How Elon Musks Tesla Became My University

what is a college or university

is it a route for us to explore our

interests and topics we enjoy

is it a way to move out from our parents

house become independent and party

or is it simply a path our friends and

family push us to follow without us

defining the reason

see like many people my age i had no

idea

a lot of us know that we aim to make an

impact and add value

ultimately we all hope to be useful and

leave the world a better place than we

found it

but defining how we do that and deciding

on the route to follow is difficult

it’s tough for anybody of any age

never mind high school students that are

told to choose a route before graduating

in this scenario we are often given

definitive paths and told to choose one

for example in recent times city of

chicago has stated that public schools

cannot allow students to graduate

without choosing one of five defined

groups

these options include college or

university an apprenticeship

or a 12-month gap year tenure

at various points in our lives we are

often presented

with a scenario similar to this

one where decide defined roots

are given with little possibility of an

alternative

is it possible there are roots outside

of what we’re told to choose

so when faced with this decision myself

i didn’t have faith in the defined

options i was presented so i graduated

high school with no pap

that’s right i had none

well

when asked i gave the answer gap year

but what i really meant is that i hadn’t

figured it out yet

like i mentioned all i knew and still

know now is i want to add value and saw

there being other new avenues compared

to the ones established

presently

i believed and still do that there are

infinite ways to learn

another factor for me was financial i

didn’t see the benefit of taking on debt

which you’ll pay once you’re deemed

successful enough

which is usually defined by your

financial earnings it just didn’t make

sense to me

what i didn’t realize at the time

is that my progress happened when simply

saying

i don’t know

rather than disguising my plan as a gap

year

it allowed me to discover different

directions and routes and really

internalize what is important to me

why it’s important is subsequently

learning how to get there

so

a few months after graduating i decided

i wanted to begin

and put a plan together

it led me to an idea i hadn’t expected

that a company called tesla could in a

weird way become my university

after a lot of thought i decided i knew

two things

i knew one i was not going to university

quite obvious at this point

and two i thought elon musk was making

the real world tangible impact i wanted

to someday

for those of you that haven’t heard of

elon he’s the founder of zip2x.com

paypal tesla spacex the boring company

neuralink and many other hugely

impactful organizations they add extreme

value to the planet and accelerate key

missions such as making life

multi-planetary

my master plan was born i would join

tesla become elon musk’s personal

project manager and learn from somebody

creating a real world tangible

impact and

when we get to the best bud status pitch

eel on my startup and bob’s your uncle

i’m changing the world

i know what you’re thinking

genius right

the plan got off to a slow start

i rejected many times online but after a

little bit of luck and persistence i

joined tesla

fast forward two years 30 plus emails

sent to elon and his team many changes

of responsibility location and even

country

i’d met friends and mentors throughout

in many different teams and initiatives

and worked on some

amazing projects

like i mentioned before tesla had become

my university quite in a weird way

not through an apprenticeship or

internship but purely by finding a way

in putting myself forward and pushing to

learn as much as possible

i was exposed to nearly every aspect of

the company and have come away with so

many valuable lessons

but my master plan actually failed

pretty drastically

within two years i’d left tesla

that’s right i failed in my mission to

become elon musk’s project manager

although i was able to pitch my startup

to his team

that failed too

my master plan to make an impact wasn’t

successful and i certainly knew about it

as i came to this realization of how

much i was able to grow i actually

became a little uneasy

i believed and do still wholeheartedly

in the mission but actually found

something i was really passionate about

by accident

i’d come across the issues associated

with recycling when talking to a

colleague

and quickly fell in love with how much

change was needed in the sector

above all else along the way i was

exposed to the concept of changing

recycling which i so deeply aligned

myself with and allowed me to

fundamentally find my idea my why

now more than ever we can learn anything

from anywhere

i say this in reason obviously you can’t

become a doctor without the correct

qualification to become a doctor

we live in the age of generation zed

an age of internet free online courses

emails and social media

even though i haven’t been able to work

directly with elon yet

i’ve listened to every single interview

or video directly or indirectly relating

to him

i’ve learned a huge amount just from

this

we live in an age where that is possible

where if you have a desired mentor you

can simply load up youtube type in the

name and dive into the world

never before have we as a species have

this opportunity

so we now approach an era where the

concept of education is blown wide open

we now have the opportunity to evaluate

our most suitable avenue not necessarily

just those initially presented to us

for my example the typical education

path wasn’t for me

who knows if it will be in the future

i would encourage you to think not only

what are the options the options i’ve

i’ve been presented but ask the question

what do i really want

you see i found a passion whilst in the

pursuit of another i believed everything

would happen exactly the way i planned

that i would become

elon’s project manager and ascended best

bud status instantly

even though i failed and did not achieve

everything i wanted to right away i

arguably found something just as

valuable

the lessons and experience that helped

me find something i am passionate about

and one day i will work with elon i’m

simply on another path to get there

if i would have followed the typically

defined route of university or college

maybe that would never have happened

i’m confident that i now find myself in

a place to begin to work towards my

goals

along with that the belief that anything

is possible

as ralph waldo emerson said do not go

where the path may lead instead go where

there is no path and leave a trail

think about it

let’s use a theoretical guy named joe

200 years ago joe was expected to become

a milkman or blacksmith because there

was such high demand for the service

50 years ago joe could explore becoming

a switchboard operator or

an accountant as a social scope expanded

now joe can attend the university of

youtube and become a bitcoin day trader

simply because he has access to free

educational content and a coinbase

account

the simple point

now more than ever we have the freedom

and opportunity to follow our ideas and

concepts

the barriers to do this are at their

lowest point in history

the social expectation that joe at 35

years old should have accumulated a

certain amount of money or power is

becoming less and less applicable

many of the world’s leaders have

suggested that every individual’s

timeline represents exactly that

that is individual to them

in my story so far the one catalyst was

doing something

anything i encourage you to begin to

understand things you want to try and

pursue them

you’ll quickly learn if it’s what you

truly want

and in addition there’s the popular

theory six degrees of separation this

theory created by fridge’s current three

sorry fridges in 1929 suggests you are

always fewer than six connections away

from anyone on the planet

therefore you’re always only a chain a

friend to friend introductions away from

quite possibly connecting with your

desired person

anyone

using this theory your time or efforts

can never be truly wasted

by simply studying the pursuit of your

desired goals or outcomes could quite

possibly lead you to places or people

you would never have imagined

we sometimes feel socially pressured to

choose a path most commonly defined as

university

which can be a greatly beneficial path

if you’ve consciously decided that for

you it can lead to your goal

and if you don’t have a goal

maybe there are other avenues to pursue

to find one

is it possible that by enrolling in

university because it’s the best of a

few options we’re presented with becomes

negative

maybe we should change the question from

what of these five options do you choose

to

what do you really want

and if you don’t know being okay with

that and having the confidence to take

the time to find an interest and pursue

it

by trying new and exciting things you’ll

start taking one step closer to finding

out so

the next time you ask the question what

is your plan

i hope you can hold your head up high

and give the biggest most audacious and

impactful plan however you define impact

you can possibly imagine

by chasing it who knows where you’ll end

up

thank you