5 tips for success from Elon Musk

Elon Musk can be described in many ways – tech visionary, eccentric billionaire, astute businessman and ‘memelord’ are only some of the words that come to mind when one speaks of the world’s richest man. Born in 1971, the son of an engineer father and a Canadian-born model mother, Musk left South Africa in his late teens to attend Queen's University in Ontario. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school, Musk started Zip2, a company he later sold to Compaq to make his first million before the age of 30.

The meteoric rise of his electric car company Tesla later made Elon Musk the richest man in the world – he currently has a net worth of $214 billion. Given his long list of achievements – revolutionizing the car industry and sending his own rocket to space, among others -- Musk has often been asked for tips for success. During an episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast last year, the Tesla and SpaceX chief was asked what advice he would give to high school and college students.

Elon Musk shared five tips. Here is what he said:

1. Be useful. The first thing that all young people should do, according to Musk, is aspire to be useful. "Do things that are useful to your fellow human beings, to the world," the billionaire told Fridman according to Business Insider. "It's hard to be useful — very hard."

2. Contribute to society. "Try to be useful ... It's very hard to be useful, very hard. Are you contributing more than you consume? Try to have a positive net contribution to society,” said Musk, adding that he had a lot of respect for people who put in an honest day’s work.

3. Don’t try to be a leader for the sake of it. Some people are born leaders and others are not. According to Musk, one should find a role that fits them instead of trying to be a leader for the sake of it. "A lot of the time, the people you want as leaders are the people who don't want to be leaders," he told Fridman.

4. Read books. An oft-repeated advice from business leaders and high-achievers: read more. "I would encourage people to read a lot of books," he said. "Try to ingest as much information as you can, and try to also develop a good general knowledge so you at least have a rough lay of the land of the knowledge landscape."

5. Talk to people. For Musk, it is important to gather as much knowledge as possible by talking to people from different walks of life. "Talk to people from different walks of life and different industries and professions and skills… Learn as much as possible,” he said.