Elon Musk discusses the factors that set him up for success and how he didn't expect to be involved in all the things he is now. He initially focused on the electrification of cars and advanced energy storage technologies for electric cars. However, he put that on hold to start an internet company in 1995 because he believed there was a time for particular technologies to succeed. Musk's main goal was to be useful and have a practical impact on the world.

Sam Altman asked Elon Musk what he did when he was younger to set himself up for where he is now.

This is a clip from a longer interview, which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnBQmEqBCY0

So 1 of the I think most common questions I hear young people at ambitious young people ask is I want to be the next Elon Musk.

Obviously the next Elon Musk will work on very different things than than you did But What have you done or what did you do when you were younger that you think sort of set you up to have a big impact?

Well, I think first of all, I should say that I did not expect to be involved in all these things.

So the 5 things that I thought about at the time in college, quite a long time ago, 25 years ago.

Making life multi-planetary, accelerating the transition to sustainable energy, the Internet, broadly speaking, and then genetics and AI.

I think, I didn't expect to be involved in all of those things.

I actually, at the time in college, I sort of thought helping with electrification of cars was how I would start out.

And that's actually what I worked on as an intern, was advanced ultra-capacitors to see if there would be a breakthrough relative to batteries for energy storage in cars.

And then When I came out to go to Stanford, that's what I was going to be doing my grad studies on, was working on advanced energy storage technologies for electric cars.

And then I put that on hold to start an internet company in 95, because there does seem to be a time for particular technologies when they're at a steep point in the inflection curve.

And I didn't want to do a PhD at Stanford and watch it all happen.

And I wasn't entirely certain that the technology I'd be working on would actually succeed.

You can get a doctorate on many things that ultimately do not have a practical bearing on the world.

And I really was just trying to be useful.

It's like, what can I do that would actually be useful?


Speaker 0: So 1 of the I think most common questions I hear young people at ambitious young people ask is I want to be the next Elon Musk. How do I do that? Obviously the next Elon Musk will work on very different things than than you did But What have you done or what did you do when you were younger that you think sort of set you up to have a big impact?

Speaker 1: Well, I think first of all, I should say that I did not expect to be involved in all these things. So the 5 things that I thought about at the time in college, quite a long time ago, 25 years ago. Making life multi-planetary, accelerating the transition to sustainable energy, the Internet, broadly speaking, and then genetics and AI. I think, I didn't expect to be involved in all of those things. I actually, at the time in college, I sort of thought helping with electrification of cars was how I would start out.

And that's actually what I worked on as an intern, was advanced ultra-capacitors to see if there would be a breakthrough relative to batteries for energy storage in cars. And then When I came out to go to Stanford, that's what I was going to be doing my grad studies on, was working on advanced energy storage technologies for electric cars. And then I put that on hold to start an internet company in 95, because there does seem to be a time for particular technologies when they're at a steep point in the inflection curve. And I didn't want to do a PhD at Stanford and watch it all happen. And I wasn't entirely certain that the technology I'd be working on would actually succeed.

You can get a doctorate on many things that ultimately do not have a practical bearing on the world. And I really was just trying to be useful. That's the optimization. It's like, what can I do that would actually be useful? You

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How To Be The Next Elon Musk According To Elon Musk