This advice from Elon Musk is a must-watch video for every startup founder

Headlines are filled with many startup success stories. But, what most people don’t realize is that nine out of every 10 startups will fail. You may be wondering, why would anyone start a business if they only have a 10% chance of succeeding? The answer lies in the nature and mindset of successful startup founders. History has shown us that most successful entrepreneurs are risk takers who are not afraid of failure.

Consider Elon Musk, for example, after he and his co-founder sold PayPal to eBay, the first idea that came to his mind was to get into rocketry or space rocket even though he had never built any physical product before then. In a fireside chat with with Sarah Lacy of PandoDaily, Musk said he expected nothing but a failure. Below is an excerpt from the interview.

“When I started SpaceX I thought that the most likely outcome was failure. And I think to have any other expectation would have been irrational.”

Musk added, “Yes, I don’t have a fear of failure. I’m not going to fail to do something just because I fear that I wouldn’t win. Particularly if it’s something that I think is really important to the future. When I started SpaceX and Tesla . . . I would have given the odds of success at less than 50 percent. Significantly less, probably. But even though the probability of success was low, it was still worth doing.”

Elon Musk thinks people often are just irrational about fears. He went to talk about his investment in Tesla and what the naysayers were saying at the time.

“Even when I invested the last money that I had to keep Tesla alive and had to borrow money from friends just to pay rent . . . there were all sorts of blogs keeping a Tesla deathwatch. It was terrible. It was just constantly beating the heck out of me. It was quite awful.”

Yes, the startup journey is the proverbial roller-coaster ride and it’s much more than just having a great idea that can be built into a successful product overnight. Launching a successful startup is also more than having the three-legged tool–people (right team), process, technology. It also requires resilience and learning from successful founders like Elon Musk.

Below is a must-watch video from Elon Musk where he talked about ten rules to success.
1. Work Like Hell
2. Have a High Pain Threshold
3. Critical Think
4. Add Value to Society
5. Take Risks
6. Have a Great Product / Service
7. Attract Great People
8. Constantly Seek Criticism
9. Don’t Follow the Trend
10. Overcome Critics

Enjoy the video