Why You Should Ignore Elon Musk's Advice to Entrepreneurs

When asked for his number one piece of advice for young entrepreneurs Elon Musk recently replied, "It's like eating glass and staring into the abyss. If you are wired to do it, then only do it, not otherwise. …If you need inspiring words, DON'T DO IT!"

I roundly reject Musk's advice and if you are an aspiring entrepreneur, you should too. Here's why.

If I had taken Musk's advice some 25 years ago, I would not be a serial entrepreneur with one successful exit under my belt and making progress on an even better one right now. I was once a younger entrepreneur in my early twenties and questioning my own path and needed inspiring words. Without them I would never have gotten off the ground. And…I've needed them ever since. I make a regular habit of eating and drinking inspiring words. Inspiring words from others who have been on the path or are currently on the path are the lifeblood to vision, productivity, diligence, and downright consistency of purpose throughout the journey of excitement and terror that courses through the veins of any successful company's early lifespan (and it's founder).

The problem with Musk's statement (and perhaps Musk himself) is that he expects everyone else in the world to be like he is. To be fair, maybe for him his advice applies. In other words, to succeed, Musk himself might not need inspiring words. But Musk is a larger-than-life phenomenon and Musk's error is to believe that the only room in entrepreneurial success is to be like and become like him--to have success as BIG as he has and to achieve it the WAY he has. 

Now Elon, I'm disappointed in you. For all of your vision in other areas, that is a pretty small vision for entrepreneurs. I say, "Elon, open your eyes! Remember there are a millions of ways to succeed at being an entrepreneur and millions of ways to contribute to the growing snowball of iterative improvement in the world. Not everyone has to build the Hyperloop or the next electric sports car!"

Let's look at the farthest, most opposite end of the entrepreneurial spectrum from a Musk-like success. Have you ever read "Banker to the Poor" by Muhammad Yunus? If not, you need to. Yunus details how he (and the movement of micro-lending) changed the world for thousands of impoverished families in Bangladesh. This led to a modern revolution in micro-lending, micro-entrepreneurship and micro-franchising, arguably one of the only sustainable ways to lift communities out of poverty (i.e. without wrecking their fragile economic ecosystems in a misguided attempt at helping).

Do these people need encouragement? Of course! Do many succeed with that encouragement? Absolutely.

Take the example of Mavis Soko, a mother in Zambia, who, until she started her own business, couldn't afford to feed her own children. Now she runs a restaurant that enables her and her family to support themselves. Is that a huge success? Perhaps not in Musk's view, and no, her story won't get written up in the WSJ. But try telling Ms. Soko it's not a huge success.

Imagine telling Ms. Soko, "If you need encouragement, you shouldn't do it!" Ridiculous.

(In case you want a broader perspective on micro-lending there are detractors to micro-lending and micro-entrepreneurship, but I would argue that doesn't change the positive reality for the individuals it helps.)

Don't get me wrong, I admire Musk a great deal. He's one of today's Thomas Edison's and Henry Ford's and we will all benefit from his vision, tenacity, and audacity.

And I do agree with Musk that running a high-growth venture-backed startup IS like eating glass and staring into the abyss at times. My current venture-backed startup, Consensus, has been no cake walk, but our Buyer Enablement technology leveraging interactive demo automation is changing the way B2B sales are done for some of the largest companies in the world, and I've been through the ups and downs of a startup before, so I know what to expect. But to go from saying that running a startup is beyond difficult to concluding that if you need words of inspiration you shouldn't do it is just plain wrong.

There are so many levels of success and so much that needs to be invented, discovered, and accomplished that almost anyone with the grit not to give up can succeed as an entrepreneur. And, you might say, "Well, that's what Musk is saying." But...sometimes you need inspiring words to give you that grit. In fact, most of us need them. And I would bet that at some point in his life, Musk needed them (just a guess).

If I go back 25 years, I was a 23 year old, finishing up an English Lit degree at BYU in wondering how I was going to support my newly born daughter. On a whim I took a little known class called Entrepreneurship Lecture Series. Former alumni running their own businesses came and shared their experiences and inspiration. It was like drinking from an inspiration firehose. To this day, there are many quotes that ring in my mind like clarion calls to battle. Here's just one: "Too many men tiptoe through life trying to make it safely to death."

Week after week I drank up their "words of inspiration". To mix metaphors, it was like lighting the fuse on a powder keg. I was so inspired that I began starting businesses with wild abandon, knowing nothing. All of them failed and succeeded to one degree or another, but mostly just failed. I had no business background.

 "I need an MBA," I thought. "That's how you learn to do business. Get more schooling." (I was still in my "think like an academician" mode...don't follow this line of thinking necessarily, by the way.)

I was eager, but because of my "failures" was supremely unsure of myself. I went to the MBA school, approached the secretary behind the desk and, trying to act confident, asked in what I think ended up still coming out as a mousy voice, "Can you tell me how to apply for MBA school?" 

She considered my less than confident approach and her reply slapped me up the side of the head, "Well," she said, "here's the application, but we're really looking for dynamic, confident business-minded applicants. So you might want to reconsider and find something more in line with your personality." She had given me a ten second appraisal and found me lacking. She, apparently, was taking the Musk view of the business universe.

Here's the thing. She was right. They DID need dynamic, confident, business-minded applicants. But here's the other thing, I was one…I just didn't know it or act like it yet. In fact, I am so entrepreneurially minded as to consider it something of a disease at times. But…I'll say it again: I didn't know myself yet.

I admit, that secretary's comment discouraged me and made me second guess myself. But, the encouraging words from all of those alumni in the lecture series that were making a success of themselves in every imaginable discipline rang louder in my mind than her misguided counsel.

This eventually led me on a path to make entrepreneurship my full-time passion, founding two tech companies, founding a community music-based non-profit that performs for about 20,000 people every year, employing incredible people, winning over a dozen innovation awards, selling my first tech startup to a public company, raising more than $9M in venture capital to back my current endeavor, and driving creative solutions that have helped already great B2B sales and marketing teams shorten sales cycles and jump close rates.

I don't share this to toot my own horn. I share it to simply show you that what you think you are now may not be what you can become. Believe in yourself! If you hear the call, answer it!

Don't listen to Elon Musk. Don't let him put you in a box. Tell him to proverbially "Shove it!" and look to others that WILL encourage you. It's true, entrepreneurship isn't for everyone, but it might be for you and you won't know until you try. And if it takes inspiring words from others to get you to go after it, so be it! However you have to do it, that's the key. Your attempt might light your powder keg. And it's okay if it's not for you. But it's not okay not to try if you really want it. Facing the unknown and going after it and learning from the experience is why we're here!