Elon Musk's fourth productivity rule is being willing to contradict yourself when new information arrives. The hosts use their experience with the book Profit First as an example: they initially thought profit should be a year-end consideration, then realized that was wrong and changed their minds. Changing course when you learn something new drives growth.
5. Don't be afraid to contradict yourself. Musk isn't afraid to walk back a decision.
All right. So yeah, don't be afraid to contradict yourself. Now, yeah, of course, contradict yourself, but with tact, meaning when you have a new revelation, it's okay to say, I've had a new revelation and what I believed to be true in the past was wrong. That's how profit first came about. When I wrote profit first, I said, I believe that profit should be the bottom line in the year end. It should be the last consideration. But didn't work for me, I had a revelation that was wrong. And maybe I'll, I'm sure I will have more revelations of things I'm doing now. And actually I just recently had one that maybe aren't right, or at least not optimal. And I have to contradict what I've said in the past. That's perhaps the biggest argument or value right there is when something we commit to is not working, to have the courage to say, oops, that was wrong.
