Mar 09, 2021

Maybe you're the expert

While working for a bank, Elon Musk discovered an opportunity to easily double their money by investing in South American debt because it was backed by the U.S. government. He eagerly shared the information with his boss expecting to be praised and make a big bonus.

His boss passed on the opportunity because they had been burned on debt in South America in the past. That experience left a heavy impression on him and later gave him confidence when working on PayPal. This is what he had to say about it:

Later in life, as I competed against the banks, I would think back to this moment, and it gave me confidence. All the bankers did was copy what everyone else did. If everyone else ran off a bloody cliff, they’d run right off a cliff with them. If there was a giant pile of gold sitting in the middle of the room and nobody was picking it up, they wouldn’t pick it up, either.

The moral of this story is that nobody, not even the so-called experts, knows what the fuck they are doing. If that’s the truth, then why shouldn’t you be the one to call the shots?