'Mimicking Elon Musk Won’t Make You Successful': Techie Shares Hard-Hitting Lesson
The tech expert reveals how his blind admiration for Elon Musk’s work led him an unproductive path.
An AI startup owner, who once considered himself a huge fan of Elon Musk, now regrets his obsession with the billionaire. Although Musk never directly harmed him, the tech expert reveals how his blind admiration for Musk’s work led him to an unproductive path. In a post titled, ‘You Won’t Succeed By Watching Elon Musk,’ he shared how he bought two Teslas in just 18 months, read 17 books and biographies and spent over 200 hours listening to interviews. However, after four years of focusing on Musk’s life, by following his tweets and defending him online, he realized that he had neglected his work and that his skills never progressed.
Taking to LinkedIn, the techie wrote, “You won’t succeed by watching Elon Musk. The embarrassing truth of my obsession, is 2 Teslas purchased in 18 months, 17 biographies and books consumed, 200+ hours of podcast interviews and Tesla stock that nearly broke me. What I finally realised after four years of fanboy worship, while I was studying his life, I wasn’t building mine. While I tracked his tweets, my projects collected dust. While I defended him online, my skills stagnated."
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“The brutal reality about idolizing billionaires: Their ‘morning routines’ aren’t why they succeeded. Their ‘mindset tips’ came after their wealth, not before. Their ‘work ethic’ was enabled by family money. Their ‘genius insights’ came from teams they hired. The real cost of my obsession wasn’t financial, it was opportunity cost. Elite performers aren’t studying other performers, they’re too busy performing. I’ve since redirected that energy into my ventures and doubled my income in 18 months. Stop watching billionaires. Start building your runway," he added.
Reacting to the post, a user wrote, “I admire him for one thing. How he built Tesla that almost went bankrupt and the insane politics inside it while mass producing the car. More specifically, after watching the Who Killed Electric Cars documentary. If you watch it, you can see if it wasn’t for him, there would probably be no electric cars. The politics of killing any electric cars was crazy. That’s why big auto companies stayed away from it. He stood against them and delivered."
“This is definitely what people need to hear/read and realise about thinking mimicking (seemingly) successful people will enable them the same," a comment read.
An individual shared, “When One tries to mimic footsteps, they follow a Trend. The ones who truly succeed are Trendsetters. Create your path."
One more added, “Elon Musk really isn’t the real life Tony Stark people make him out to be. He’s a showman, not an inventor. A pretender. He’s a smart guy but he’s more of a businessman than a creator or innovator."
On his website, the techie mentioned that the biggest loss wasn’t just the money spent on cars. He calculated the financial impact – $192,000 spent on Tesla vehicles, a loss of $18,000 in stock investments and over $140,000 in missed opportunities from not focusing on his business. He believed the real cost went beyond money. He felt he had lost valuable time that could have been used to grow his projects, improve his skills and make progress in his career.
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