{"id":32225,"date":"2023-04-06T10:03:50","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T17:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=32225"},"modified":"2023-04-06T10:03:50","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T17:03:50","slug":"you-dont-need-to-be-elon-musk-to-be-successful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/you-dont-need-to-be-elon-musk-to-be-successful\/","title":{"rendered":"You Don’t Need to be Elon Musk to be Successful"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why I Could Never be Elon Musk<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

For better and for worse, Elon Musk has been in the spotlight for years. People are fascinated by the genius billionaire \u2013 a real-life Tony Stark. Ferociously driven with intelligence few can parallel, when one thinks of an individual leaving his or her mark on the world, it is more than reasonable to have Musk in mind.<\/p>\n

Personally, I have been fascinated by Musk for the past few years. Questions that come to mind include \u201cWhat are the motivations that drive Musk? Does he ever relax?\u201d One of the more insidious questions I wonder is \u201cWhat can I learn from Musk in order to be successful?” Now, I am not striving to be a tech-genius billionaire. However, when I learn about how Elon lives his life, I wonder \u201cWhat are the things I can learn and implement into my life in order to be successful?\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the pressure to emulate Musk faded when I came to this freeing realization: I could never be Elon Musk, nor do I want to be. I recall watching a video about the work culture Musk creates. He is described as a viciously intense, demanding boss. But he also is a risk-taker. For example, one former employee shared that \u201cin Tesla\u2019s darkest moment\u201d in 2008, Elon put in his last million dollars, covered employee\u2019s business expenses with his own credit card debt, and \u201ccouch surfed in Menlo Park.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

When I look at my personality, I do not see a great risk-taker. I am far more cautious and agreeable in my working relationships. There is no need for me to try to be like Elon in order to be successful. That is not the recipe for success. But what is?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Summary of Personality<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before answering that question, I will summarize the work of Daniel Nettle in his book Personality: What Makes You the Way You are<\/em>.[2]<\/a> After this, I will share some of my personality traits with their strengths and weaknesses and then conclude with thoughts on how leaders can apply the lessons from Nettle.<\/p>\n

Daniel Nettle, a professor of psychology at the University of Newcastle, brings his readers on a journey of exploring the mystery of why there is such great variety in how we live, interact with others, and see the world. Nettle focuses on the science of personality, why it exists, and extrapolates on psychology\u2019s \u201cbig five\u201d personality traits.[3]<\/a> Nettle argues that personality is both genetic and influenced by the environment we grow up in. It is largely responsible for the direction of our lives. It is because of our personality differences that we have survived as a species. Without risk-takers, we would not survive attacks or make advances. Without people who are risk-averse, we would likewise not survive due to no one taking serious potential threats. Though there is a plethora of personality assessments, the big five personality traits are the most credible within psychology.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My Personality \u2013 Both the Good and the Bad<\/strong><\/p>\n

My personality is quite opposite to someone like Elon Musk. He is a risk-taker, and I am risk-averse. This is a benefit in that I would never do something as rash as getting into deep credit card debt to cover significant business expenses, or putting my final million dollars into a struggling business (I must admit, I would need to have a million dollars first). However, there are downsides to being risk-averse. Saying no to potential opportunities due to fear of failure or the potential risk involved is incredibly limiting for my life. This is something I must be aware of and, with wisdom, mitigate against when necessary. This brings me to the application of Nettle\u2019s Personality<\/em> for leaders and a lesson on how to be successful.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Be the Best Version of Yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n

The argument famously made that self-awareness is the most indispensable quality in leadership is reinforced by Nettle’s work[4]<\/a>. In knowing ourselves and our unique combination of personality traits, we are better able to both lean into the strengths afforded to us by our personality, as well as mitigate against the potential weaknesses. This is, I would argue, the key to success. Instead of trying to be someone else whom we deem successful, such as Elon Musk[5]<\/a>, I believe the invitation is to be the very best version of ourselves. That means growing in self-awareness, emotional intelligence and health. In doing so, we will leverage our personality to be the best version of ourselves by leaning into our strengths and being aware of and growing from our weaknesses. As one who is risk-averse, I can leverage my strength in being cautious while recognizing this can be a weakness. Through this self-awareness I can discern when to push myself outside of my risk aversion or recognize a legitimate risk to avoid.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Working for Elon Musk: Ex-Employees Reveal His Management Strategy | WSJ<\/em>, 2022, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JEikQP8-es0, 4:00-4:20.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Daniel Nettle, Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are<\/em> (Oxford University Press, 2009).<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> These big five are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> \u00a0Chinwe Esimai, \u201cGreat Leadership Starts With Self-Awareness,\u201d Forbes, accessed April 5, 2023, https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/ellevate\/2018\/02\/15\/self-awareness-being-more-of-what-makes-you-great\/.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> I would be remiss to not clarify that I do not see Elon Musk as the pinnacle of human success. Though outwardly impressive, it does not take long before one finds out that Musk hasn\u2019t had the most healthy life style or family life to say the least.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why I Could Never be Elon Musk\u00a0 For better and for worse, Elon Musk has been in the spotlight for years. People are fascinated by the genius billionaire \u2013 a real-life Tony Stark. Ferociously driven with intelligence few can parallel, when one thinks of an individual leaving his or her mark on the world, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2740,2268,2269],"class_list":["post-32225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-elon-musk","tag-nettle","tag-personality","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32234,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32225\/revisions\/32234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}