was CEO of two companies at once: Pixar and Apple.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  And before that, Pixar and NeXT.
- redmaverick 12y ago
  Steve Jobs was not heavily involved with Pixar like Elon was with his other companies. Pixar Myth No. 5: Steve Jobs Ran Pixar http://alvyray.com/pixar/PixarMyth5.htm http://alvyray.com/pixar/PixarMyth5.htm
aswanson 12y ago
Conventional wisdom is simply wrong in certain cases.
lotsofmangos 12y ago
He has lots of carrots and a big net.
jasontsui 12y ago
Other than chalking it up to Elon being an absurdly talented superhuman, I'd venture a guess that these industries move at a slower pace. The ground shifts every day on the web, which means day to day leadership is crucial. I'd imagine during the longer development cycles of these companies that he can tune out for extended periods of time without development going astray - especially in areas where his input isn't crucial. Just some conjecture..
trhway 12y ago
it isn't 2 rabbits. It is one rabbit of advancing our civilization. Musk stated his pretty coherent vision something like 20+ years ago.
InclinedPlane 12y ago
Lot of CEOs run only "one company" which encompass a wider variety of activities and products than SpaceX + Tesla.

31reasons 12y ago

For that I think we have to study Elon's brain when he is free from his ventures. His trajectory looks like of a perfect brain/mind that never fails to delivery even in extreme pressures. By the way he also has photographic memory so that helps.

grkvlt 12y ago
> trajectory looks like [...] perfect Those are the important words. Never underestimate how much luck and chance factor into success, being in the right place at the right time and so on. Musk has done well, but studies show that corporate success only very loosely correlated with CEO skills (30%) and mostly luck. So, no, he's not a super-man with a perfect brain, although I expect you'd still have a hard time persuading him to part with it for 'study' ;)

icehawk219 12y ago

Usually the key is being able to find people who share your vision and are able to execute it without you needing to micromanage or devote a huge chunk of your time to that one venture. I'd argue that if that's how he's done it then that's his greatest success, even more so than SpaceX or Tesla. Because it can be very difficult to find those people.

erikpukinskis 12y ago

I can't tell if you're trolling. Steve Jobs was CEO of two companies at once: Pixar and Apple.

dragonwriter 12y ago
And before that, Pixar and NeXT.
redmaverick 12y ago
Steve Jobs was not heavily involved with Pixar like Elon was with his other companies. Pixar Myth No. 5: Steve Jobs Ran Pixar http://alvyray.com/pixar/PixarMyth5.htm http://alvyray.com/pixar/PixarMyth5.htm

aswanson 12y ago

Conventional wisdom is simply wrong in certain cases.

lotsofmangos 12y ago

He has lots of carrots and a big net.

jasontsui 12y ago

Other than chalking it up to Elon being an absurdly talented superhuman, I'd venture a guess that these industries move at a slower pace. The ground shifts every day on the web, which means day to day leadership is crucial. I'd imagine during the longer development cycles of these companies that he can tune out for extended periods of time without development going astray - especially in areas where his input isn't crucial. Just some conjecture..

trhway 12y ago

it isn't 2 rabbits. It is one rabbit of advancing our civilization. Musk stated his pretty coherent vision something like 20+ years ago.

InclinedPlane 12y ago

Lot of CEOs run only "one company" which encompass a wider variety of activities and products than SpaceX + Tesla.