Episode 144: The Bottom Line - What I Would Ask Elon Musk

So the big question is this: how do small business owners like us grow our leadership, develop our teams, and scale our business in a way that allows us to get our products and services out to the world yet still remain profitable? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. I'm Bradley Hamner, and this is the Club Capital Leadership Podcast. Welcome to The Bottom Line, a new weekly podcast series that we drop every Thursday to complement our weekly Monday podcast interviews with the industry leaders.

These podcasts are going to be designed to give you short, impactful, and value-driven information that you can start using right away in your business. I value your time and attention and will do my very best not to waste it. Just get what you need and go. So with that, let's get into today's episode.

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Hey everyone, so one of the podcasts that I listened to recently, maybe about a month ago or so, got to actually have Elon Musk on their podcast. And it's not the Joe Rogan one, it's, it's a different one. And it was pretty fascinating. It got me to think, what would I ask Elon Musk if I was able to have him on the Club Capital Leadership Podcast, and the obvious things come to mind about, you know, his life out in the universe and what about Tesla and all those kind of things. But it did get me to think about what would I ask him around business, and it brought me back to a conversation one of my early mentors had shared with me, and I thought I would share it with all of you. And because you may be thinking, what would you actually ask Elon Musk if you had an hour of his time and you could just focus specifically on business, not about, you know, going to Mars and, and other things and rocket ships, etc.? While I live in the Rocket City, I'm sure a lot of people would love for me to be able to ask him that. So for me, I realized that with him being a billionaire and me obviously not, that there would be questions that I would not even know what to ask. In fact, anything that I would try to think to ask him would likely fall woefully short on what it is that I actually need to ask. I've heard it said often, the person who is asking the questions is in control. So simply put, the question that I would ask Elon Musk is this: What questions should I be asking you? In my position in business, what are the things that you see that I don't even see, that I have no comprehension to be able to see? So instead of me coming with my list of how do you build culture, how do you hire great people, how did you take your vision and build a plan around it and all of those kind of things, right? And of course, he made his money originally from one company and then parlayed that. I mean, again, I'm not going to go into detailing Elon Musk's life, but I think that there's a realization is that I don't even know what to ask him. So maybe say, okay, well, that makes sense, but how does that apply to me and my business and along my journey? Some of you may actually have connections, whether it's in your town or maybe through your church, somebody who is incredibly wealthy, maybe even a billionaire. I don't, I don't, I'm not, I don't know anybody that is that wealthy, but I'm sure some of you know people that have been successful in business that are worth $10 million, $50 million, $100 million, $500 million. Maybe it doesn't even have to be that far. Maybe it's just someone who you are close to, maybe your small group at church or somebody at your church or a friend of a friend or a family member. Maybe the question to ask them is to take them to lunch if you have the ability to do that, take them to go have coffee, or maybe just pick up the phone and ask them, what do you see that I don't see? What questions should I be asking you? That I don't even know what to ask. Uh, you are so many steps ahead of where I am. If you could go back to where I am today, what are the things that you would tell me? What are the things I should be asking you that I just don't know? Because I think we just end up having this, this massive blind spot. There are things that I wish I could go back to my 10-year-ago self and say, hey, here are the things to watch out for. Not so much the things to where, here's how you're going to hit a home run, but here are the pitfalls, here's the, the gutter, so to speak. Stay out, stay away from this, it'll save you so much time. And a lot of times in business, I think you've heard me say this before, is that it's not so much about hitting home runs as it is about not striking out. If we can avoid making, paying a dumb stupid tax, if we can avoid losses, a lot of times that is actually more powerful than trying to go and hit the grand slam and trying to hit the big home run when the reality is all we need to do is just not strike out, bunt, advance the runner, and do that over a long period of time. Do the boring work, repeat successful actions. But really and truly, if it's not Elon Musk, that's kind of an extreme example. But if it's somebody along the way that you really do respect, and you have the opportunity to get to, um, you have the opportunity to get to befriend them, and you have the opportunity to get to spend some time with them. Maybe the question is to say, you know what, I don't even know what to ask. I can't even see the things that you see. Can you help me to know what things I should be asking you about? What are some of the mistakes that you avoided along the way that I may not even be aware of? That maybe I can learn through your experience so that I don't repeat those same mistakes. Anyway, just a thought that I had. It was a conversation I had with another friend after listening to Ilan on this other, uh, podcast, and I thought, what would I actually ask him? And I came up with a list of questions, and I felt, you know what, I think this goes back to what my mentor said. I don't even know what to ask, and so therefore maybe that is the question. What should I ask you? What do you know that I don't know? Anyway, I hope this served you, uh, today. And, uh, hopefully it was good return on your time and your attention. Until next week or until next episode, lead well.

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