I’ve been head down, tail up in founder podcasts lately.
Not for motivation, but to understand what’s important to them and how they make decisions.
In one episode on Elon Musk, I came across a few ideas that I thought you’d find interesting.
Whilst our crowd are probably happy with jobs here on Earth (for a while at least), we can learn a thing or two from those heading to Mars!
To say Elon is in a league of his own is an understatement!
And these 3 principles of his make a lot of sense.
1. Question every requirement
Elon is obsessive about cost reduction.
In the podcast there’s a story about a component (an electro-mechanical actuator ????) the vendor was changing $120,000 for. Elon said it was no more complicated than a garage door opener and had his engineer re-design it for $3,900.
With so much opportunity to develop smart tools with AI now we need to watch the add ons by the middlemen as we’re still learning.
For e.g., lead gen companies are using simple AI and tech tools to create higher level email sequences and then loading costs onto products that you could do yourself with the same tools for not much effort.
These businesses are increasing across areas of our businesses, so do your homework and see what’s worth paying for and what makes more sense for you to handle internally.
2. Subtraction
Elon constantly asks what can be removed before anything new is added?
His algorithm is Question → Delete → Simplify → Speed up → Automate
And what I see is that recruitment founders usually do the reverse. We’re always looking for more services, processes to add, more tools, and then quietly the business gets heavier and unnecessarily complex.
A business with just a few people shouldn’t be complex.
Ask yourself questions like:
- What steps can be taken out of the recruitment process to make it more efficient?
- What meetings can I delete?
- What internal processes are redundant, and where are people wasting time?
- What tools am I doubling up on?
- What are my best BD strategies? Ditch the rest.
- What clients are wasting my time and costing me money?
Take a look at what feels like it’s weighing you down right now and do yourself a favor and lighten the load.
These will no doubt help you identify redundancy and streamline your business creating a faster path to placement.
3. A Maniacal Sense of Urgency
Elon’s idea here is shorten the time between idea and action.
After SpaceX’s third Falcon 1 launch failed in 2008, Elon gave his team just six weeks to rebuild and launch again, vs. the 12-17 months prior launches took.
The team panicked: “Impossible!” they said, but Elon insisted it was possible. They flew a damaged rocket to Kwajalein Atoll, fixed it under coconut crabs on the tarmac in 5 days, and nailed the historic first private orbital success.
I see this all the time with founders…
Great ideas parked in indecision.
Momentum lost to overthinking.
Get those ideas into action and keep your competition at bay.
???????????? Here’s the full episode in case you’re keen to listen.
As always, I’m in your corner and rooting for things to feel simpler, not heavier as you grow.
BK
P.S. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to our latest episode of The Tech Savvy Recruiter with Tim Sackett. You can listen here.
