On Power Page 10

  Just before the turn of the millennium, Musk would use his momentum to form another company, X.com, which would eventually become PayPal, later acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion. Musk has gone from gamble to gamble, using much of his profits from his previous successes to fund his next ventures. He formed SpaceX the same year eBay acquired PayPal. So far, it seems to be paying off. SpaceX makes headlines regularly, becoming the first private company to send commercial spacecraft up to the International Space Station.

  Achieving excellence in one field will often open up opportunities in other fields (and provide you with the power—that is, the dollars—to fund these subsequent opportunities). There are different ways to do this. I, personally, play safe bets, and it’s always worked for me. I have backup plans on top of backup plans, I never gamble, and I almost never volunteer my own personal funds if I can simply sell an idea instead. Musk is more of a thrill-seeker. He tends to put all his eggs in one basket when he launches a new project, and more often than not, his gambles pay off. You can go with either approach—the choice is yours. In the end, your results are what matter. You must be the judge, deciding for yourself which risks are reasonable to take and then bearing the responsibility for your decisions.

  Behold the birth of Tesla and the first electric sports car, released in 2008. At the time, this was a very high-risk gamble. But the thing about high risk is, of course, that the rewards are high. Tesla is now a trailblazer in energy-efficient automobiles with revenues of billions of dollars per year. In fact, Tesla’s power cannot be measured in just dollars, but also in its influence over older and much more established carmakers like BMW and Mercedes-Benz, who are now under pressure to produce energy-efficient and electric cars of their own in order to compete with Tesla.

  Musk has no illusions about the riskiness of his key moves in the past; he has said publicly, “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough,” and, referencing a SpaceX launch in 2012, “I feel very lucky.” What Musk cannot control are twists of fate. What he can control are the risks he is willing to take and the consequences he is willing to deal with if he fails. Failure is at the forefront of his mind, and if you are dealing with the real world in any way, you will have to deal with it. Musk may fail in the future. It seems that he is only getting started. But if you watch his TED Talk and pay attention to his public statements over the years, you will notice that he is transparent about the risks and the personal cost he is willing to shoulder.

  If you have the guts to put it all on the line, and if you are willing to fail over and over again, to risk losing everything you have, then perhaps the thrill-seeker strategy is for you. I, personally, like the slow and steady route, but hey, the choice is yours. We shall see how Musk’s ventures play out when the Hyperloop transportation system he unveiled plans for in 2013 finally comes to fruition. It might not be for another decade . . . or two. Patience: another quality to learn from Musk.

  DAVE GROHL

  THE ROCK STAR

  NOT ALL ROCK STARS ARE DUMB!

  (JUST MOST OF ’EM)

  I honestly believe that if you’re focused and passionate and driven, you can achieve anything you want to achieve in life. I honestly believe that. Because you’ll fucking figure it out . . . I never took lessons to play . . . I just figured it out . . . But I would listen and practice by myself in my bedroom obsessively. And so throughout life I’ve always kind of figured that that’s just how you do stuff.

  —Dave Grohl

  Lest you think I’m the only self-motivated rock guy out there who has made it, but who continues to treat each day as if it’s the only chance in life he’ll get, let me introduce you to someone who shares my attitude: Dave Grohl. Grohl is a writer, musician, and producer. He was the drummer in Nirvana and now leads his own band, Foo Fighters. We’ve met and spoken briefly a number of times, but mostly, I have observed him from afar. In the world of self-destructive, drug-infested rock stardom, he seems to be the exception to the rule. More so than many of his contemporaries (and mine, for that matter), his work ethic makes him stand out.

  So many of my fellow musicians are, pardon the expression, bums. They are merely lucky that their music took off, because without it, they would have no recourse in the real world and would likely still be in their parents’ basements. I’ve seen people ascend to the status of international icon, only to blow every last cent on trivialities and break up their bands over relationships, drugs, and ego.

  If KISS had not taken off, I might still be a teacher in New York City, and proud of it. Or I might be doing something different. My point is I would be doing something, and I would be doing it successfully. I would have found a way, because that’s what I’ve always done. I’ve always had a plan B and a plan C, because I know that life is not fair, and when reality takes everything away from you, you must be ready to start all over again.

  This is the mentality that Dave Grohl shares. When Grohl was a kid, he was restless and aimless, a high school dropout. He was, it seems, aware of these shortcomings. But he loved music, loved it with a passion, and he found that he could pour all his energy into music and never get sick of it. There is something to be learned here, and it is something Grohl has said that can apply to any vocation: “You will only be great at things you love to do.”

  This is key to power. When we look at people who have achieved excellence in a certain field, these are not people who chose their field haphazardly or due to peer pressure. Whatever industry these people are in, they’re doing it because they loved it. They also practiced and worked at what they do. All day long. They did not take breaks. They did not take vacations.

  They did not get tired of it. Because when you love what you do, you won’t tire of it. You will get more done, and you will do it better and faster. If Grohl had pursued marine biology instead of music, most likely he would not have achieved greatness, because he wouldn’t have loved what he was doing. It would have felt like work, he would have wanted to take breaks, and vacations and breaks are a waste of time. Passionate work stimulates the mind like a car engine recharges its battery—by running, not by resting. The actress Helen Hayes said it best: “If you rest, you rust.” Find something you never have to take a break from, and you will find your path to power.

  And in the meantime, there is no shame in taking a day job. But your time off from your day job should not be spent sitting around and watching TV. Your free time should be spent pursuing your passion, the job you actually want to be doing. “I was in the same fucking position you are in twenty fucking years ago. That was it. I worked at a fucking furniture warehouse and I wanted people to like my music, so I played out as much as I could. If you’re passionate and driven and focused at what you do, and if you’re really fucking good at it, people are gonna take notice,” says Grohl.

  From the time he was seventeen, Grohl was in and out of bands. He followed his favorites and befriended them, including the Melvins, who eventually introduced him to Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic. Again, here is that lesson I’ve talked about over and over again: hang out with people who are doing what you want to be doing. Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future. Grohl knew that the Melvins were doing what he wanted to be doing, so he found a way in and made friends. Whether he did this consciously, as a strategy of professional networking, his nose pointed always toward what he loved doing and toward those who were doing what he loved doing. This led him directly into the company of what would eventually become one of the biggest bands of their era: Nirvana.

  Then came the true test of Grohl’s work ethic. What happens after you achieve success and it is torn from you? Life happens. Even if you follow the advice in this book to the letter and achieve success, life happens and bad things happen, because the world is not fair. Grohl was riding a cresting wave of success before Cobain died. In the aftermath of Cobain’s suicide, Grohl found himself without a best friend and without direction. Among the trauma and the
devastation, he was also suddenly without a band, a free agent. I think it is safe to say that the normal response to this would be early retirement—he had achieved something very few attain, after all, and now it was over. What were the odds he could do it again without his front man?

  But as we know, this is not the end of Grohl’s story, because Grohl loves music, he loves playing and recording and working at it every single day. He is the type who cannot sit still for even a moment without picking up an instrument, without doing. He could have relaxed after Nirvana, luxuriated on a secure legacy as a member of a band that changed the face of music. But he decided to do the hardest thing in the world when you’ve reached the pinnacle of success:

  Start over.

  Do it again.

  Make a name for yourself again—a brand-new name.

  As Grohl put it, in a 2016 interview with the web series Off Camera with Sam Jones:

  When Kurt died, I woke up the next day and thought, “I’m lucky to be alive.” So much that still, to this day, I feel that every morning when I wake up, because it’s so strange to think that person was just here and now they’re gone. And I’m still here? And maybe tomorrow I could be gone as well? It was a profound revelation I had the day after he died and it changed everything. It honestly changed so much of my life that I felt the most important thing was just appreciating being alive, good day or bad day. But after Kurt died, I really felt that way, like, “Okay, I’m gonna try this. What do I have to lose? I’m gonna start this band and then I’m gonna be the singer.”

  Something my mother always said to me as a child: “Every day above ground is a good day.” Notice a pattern here?

  For the first Foo Fighters album, not only did Grohl front the band and sing—he played every instrument on the record. Drums, bass, guitar. Everything. Musicians get a lot of flak for being lazy bums. And most of us are. But not this one. Whether he is willing to admit it, Grohl is an entrepreneur. Grohl gets up and works every day, and makes things happen, with his bare hands if he must. By a few different counts—live ticket sales, record sales—Foo Fighters is now an even bigger band than Nirvana ever was, and longer running. They have eight albums behind them, with thirty million records sold worldwide and counting, and a documentary series called Sonic Highways on HBO, in which a song is written for each episode, inspired by the city they are in (the show became the genesis of an ambitious concept album). The list goes on, and this impressive scorecard can be laid directly at the feet of good old-fashioned labor of love.

  Whether your industry is making shoes, data crunching, running a restaurant, or anything else, there is much to be gleaned from Grohl’s work ethic and strategy. He even toured the world with his band with a broken leg, bound to a chair he had constructed out of recycled guitar necks, like some rock-opera Game of Thrones. The actual accident occurred during a concert in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2015, when Grohl fell off the stage. He announced over the mic that drummer Taylor Hawkins would lead the band and cover some of the songs while he was rushed to the hospital. But before he was carted off in an ambulance, he promised the audience that he would be back to finish the show. Hawkins carried on, and Grohl returned an hour later and proceed to play a further two-hour set, perched on a chair with a fresh cast on his leg.

  This is yet another situation in which it would have been totally understandable to just take some time off, to rest, to rust, like any normal person would, like the doctor probably ordered. But not Grohl. This story is a microcosm for Grohl’s life and work ethic. He is someone who seems incapable of sitting still, of stopping, of giving up. What kind of person doesn’t take time off, even for injury and hospitalization? The kind who loves what he does. The kind whose vacation is his work. The kind who succeeds. The kind who seizes power and lives by his own terms. This is what separates the powerful from the rest, in any field. Never take vacations. Never take breaks. Unless I am absolutely bedridden, I work every day. Life is work, and if your work is something you love, it will never feel like work.

  One more lesson from Grohl, a quote from a 2014 interview he gave to the Guardian, which needs very little explanation from me: “You don’t need a needle hanging out of your arm to be a rock star.”

  Amen to that.

  MICHAEL JORDAN

  THE LEGEND

  I’ve missed over nine thousand shots in my career. I’ve lost almost three hundred games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot . . . and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

  —Michael Jordan

  Michael Jordan’s name is synonymous with basketball, winning, and shoes. He’s a five-time NBA MVP with six NBA championships, who has earned more than $93 million over the course of his basketball career. But all of that pales in comparison to the entrepreneurial titan and businessman extraordinaire that he has become since retiring from the NBA. In 2014, Forbes estimated that Michael Jordan takes in more than $100 million a year from Nike and other partners.

  Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born in 1963 in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were working class, and soon after his birth, they moved their family of six to Wilmington, North Carolina. At a young age, Michael was said to have been massively competitive, not just with others but also with himself. This competitive drive would push him to outperform all others on the basketball court. Despite this, in 1978 as a high school sophomore, he tried out for his school’s varsity basketball team, and he failed. Standing at only five foot ten at the time, Jordan was not a standout on the court. He was one of fifty students who attempted to make the fifteen-member roster. Once the team list was posted on the wall of the gym, Jordan searched for his name that wasn’t there. He then went home, locked himself in his bedroom, and cried.

  Many people at this point would have given up. You’ve been rejected—it’s over. But the decision you make when you arrive at that fork in the road determines your fate and your future.

  “Whenever I was working out and got tired and figured I ought to stop, I’d close my eyes and see that list in the locker room without my name on it,” Jordan has said. He turned the disappointment of not making the varsity team into fuel, and he lit a fire that would last a lifetime. He committed to training and to getting better. And though he didn’t make the varsity team, he would go on to earn a spot on the JV squad. His performance that season, I imagine, was one that the varsity coach would not soon forget. Jordan scored multiple forty-point games on JV. He grew four inches and he easily made the varsity team his junior year, going on to become their leading scorer, averaging more than twenty points per game.

  Despite becoming a starting varsity player, Jordan’s work ethic only increased in intensity. He was constantly in the gym lifting weights and running drills. Countless hours led to his standout senior year, where Jordan would average a triple-double (that’s an average of double figures in at least three categories—in Jordan’s case points, assists, and rebounds—which I’m told is a big deal). He was an All-American and a top recruit at nearly all the major college basketball programs. Eventually signing to play for the University of North Carolina, Jordan would thrive in the college setting and lead his team to the NCAA championship game, scoring the buzzer-beating game-winner. Jordan then left UNC after his junior season to enter his name into the NBA Draft.

  In this new arena, Jordan would be undervalued yet again. He was passed on by the Houston Rockets and the Portland Trailblazers, at the first and second pick, ending up on the Chicago Bulls at the third overall spot in the 1984 NBA Draft. Interesting to note that Jordan made the time in his busy NBA schedule to return to North Carolina and finish his degree in geography. The rest, if you have a sports inclination, is a matter of celebrated record: six NBA championships, six-time NBA Finals MVP, five-time NBA MVP, fourteen NBA All-Star teams, three-time NBA All-Star MVP, ten All-NBA First Team honors, 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, ten-time NBA Scoring Champion, three-time NBA Steals Leader, two-time NBA Slam
Dunk Contest champion, and three-time Associated Press Athlete of the Year, along with a litany of other awards too numerous to list.

  Jordan spent the end of his playing career learning the ins and outs of basketball operations. He worked with the front office before and during his tenure on the court with the Washington Wizards and in 2006 purchased a stake in the newly established Charlotte Bobcats (now the Charlotte Hornets). Soon after, Jordan took his love for the game of basketball and applied it to the basketball operations off the court. Jordan had been a rich man before, but once he purchased an even larger stake in the team in 2010 and the Charlotte Bobcats were reevaluated financially, he reached billionaire status. Jordan found something he loves and refuses to quit it, even after his on-court experience was over.

  The other half of Jordan’s business is shoes. Following his college career, Jordan signed a contract with sports agent David Falk. The first order of business was a shoe contract like all the other top-tier players of the time had. What Falk and Jordan didn’t know was that Nike already had its sights set on making Jordan the new face of Nike basketball. When the Air Jordan brand launched, it was projected to make $3 million in its first year of sales alone, but instead it ended up making $130 million for Nike, proving to be the most successful sports endorsement relationship in history. This relationship would continue into the 1990s, creating a buzz for the prized shoes. The more limited the quantities, the higher the demand, resulting in camped-out customers outside shoe stores and occasional riots—all due to the brand of Jordan himself, the image he cultivated with his success and his work ethic. His name became synonymous with greatness. The Nike Jordan brand commanded $2.6 billion in shoes alone, and another $1 billion in apparel and international business, per a 2015 Forbes report.