Ruthless dictator-Tesla's Smolensk

"If I had to work for the Knicks, I would have to leave the first week of my job and punch him in the face." ”

Ellon Masc (Elon Musk), 2016 in the forefront of the people, in the eyes of the world, there is comparable to amid the status of the Lord, as Tesla this one an opening can have hundreds of thousands of fans holding 1000 knife deposit to book a future product company's boss, he has the general boldness of the King's Landing. His team, however, had a common title for him: the ruthless dictator.

For many people, Ellon Masc is really fascinating, he has been engaged in internet finance, space, electric vehicles ... Each has achieved extraordinary results in the forefront of the field. So what is the experience of starting a business with such an outstanding leader?

"Silicon Valley Iron Man: Ellon Masc's Adventures" in this biography, author Ashley Wans interviewed many of the employees who worked in Tesla and SpaceX company, and in the eyes of these employees we can learn the most realistic Ellon MASC in the working state.

1. The ruthless dictator

As early as 1999, Musk led X.com and confinity to compete for the online payment market, he was known for extreme working hours. Staff at the time said:

• We work 20 hours a day while he works 23 hours.

When Tesla was in crisis, he asked employees to work Sunday and sleep under the table until the project was completed in Saturday. There are employees dissatisfied with this, hoping to have time to accompany the family, Musk will say:

• After we go bankrupt, we will have more time to spend with our family.

If an employee tells him that he has made a choice because he has been doing it before, he will be kicked out of the conference room immediately.

An employee missed an activity because of his baby's birth, musk him in the mail poured:

• We're changing the world, changing history, and if you're not going to do your best, then don't do it.

Musk is such a ruthless "dictator" that executives often bet on who gets scolded before a meeting. The general Staff's description of the musk many facets, they respect him, understand his harsh, also think he has reached the point of ruthless, make people feel capricious, every time with him feel likely to be dismissed. Musk is very ruthless about employees who are not up to his standard, and he always says:

• If you want to fire someone, you should fire them right away, or you'll just waste each other's time.

2. The way the interview is weird

As the founder of SpaceX, SpaceX's top 1000 employees, including doorman and mechanic, were interviewed by Musk personally.

Space's standard interview topic is to let the engineer write 500 lines of code, enter the final interview session of the candidate, will ask to complete a special task, write an article for Musk, explain why he wants to work for SpaceX. If a candidate does well in an interview and writes a good article, the reward is that they have the opportunity to interview with the Knicks, although the interview may only be 15 seconds to 30 seconds.

At the beginning of the interview, Musk may still be writing e-mails and work, not talking too much. When chatting, he asks some odd questions, such as the question he will surely ask:

• You stand on the surface of the Earth, go south 1 miles, go West 1 miles, then go North 1 miles, just back to the origin, excuse me, where are you?

Most engineers will immediately be able to answer: the Arctic. Musk will then ask, "Where else could it be?" ”。 Few people can answer this question, and Musk will be happy to explain the subject and quote the relevant formula. He doesn't care if the other person can answer right, he's more concerned about the way they describe the problem and how to solve the problem.

3. The details have been neurotic

Musk to the small flaws in the message is also very mind, once he found that the words in the mail misspelled, will bite, or even simply think unable to read. If the marketers make grammatical mistakes in e-mails, they will be asked to leave directly.

Musk will send e-mails to the company from time to time, sometimes just to let people know that something is bothering him. One of the more famous messages was issued in May 2010, with the theme "The initials are disgusting". In this e-mail, he said in a rude tone:

• Other abbreviations cannot be included in the SpaceX glossary unless approved by me. For example, the test stand should not be called "HTS" or "VTS," a nasty acronym that is actually more confusing than the original word.

Musk hopes that all abbreviations will be approved by him, and that this hands sounds very funny, but it does make the team more efficient. Since then, employees have privately referred to the acronym policy as "A.S.S rule" (Bullshit rule).

4. Never say you can't do it.

People who have worked with Musk for a long time can attest that he was a complete lunatic in terms of completion, that he would assume that everything was going well, that he had the most radical timetable he could think of, and that everyone could work more diligently in order to complete the production schedule.

Some employees joked that Musk might calculate how many seconds to knock out a line of code, then multiply the number of lines of code he expects the final software to contain, and then predict how long a software project will take to complete. And Musk himself said, "I never deliberately set goals that cannot be achieved." In his view, if this were not the case, it would only make the time-delay difficult to be controlled.

If you tell Musk that his requirements are not achievable, such as that the budget does not fall down or that a component cannot be made before the deadline, he will say:

• Well, this project has nothing to do with you, and from now on I am the CEO of this project. At the same time as two CEOs, your job is up to me, but I can do it.

What is more frightening is that he is more than just talking! Every time he fired someone, he would take over the job of that person, and he would be able to do it no matter what the project was.

If, in case you find yourself in the musk, you have to report some bad news to him, savvy engineers will do their best to find out the possible solutions. One employee concludes:

• Never come up and tell Musk something can't be done, he'll blow everyone out of the office right away. We have to list the stakes and provide the perfect solution, after all, and so on Musk said "OK, thank you", everyone was relieved.

5. Throw after use

According to some departing employees, Musk treats employees like bullets: throw them out.

One of the most typical examples is that he opened the Mary Besse Brown.

Who is brown? She is a SpaceX and Tesla legend, loyal to the Musk around 12 years of personal secretary, the weekly shuttle between Los Angeles and Silicon Valley, the hours of hard work overtime, while arranging Musk on two company's schedule, and responsible for PR work, often have to make business decisions.
The Iron Man Tony Stark's side of the Piper Potts.
It is said that her desk is in front of the musk, each to find Musk staff will stay in front of her table for a while, if Besse Brown motioned to shake his head, indicating that Musk at this time, not a good time to apply for the budget, we will play gooseberry to leave.

Iron Man will not expel Percy Potts, but Musk will.

The cause is brown to musk raise wages, Musk let her go to take a few weeks leave, during her work, and so on, after Brown vacation back, Musk said no longer need her, gave her 12 months of severance payment, and then never talked to Brown.

Having listened to so many horrible stories (far from all), are you willing to work with the boss of Hell to make a great career change in the world? Of course, if it weren't for Musk's stringent demands on employees and the extraordinary execution, perhaps Tesla would have closed the first prototype in 2008, and where would the Model 3 be tomorrow?

One can change the world's cause, and sometimes it does require such a ruthless "dictator"

Ruthless dictator-Tesla's Smolensk