“Want a billion dollars”?
Determination isn’t enough.
Dive into Justine Musk’s unfiltered insights on joining the billionaire club, drawing from her front-row seat to Elon Musk’s meteoric rise.
Justine Musk, first wife of billionaire Elon Musk, knows a thing or two about wealth and hard work — her ex-husband is a founder of PayPal, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and has an estimated net worth of $250.3 billion.
She posted a response to a Quora thread asking the question, “Will I become a billionaire if I am determined to be one and put in all the necessary work required?”
Her answer is “no,” though she says the Quora reader is asking the wrong question.
“You’re determined. So what?
You haven’t been racing naked through shark-infested waters yet,” she writes. “Will you be just as determined when you wash up on some deserted island, disoriented and bloody and ragged and beaten and staring into the horizon with no sign of rescue?”
She then offers advice: “Shift your focus away from what you want (a billion dollars) and get deeply, intensely curious about what the world wants and needs. Ask yourself what you have the potential to offer that is so unique, compelling, and helpful that no computer could replace you, no one could outsource you; no one could steal your product and make it better, and then club you into oblivion (not literally). Then, develop that potential.
Choose one thing and become a master of it.
