Elon Musk On Professionalism

Professional, “someone who exhibits a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace” (Webster). This is the common definition for a person deemed fit for the title of professional, however, there is much more to this word than this simple definition. So, what it is true professional? In my opinion, there are five key traits that a person a must-have if they want to be a true professional. First and foremost, the person must be accountable. As a professional, you must take responsibility for your personal action, whether it be at your job, school, or even home.

When it comes to accountability, we often have a moment where no one is there to check and see if we will do the right thing and this moment is what separates a regular person from a professional. A professional will hold him or her accountable to a certain standard even though no one is watching. The next key trait of a professional is compassion, and when I say compassion I simply mean the ability to understand others’ feelings and the ability to have empathy.

To further explain a lot of today’s problems that stem throughout society come from a place that simply has an absence of compassion. We as people often can’t seem to try and place ourselves in someone else’s shoes and that puts us at a major disadvantage. When you as a professional can have compassion for others you open yourself up and gain the ability to understand and that is truly an invaluable skill when it comes to any situation.

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The third trait a professional must-have is the ability to communicate. Communication is a crucial trait because without the ability to effectively give and receive information the society we live in would crumble.

Communication not only involves the process of sharing knowledge and information but also helps people to develop relationships with others. The next trait a professional must-have is of self-discipline. Professionals that have a strong sense of self-discipline are always doing the things that need to be done when they need to be done even when they don’t want to do it. If you have no self-discipline it will without a doubt separate you from a professional and this trait applies to all portions of life. Finally, the last key trait is a two-in-one, and it is ambition and drives. To explain first a professional must want to aspire for more simply put and once they imagine the possibilities they must have the drive to reach the higher goals. Without ambition and drive almost everything we know and have wouldn’t be possible today because every invention or idea started from a place of ambition and from there someone had the drive to make and bring an object or idea into existence. Now I will show you how Elon musk is an exact representation of these values.

Before we dive into why Elon Musk is a true professional you need to learn a little back story about Elon. Elon Musk was born in Gauteng, South Africa on June 28, 1971. He was one of three children born to a Canadian model and South African engineer. At a young age Elon was proven to be ahead of his class. At the early age of twelve, he taught himself how to code a video game and then went on to sell the game for over 500$ This key moment would come to provide a blueprint for Elon’s business model later. At seventeen he moved to Canada; while there he attended Queen’s University and stayed with family. Also, while there he supported himself by doing odd jobs and heavy labor. This would also go on to affect his work policies’ in his future businesses.

After a few years, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 1997 with degrees in economics and physics. A substantial amount of time after college Elon would go on to invest and help start-up two distinct companies most notably SpaceX and Tesla. Through these companies, he made many advances in technology. The tesla company manufactured the first generation of optimal and affordable electric cars. SpaceX is also manufacturing the next generation of highly optimized rockets that can help advance space exploration. Now before he helped start-up these companies he started many others. When Elon was 24 he and his brother started a company called Zip2 this company would go on to be sold for over 305 million which he reaped a reported 22 million of. He would also go on to sale PayPal for a reported 1.5 billion which gained him even more money. Now to say that it has been all uphill from the start would be an extreme exaggeration, because well just like the rest of us he had his downfalls. For starters when PayPal first started, and it was known as x.com it seemed like it would not make it requiring Elon to pour his own personal finances into the company to help keep it afloat.

Years down the road, even after saving the company and it became what it is now he was fired from being CEO. In addition, he heavily invested heavily both in SpaceX and Tesla, which almost went bankrupt and had many catastrophic failures along the way. All these failures that would undoubtedly make anyone else stop Elon chose to not let them defeat him, and this is where we start to build the picture around Elon being a true professional. From the beginning Elon is accountable when his companies were on the verge of bankruptcy, he had two choices he could either depart while selling out his shares or he could take responsibility and use is own personal finances to help keep the company afloat. Elon knew these companies were crucial to next-generation technological advancements, so he poured almost all of his money and time into both companies, and not only did he save the companies he also saved people’s livelihoods.

He held himself accountable and choose to do the responsible thing. Now most businesses that invest in companies don’t care about how a job gets done as long as it gets done at a cost-effective price. However, this is where Elon Musk differs as a professional; most CEO‘s and owners of companies of never try to put them self’s in the shoes of their employees, Elon does the exact opposite. He wants to understand his employees and how they work. Multiple employees claim he is often right there on the production lines, making sure the working conditions for the employees are just and fit. To give an example here is an excerpt from an email he sent out to all of the employees when he noticed a higher injury rate at the time “No words can express how much I care about your safety and wellbeing. It breaks my heart when someone is injured building cars and trying their best to make Tesla successful. Going forward, I’ve asked that every injury be reported directly to me, without exception.

I’m meeting with the safety team every week and would like to meet every injured person as soon as they are well so that I can understand from them exactly what we need to do to make it better. I will then go down to the production line and perform the same task that they perform… Managers must always put their team’s safety above their own.” This right here should serve as a prime example of Elon being true professional showing compassion for his workers so that he can truly understand and build a strong relationship with them. Elon Musk isn’t just an understanding guy either he’s also setting a high standard for being a professional communicator. He constantly wants to gain more information and even give that information out as well. When he does exchange information he also does it with precision and efficiency. All the way from the bottom floor workers at his company to the higher-ups it is said he likes to communicate with all his employees and coworkers. Another side note Elon isn’t just a communicator in the workplace, if you follow his quite hilarious Twitter account, you can see he is also actively involved within his community and the world. He is a master communicator, able to effectively convey and take in information as a professional should.

Furthermore, Elon Musk has just about more ambition and drive than any other person in his field he wants to take the world to a new level of technological advancements, he wants to save and help conserve the world, He wants to revolutionize transportation for the next generation, he wants to advance us as a species and you can see it in everything he does. The projects that he invests in are often altruistic and come at a cost to himself and with these goals, he’s always striving to reach them pushing the limits of what was previously thought impossible. This is probably one of his strongest traits as a true professional because even through all the setbacks he had he still choose to push forward.

Finally, referring to what I said earlier true self-disciple shows at life’s toughest moments and that’s Elon’s story all summed up into one. Never has there been a perfect time in His life to do something never has he needed to go the extra lengths that he has. Elon could have been a multi-millionaire at the age of 26 and never work another job in his life. Right now, most big businesses are simply out there trying to achieve the biggest cash grab, while Elon is taking a risk trying to put the advances of technology and science first. He is creating jobs for people from all different fields, including engineers, scientists, computer scientists, etc. He is investing the money makes right back into his work so that it will benefit society. So once again Elon exemplifies a true professional not only in the workplace but in life as well.

Works Cited

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