Elon Musk on what it means to work “super hard”

“Depending on how well you want to do—particularly if you’re starting a company—you need to work super hard. What does ‘super hard’ mean? Well, when my brother and I were starting our first company, instead of getting an apartment we just rented a small office and slept on the couch. We showered at the YMCA. And we had just one computer so the website was up during the day and I was coding at night—seven days a week, all the time.”

Elon recalls briefly having a girlfriend at the time who also had to sleep at the office if she wanted to be with him. And he frames the math of it as follows if you’re starting a company:

“If somebody else is working 50 hours a week and you’re working 100, you’ll get twice as much done in the course of the year as the other company.”

Full video: USC “Elon Musk USC Commencement Speech | USC Marshall School of Business Undergraduate Commencement 2014” (May 2014)

P.S. We’ve put together a YouTube playlist with every Elon Musk insight we’ve ever shared. You can watch it here: "Best startup advice from Elon Musk"