Justine Musk is the first wife and mother of six of Elon Musk’s 11 children. He shared a life with Musk even before he became a millionaire after the sale of Zip2.
This perspective of Elon Musk, before and after being a millionaire, has allowed the now writer and speaker to discover one of the secrets of success of the richest person in the world: saying no.
During a TEDx talk in 2014, Justine Musk highlighted Elon Musk’s ambition and ability to focus, but also a talent that not everyone possesses such as saying no.
Saying no is saying yes
As Justine Musk explained, a good part of her ex-husband’s success lay in saying no to many things that were going to consume his time, to say yes to others that were going to lead him to success. “He said no to people who wanted his time, attention and energy. He said no in a way that protected his resources so he could channel them toward his own goals. And I understood that behind every no there is a deeper ‘yes’ to what what you want,” Justine said in her talk. “Your deep yes is your right to dream,” the writer concluded.
The author of six books pointed out that this ability to say no is a talent that is acquired at a young age and her children also began to develop it. As Justine Musk said in her TED talk, her children were already exercising their power by refusing to do certain things, thus reaffirming their individuality and the talent of wanting to be masters of their own schedule.
However, Justine herself recognized that she herself had lost that ability to say no to others between the ages of eight and thirteen. The writer highlighted that this ability to know how to say no to other people not only denotes power to confront negative reactions from those who ask to take your time, it also reveals precision in the management of one’s own time and intention.
Warren Buffett has his calendar full of noes
Elon Musk is not the only one who values his time above anything else and therefore preserves it from any interference. Warren Buffett is also very careful with the use of his time and has the ability to keep his calendar with large gaps available.
This was revealed by his good friend Bill Gates during an intervention on the Charlie Ross program in which both millionaires talked about the subject. Bill Gates pointed out how careful Warren Buffett is with his time. “The fact that you are so careful with time, you have days when there is nothing on (your agenda)…sitting and thinking can be a much higher priority. It is no indicator of your seriousness that you have busy every minute of your schedule.
Greg McKeown, in his book ‘Essentialism’, highlights a curious paradox about productivity, stating that true productivity is not about doing more, but about doing less. Saying no to other people prevents you from loading your to-do list with tasks unrelated to your goals, so they should be eliminated at all costs. At first, saying no may take an internal effort, but in the long run, that turns into more time to dedicate to what really interests you.
In WorldOfSoftware | Being kind at work is positive, as long as doing so does not affect productivity: the benefits of saying ‘No’
Imagen | Flickr (NASA HQ PHOTO), TEDx Talks
