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