 1, a sense of crisis When I was a kid, people often asked me what I was going to do when I grew up, and I really did not know it. Later I thought it would be cool to invent, because science clashback writer Arthur Clarke (author of Space Odyssey 2001) said "Any technology advanced enough is no different from magic." Think about it. If three hundred years ago, humans could see that today we can fly, communicate remotely, use the Internet to find information all over the world right now, and they will surely say that this is magic. If I could invent A very advanced technology, is not like magic? I have always had a sense of crisis in existence, trying to find out what the meaning of life is and what is the purpose of all things, and finally come to the conclusion that if we have ways to make the world's knowledge progress more and more, As the scale and scope expand, then we will be more able to ask the right questions and get more enlightenment from wisdom and spirit. So, I decided to study physics and business, because in order to reach such a lofty goal, we must understand how the universe operates, how the economy works, and find the best team of talented people to invent things together. 2, from the beginning, I just want to be close to the birthplace of technology I was not sure if I should go to college.Now I was from South Africa to North America, just because I feel a lot of cutting-edge technology are born and raised in North America, I know every new technology seems to originate from there. When I was alone in North America, I did not have a clear plan at university, just wanting to be close to the birthplace of technology. In fact, I consider two options: one is to go to the University of Waterloo computer engineering, the other is to go to Queen's University.I went to the University of Waterloo, found there are not many girls, I feel so less interesting.So I go Queen's University where I met my wife.I studied a wide range of subjects, including e-commerce, engineering and mathematics.Some people from Queen's University transferred to the University of Pennsylvania Wharton, reflecting that it is very good. So I just want to apply for Wharton, but I have no money, to get the scholarship to go, I feel I can not get the scholarship.But I still apply, and they actually gave me a scholarship.In Wharton, two years of business I finished the course in a year, and since I do not have a green card, I can only stay in school or they will deport me because I think there are so many top labs in Stanford that you can Free to use, so I can develop electric car technology. I like physics, and after graduation I went to Wall Street and also worked in technical engineering, and in the end I decided to go to science, so it took another year to get a degree in physics.Afterwards I went to Stanford University, There I learned a lot about how to develop advanced capacitors that can be used in EVs, which also involve some basic physics, so it's almost a combination of physics and materials science, but then I dropped out and started my own company. 3, business, I have suffered a lot of damage Later, I found that my friends' criticism of anything I did was just as valuable as gold. Often your friends know what is wrong, but they do not want to tell you because they do not want to hurt you, that does not mean your friends are right, but often their criticisms are the most sincere. When you talk about your thoughts, those closest to you usually want to encourage you, and the last thing they want to do is disappoint you, but these people are also a valuable resource: they can go deep Tell you what your weaknesses are and what you need to improve. Of course, it is painful when you hear these criticisms about you or what you are creating that is not perfect, but any intelligent person can understand what kind of feedback it is - an improvement Opportunity. You have to try the wrong methods and your goal is to make as few mistakes as you can. When you first start your business, you are very likely, everything is good, your happiness index is very high, and then you will encounter a variety of problems, happiness will continue to decline, and then you will experience a whole The world's injury. If you're in any of the existing markets and your strong competitors, your products or services have to be far better than them, it can not be a mere advantage because when you're on the consumer's footing When you always buy the brand you trust, unless the product is very different. So, you can not be a little better, but much better. Instead of (creating) a better identity, you have to be innovative rather than just being 10% out of 10, but to create 10 times the value. Think about how the iPod replaces the Walkman, or iPhone how to replace the BlackBerry, iPad or how to replace the Palm Pilot? 4, and then pretty PPT are not as convincing as to come up with the actual product In 1995, I came to California (I went to PhD in Stanford University) and wanted to find ways to increase the energy density of EVs, for example, whether there is any better alternative to using a capacitor as a battery, but at that time, Faced with two choices: continue to study the capacitor technology has little chance of success, or join the network business.Finally, I chose to drop out and participate in the network business, one of which is PayPal. The most important comprehension for PayPal was born of its birth, and we originally intended to provide integrated financial services with PayPal, a large, complex system that ended up in the middle of introducing the system to others , We are not interested.When we introduce again, the system has a small function of e-mail payment, all become well interested. As a result, we decided to focus on e-mail payments, PayPal really hit the hook, but if not initially noticed the response of others, make changes, we may not be so successful, so collect feedback is very important to use It fixes your previous assumptions. After PayPal's success, I started to think about the immediate problems that are most likely to affect the future of mankind. I think the biggest problem facing the planet is sustainable energy, that is, how to produce and consume energy in a sustainable manner. To solve this problem in the 21st century, we will make a catastrophe and another big problem that may affect the survival of mankind is how to move to other planets. The first question prompted me to set up Tesla and SolarCity, the largest provider of rooftop solar systems in the United States, and the second question led me to set up space technology company SpaceX. In 2002, in order to solve the problem of space transportation, I set up SpaceX. People who talked to me at that time advised me not to do it, and some of my friends went to see the films of the rocket explosion in particular. I have never done a physical product, so it was really hard at first. The rocket launchers failed three times in a row and were in deep trouble. However, we learned from each failure and finally succeeded in launching the fourth launch in 2008, bringing Falcon One into orbit. At that time, I had already run out of funds and, fortunately, succeeded. After that, our transport rocket from Falcon I made the Falcon IX and developed the spacecraft Dragon. Recently, after its launch, the Dragon successfully connected with the International Space Station and returned to Earth. I really Pinch a cold sweat, can not believe we did it. However, there are many more goals to be reached in order to move humans to other planets, so I hope you also join SpaceX or other space exploration companies. This is not about failing to see the earth, but in fact I am optimistic about the future of the planet , I think there is a 99% chance that humans can live for a long time, but even a 1% future risk on the planet will be enough to stimulate our early preparations for a "planetary backup." In 2003, Tesla was founded to prove the potential of EVs, and in the past many people thought EVs were too slow, not far away, ugly, and unlike golf carts. To change the way people feel , We developed the Tesla Roadster, a fast, far-reaching, styling electric windster. So if you want to start a business, you have to prototype the product really, because no matter how awesome paperwork and PowerPoint reports are, it's far from convincing to come up with real products. After the introduction of Roadster, some people say, "Do you have the ability to make a real production car even if you make an expensive limited-edition sports car?" No problem, we launched Model S for the four-door car to prove it for everyone. This is my entrepreneurial journey along the way. 5, the scientific method is really effective for clarifying the truth come up with a question. Collect as much evidence as you can Make axioms based on evidence and try to set a probabilistic value for each axiom. Based on the validity of the conclusion, in order to determine: whether these axioms are correct, whether it is bound to lead to this conclusion, and how likely? Trying to overthrow the conclusion Seeks counterarguments from others to further help break your conclusions. You may be right if nobody can invalidate your conclusion, but you are not necessarily right. This is a scientific way, and this is really helpful in figuring out the tricky things, but most people do not use it, they are more willing to be wishful thinking, they ignore the refutation, they are based on what others are doing and what they are not doing The result came to the conclusion that such reasoning would lead to "This is true, because what I say is true," but not because it is objectively real. I'm good at engineering, my natural gift from my father, and it's easy for others. For some time, I thought things were so straightforward that everyone knew it. Such as how the wires work in the house, and how the circuit breaker works, what is AC and DC, what amperes and volts, and how to mix fuels and oxidants to make explosives. I thought everyone knew that knowledge, but actually This is not the case. And my advice to these people is to read the book to understand the nature of things, and occasionally you can go to Reddit because I grew up with books. 6, Physics provides me with an ideal research framework To understand those new things that are counterintuitive, I think that physics provides an ideal framework for research: for example, quantum mechanics is counterintuitive, the real world does not seem to work that way, and the fact is that it can be experimentally highly accurate To verify that the reason why physics can make progress in these areas of anti-intuition is because it breaks things down to the most basic substance and then goes up, and I think this is a very important method, in fact, it is also about understanding new things, The only effective way to explore unknown areas. In everyday life, we are very good at using the analogy method, we do what others are doing, making minor adjustments, analogy provides a shortcut, do not need a lot of thinking, this is no problem in daily life.We can not use all physical To learn first principle, that requires too much calculation, but the first principle is extremely important for understanding new things. Now physics classes are not teaching the right way, and we usually let students back a variety of boring formulas without passing on the basic meaning of the formulas What do these formulas represent in reality? The wonderful real world that a formula can describe is difficult Confident. The beauty and magic of physics did not pass through the classroom. In addition, I think our teaching should focus on the problem, not the tool.For example, we want to understand the working principle of the internal combustion engine, then the best way is to take it apart, to study each of the components And then assemble them.What tools do we need in the process? We need screwdrivers, wrenches, and other tools, and when you disassemble and assemble the internal combustion engine, you know what those tools do. If in turn, you go to a class about screwdrivers and wrenches first, then that effect is poor, and you can hardly remember the way our brains evolved to remember things that are relevant to us, so be sure to establish relevance , Otherwise the process of memory can be very painful and difficult because it seems abstract and irrelevant, so it must be relevant and important to understand the reason of things before they can naturally absorb the knowledge. When I started chatting with a friend, I mentioned why we had not landed on Mars since 2001. Since landing on the moon in 1969, it is time to land on Mars. I visited NASA's official website to see if there was a timetable for landing on Mars, but I did not find anything.And then I learned that NASA has given up landing on Mars, so I would like to engage in a public welfare project, a small greenhouse If you are successful, it will be the farthest place that Earth's life has ever been, and the first time that our life on Earth has been recognized on Mars, so we have sent green plants The grand plan of the red Mars surface, which I think should have aroused public interest so that NASA can increase its budget so that we can renew Apollo's dream, is the earliest idea. I even went to Russia three times and I wanted to buy some of the used ICMB (intercontinental ballistic missiles) for the Mars mission. The business was indeed negotiated, but I realized at this time that the previous thought was wrong. So I did not go to Mars not because I did not want to go, but because I thought I was not able to go. Everyone felt that there was no possibility of success and gave up. So I decided to set up a company to reduce the cost of space travel while improving rocket technology. Rocket technology has made little progress since the 1960s, and in a sense, rocket technology has gone backwards because of the higher cost of getting things into orbit.This is where I started SpaceX, However, when the company was first founded, I think the company's survival rate is only 10%. The principle of physics is the most useful, as long as a good study of the principles of physics can be found it is the most valuable addition, I think the quantum mechanics is also very interesting, quantum mechanical phenomenon is always incredible, but they are all true Quantum mechanics is hard to learn because quantum mechanics is extremely counterintuitive, you can be intuitive in many other areas, but you can not infer the usual way of thinking about quantum mechanics because your intuition is not valid, so quantum mechanics Difficult .In addition, quantum mechanics also incorporates a large number of advanced mathematics and statistics content. I think it is important to cover a wide range of subjects as much as possible, and many innovative inventions are interdisciplinary and our knowledge reserves are larger and larger, so we have to be able to work together. Someone proficient in one area without knowing the other, if you can differentiate Field of knowledge combined have the opportunity to create extraordinary results, there are a lot of opportunities for innovation, so I encourage you to study as broadly as possible various subjects for engineering students, I suggest to learn a little economics, learn literature , Or other areas.I suggest that under the premise of interest, we can learn the basics of each area, and then think about how to integrate knowledge in different fields.This is very easy to produce whimsy. 7, the older, more responsibility to bear Many people ask me what is the secret of success. First, work super hard: This is especially true for those who want to start a business, and when I started Zip2 with my brother, the first company, we rented an office and slept directly on the couch everyday I went to YMCA for a bath, and both had only one computer. Our website was only available during the day, because I had to write a program at night, so I worked seven days a week as long as I was awake. Second, to attract top talent to work with you: Business is a group of people working together to create a product or service Whether you want to start a business or enter a business, the key is working with top talent. You should try to join a good team, You admire the work together. Business, but also to find ways to find the best talent. Third, focus on signals, not signal over noise: Many businesses get confused and spend a lot of money on things that do not make the product better. At Tesla, we never advertise, Instead, invest money in R & D and production design to continually improve the product, and every company should ask itself if it is better to have products or services better than those we've done, and if not, stop shouting. Fourth, do not blindly follow the trend: the first principle of the study of physics, not to reason in analogy, should start thinking from the most fundamental truths.Physicians is to use this principle to understand some anti-intuitive things, Such as quantum mechanics, so take advantage of this principle to determine if something you really do makes sense or is you just following someone else? This is the best way to think if you want to start a new business and develop new products . You may have heard these, but there is really no shortcut. If you find that you really need it, you can find some like-minded people to study together and solve them. In my opinion, the most suitable time to do these things is when I was in college or just graduated from college, Because at this time you have a lighter responsibility, you do not need to support your family. Over time, the burden on you is heavier and heavier, and you have to assume greater risk. The older you are, the more you have to assume responsibility. In the face of the risk of failure, often the other people around you become more hesitant.
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