Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world’s third richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is not just a tech entrepreneur; he is also a source of inspiration for many in the younger generation.
As young people often struggle to find opportunities that may lead them to success and make the world a better place, Musk has come forward to help them with some precious advice. He has shared five key steps for the young generation to achieve success in their lives.
In a resurfaced episode of the “Lex Fridman Podcast”, Musk shared advice for high school and college students aiming to make a positive impact on the world. Here are the five tips the billionaire thinks would help young people become successful.
Be useful
Musk’s first tip for young people is to “try to be useful.” The tech billionaire told Fridman: “Do things that are useful to your fellow human beings, to the world. It’s hard to be useful — very hard.”
According to the owner of SpaceX, if someone is living a useful life, it’s a “life worth having lived”.
Give back to society
Musk believes that one should give more to the society than they take from it.
“Try to have a positive net contribution to society,” he told Fridman. “That’s something to aim for.”
Musk has “a lot of respect for someone who puts in an honest day’s work”.
Don’t try to be a leader
One of the most important things, he told Fridman, is that young people should not to try to be leaders for the sake of it. “A lot of the time, the people you want as leaders are the people who don’t want to be leaders,” he told Fridman.
Read and ingest information
Musk also said that he used to read the encyclopedia as a kid, and while he didn’t advise young people to do the same, he emphasised the importance of reading and getting information.
“I would encourage people to read a lot of books,” he said. “Try to ingest as much information as you can, and try to also develop a good general knowledge so you at least have a rough lay of the land of the knowledge landscape.”
Talk to people
His last piece of advice was for young people to talk to others. “Talk to people from different walks of life and different industries and professions and skills,” he said, adding “learn as much as possible.”
