Vishen Lakhiani says the smartest people join companies with a compelling vision. SpaceX attracts top engineers because Elon Musk frames the work as making humanity interplanetary, not just building rockets. Lakhiani recommends creating a 10-year "humanity-plus" vision and telling it as if it's already happening.
Chapters
I read an interesting story. The article said that in a study of the top engineers in Silicon Valley, when they were asked, what company do you dream of joining? The number one and number two companies were SpaceX and Tesla, both by Elon Musk. And I wondered why. How is it that Elon Musk could create companies so attractive that the best engineers want to work for him? And the answer is really interesting. You see, Musk isn't just an entrepreneur. He's an entrepreneur who creates visions so exciting that they change the lives of everyone participating in the vision. SpaceX isn't the only rocket company out there. There are at least 19 other companies that are sending payloads to space. And if you think about what SpaceX does is it's basically a vertical trucking company. Trucks move horizontally on the planet. SpaceX takes goods and moves them vertically, up and down. Yet SpaceX is the company attracting all of this talent. Why? Because the other 18 or so rocket companies don't tell their story the way Elon Musk does. You see, I met Elon Musk once I got to visit SpaceX. This was maybe around 2015 or so. And I remember, I remember we asked Elon, what is your 10 year vision? And he said, look, this is bigger than just sending payloads to the International Space Station. And he flashed a picture of the planet Mars on his presentation and he said, I want mankind to colonize Mars and I believe we can do this in 10 years. And he said humbly, but I'm also known to get my timelines wrong. Now, it's now five years into that and Elon just launched a rocket in collaboration with NASA taking actual astronauts to the International Space Station. So he might actually do it. He might actually get to Mars. But notice how he speaks about his vision. All the other rocket companies are just rocket companies. Elon Musk's SpaceX is attempting to make mankind an interplanetary species. You see the great leaders, the great entrepreneurs, they don't speak of the world and what they do in terms of what is happening now. They speak of the world. They speak of what they do in terms of what they are intending to do 10 years out into the future. Study all the great CEOs, study all the great entrepreneurs. They speak in this way where people almost label them delusional. They speak 10 years in the future. But when you speak like that, what happens is that the smartest people are drawn to you. People who lack vision may condemn you and criticize you and say that you're lying or you're exaggerating but the smartest people are drawn to you. And then that 10 year vision starts racing towards you with the collective brain power of all of this talent. In chapter six of my book I talk about this idea. Choose your mission wisely. And what I say is that look, we don't all have to be trying to colonize a different planet. But whether you run a blog, or whether you're a writer, or whether you're a filmmaker, or whether you have your own company or you're working for another company, you should have a 10 year vision of where you want to be. Then you need to act, embrace, speak, tell your story as if that 10 year vision is already happening. But there's another nuance to it. That 10 year vision has to be humanity plus and not humanity minus. What I mean by this is that 10 year vision should be a vision that actually uplifts and benefits all of humanity. And when you can put both of those together, you become magnetic. Your projects attract talent, your services attract customers, and life becomes so much easier, you don't even need to sell. What happens is that the right people come to you because your vision gives them hope. I want to read you the opening sentence from this chapter. As you self actualize, you gain an edge in life. The next step is to use this edge to lift up others up and enhance the world. This is self transcendence. When you live from this plane, you will tap into a level of fulfillment beyond anything you can imagine. The goal is no longer just to refine yourself or sit in endless introspection. Rather it is to use your newfound abilities to make the world better for others. Multiple generations down. So what is your rocket ship? What is your vision and how can you use that to better humanity and attract all the right people into your life? If you find these ideas interesting, explore them in chapter six of the Buddha and the Badass. Choose your mission wisely and you can get the book from mindvalley.com Buddha Badass SA.
