"Person of the Year"
Elon Musk was named "2021 Person of the Year" by Time Magazine.
In 2021, Musk will not only be the world's richest man, but also transform Tesla from a former electric car startup into a company with a market value of more than a trillion US dollars.
The honor of "Person of the Year" is usually reserved for world leaders such as Barack Obama; occasionally for business titans like Mark Zuckerberg.
Time magazine explained in an article why they named Musk the "2021 Person of the Year" -
"Few people have had a greater influence than Musk on life on Earth, and possibly even beyond Earth. Musk sees his mission as solving the world's toughest challenges, disrupting many industries in the process. ”
Musk , born on June 28 , 1971 in Pretoria , south Africa , is an entrepreneur , engineer , and philanthropist.
He is also a triple citizen of South Africa, Canada and the United States, and is currently CEO and CTO of SpaceX, CEO of Tesla, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of SolarCity.
In addition to his successful businessman status, Musk is also the most famous "dreamer".
Once, Wall Street listed Tesla as the least likely to succeed, tv hosts shouted not to buy Tesla stock, presidential candidates called Tesla a "failure"...
In the midst of the world's ridicule and singing, Musk spent all his savings and withstood all the pressure, but in exchange for three successive launch failures. The mocker laughed louder, and the fading man sang more decisively, but he still did not give up.
Before the fourth launch in April 2016, he smiled and told the media: "Either witness success or watch the fireworks." Finally, the fourth launch was successful.
Musk has changed from a "madman" to a hero, the legend continues, and the dream of leading mankind to conquer Mars is still a long way ahead.
Not only that —
The use of brain-computer technology to enable quadriplegics to achieve "mind" typing;
Pay for PayPal without borders;
Founded SpaceX to realize rocket recycling and save the cost of exploring space;
Sports cars using magnetic levitation technology;
Space travel, landing on Mars...
These "crazy" dreams are either being or have been realized step by step by Musk.
Today, Musk, who has made outstanding achievements in the Internet, finance, automobiles, new energy, aerospace and other aspects, is known as the "Iron Man of Silicon Valley".
But a closer look at his upbringing shows that today's achievements for him are not actually out of thin air or luck, but have long-term thinking, which come from his childhood dreams.
At the age of 12, he published computer game code in the newspaper, and in middle school, he discussed that humans should find a way out of new energy and mars.
It is precisely because of these lofty dreams, even under his painful adolescent experience, that he has not become a problem youth, but has created a great figure with human aspirations.
Musk's entrepreneurship has long since jumped out of the business category and burned the world's dreams.
"Thank you, I only have a short few minutes and I will try to make good use of this only time. Here I would like to share with you four important things.
Some of them may sound like famous aphorisms, but experience has taught me that they are really practical.
The first point is very important for young people who want to start a business, you need to work very hard. What does it mean to work hard?
When my brother and I started Zip2 together, we didn't buy any property as a place to work, but instead started our business in a small, ordinary office, and we spent most of our time on that little couch.
We discussed ideas with each other, and we only had one computer, and we needed to use the computer to run the web page during the day, and the coding could only be done at night. We work almost 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
If you're going to set up your own company quickly, hard work is a must. You do a very simple mathematical calculation yourself, others work 50 hours, but you work 100 hours, you will do twice as much work as others.
Another point I'd like to make is that if you're starting your own company or are managing a company, it's also very important to attract great people to work with you. One can either join a company where the elite gathers and respect talent, or work with a ragtag group.
Most of the success of a business is a group of good people coming together to make a great product. No matter how talented this group of people is, they must work together to focus on the right product direction to be a huge success.
Therefore, entrepreneurs need to use all means to attract excellent talents.
Then, I want to turn the conversation to how to judge if a business is on the right path.
A lot of people get confused that the money they spend doesn't make their products any better, for example, at Tesla, we never spend money on advertising, we put all our money into product development and better product design, and we do our best to make our cars as good as possible. I think that's the best way out.
So, if you want to build a company, you have to constantly think about whether these efforts you've made have made your product or service better. If not, don't do these things anymore. In addition to this, I would like to say, don't just follow the so-called megatrend.
From the point of view of the first principles of physics, it is not through analogy to argue, but through all the elements that you consider to be the most essential. This way you can tell what you should be doing and what you're just doing in someone else's footsteps. Of course, you can't do everything, you have to put in a lot of effort.
However, if you want to try something new, this is the best way to do it. Thinking about problems like physicists studying quantum mechanics is a powerful approach. The last thing I want to say is that it's time to take a risk. You don't have children now or you may not have children, and as you get older, your responsibilities increase.
Once you have a family, you're not just risking yourself, you're risking your family, and it's getting harder and harder to try things that might fail. So, go on an adventure now! Until you have those obligations, I very much encourage you to take a risk. ”
Summarizing this talented "dreamer" speech, what advice should teenagers get?
The first point is to ignite the internal driving force of the self, to go all out, to pay no less than anyone's efforts.
The second point is the cooperation force of win-win cooperation, and we must learn to lead the team up and down to work together towards a common goal.
The third point is the innovative power to keep pace with the times, not to follow the tide, and always maintain innovative thinking.
The fourth point is not afraid of risk-taking learning, take advantage of youth, dare to take risks, and reach your ideals through your own continuous learning.
... ... ... ...
In the face of the future, adolescents should have the ability to communicate emotionally with people, the ability to see the world in multiple dimensions, and the ability to solve complex problems.
In addition to internal drive, cooperation, innovation, and learning, speech, communication, frustration, speculation, self-control, and empathy are all abilities that teenagers should have.
Musk's story is legendary enough, some people say that he made the times, and some people say that the times made him.
Nowadays, the times and heroes achieve each other, not to say that heroes create the times, nor do we talk about the times to create heroes.
The story of the future,
Give today's teenage dreams,
Also leave it to tomorrow's youth to write.