This Method Helped Elon Musk Start SpaceX

Wanting to send mice to space was the original aspiration. Image courtesy of Bloomberg

Last year, SpaceX became the first privately-held company to launch the World’s first reusable rocket. Just 2 months ago, SpaceX blasted the World’s most powerful rocket into space and back. These are two remarkable milestones that even experts at NASA did not expect.

The first successful launch of a reusable SpaceX rocket — an iconic moment in both Musk’s career and for the progression of mankind. Photo courtesy of National Geographic.

The man behind SpaceX is none other than Elon Musk — a known serial entrepreneur, “real-life Iron Man” and arguably one of the most inspiring social entrepreneurs of our time.

Photoshopped or real? Consistently dubbed as the real-life Tony Stark, Elon has formed quite the friendship with the people behind the Iron Man franchise, including Robert Downey Jr himself. Photo courtesy of Trill Magazine.

There are many interpretations of how Elon became the genius he is today. People are eager to learn about what it takes to create the next big thing, and quite frankly, so am I.

It came as no surprise that I chose to pick up Vance’s bestselling biography on Musk’s life. This book, along with countless articles have given very similar recounts of the SpaceX CEO’s rags-to-riches journey. While all this is interesting, it would be more intriguing to learn about the ideation process that has led him to create ventures that are beyond his own existence.

Does he use the lean business canvas? Is he influenced by his obsession with biotech-themed video games? What about the rapid prototyping method?

Could the popular, intergalactic, save-the-world-type video games be the true source of Elon’s obsession with his wild endeavours? Photo courtesy of Google Images.

What Elon Learned In Canada

A little digging led me to an article on Musk that was written for the Queen’s University alumni website. Despite graduating with a dual degree in Physics and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, Elon actually spent his first two years of his undergraduate degree in Kingston, Ontario. The Queen’s Alumni Review had a similar recount of Elon’s life. However, I found an interesting insight about the tech tycoon that I haven’t heard before as he reflects on what he describes as his “formative years” at the Canadian school.

Young Elon posing with his roommate, in Victoria Hall at Queen’s University. Picture Courtesy of Reddit.

In his own words, Elon says:

“One particular thing that I learned at Queen’s — both from faculty and students — was how to work collaboratively with smart people and make use of the Socratic method to achieve commonality of purpose.”

Yes, Elon is being very nostalgic here and is probably promoting the university. But he also puts an emphasis on the Socratic method and actually accredits this technique to the formation of SpaceX. To paraphrase, he knew that cold-calling scientists is not the way to build a new space company, especially one that is pushing incredulous scientific boundaries (he also received many doubts from people he admired). Instead, Elon persuaded them with what he calls a “Socratic dialogue on a technical level”. The success of SpaceX is living proof that all his seemingly outrageous ideas are becoming realities.

What is the Socratic method?

According to the University of Chicago, the Socratic method was invented by a famous Greek philosopher called Socrates (470–399 BC). Today, this method is most widely used in law school lectures around the World.

In simple terms, the Socratic method is used to ask continual questions to seek purpose and truth. It helps an individual cultivate a “deep curiosity, fearless inquiry, and the unending passion to embrace a lifelong quest for understanding and self-improvement”. Sounds like Musk, doesn’t it?

Since there aren’t many resources online about the Socratic method, I went ahead and made a simple graphic to outline my interpretation of the technique. The cute Socrates graphic belongs to this website.

People like Elon have paved the path for a giant wave of daring entrepreneurs that are trying to change the World. While this is wonderful, the reality is that many ventures will end in failure. In fact, statistics show that one of the biggest reason why startups fail is due to the lack of market need. We’re obsessed with our cool new ideas, not with challenging and open-ended questions.

This is the fundamental difference between Elon and the average person. He uses the Socratic method to question everything, even if he may not be able to figure out the answer in his lifetime. He cares more about the need than the ideas he come up with, and that in turn sets his ideas up for greater successes.

How to be more like Elon

Whether you’re a law student, an executive, a teacher or a budding entrepreneur like myself, it is now possible to think like Elon Musk. Question everything, and pick challenges that you are passionate about. Don’t get obsessed with novel ideas, but rather with the problem.

Discussing open-ended questions with smart people will not only allow you to think out loud effectively but to also open doors to new perspectives, to better vision alignment, and to perhaps the discovery of amazing problem-centric ideas.

Thanks for reading!

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