>>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.
> 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.
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...
> 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.
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.
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."
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...
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.
I'm pretty sure the answer wouldn't have garnered so much attention had a normal person (not Elon's ex-wife) written it.
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.
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 :)
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."
She forgot the marry a billionaire method.
i'd just marry into it.
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.