# Elon Musk's How To Run A Business By Savraj Singh · 2021-08-22 · https://www.savraj.co/2021/08/22/elon-musk's-how-to-run-a-business.html In a recent interview with EverydayAstronaut, Elon Musk revealed his 5-step plan for getting things done. It resonated with me, and I imagine it resonates with many of us in tech. The five points are... ##### 1. Make your requirements less 'dumb' The requirement list for a particular project should be thoroughly scrutinized. One of the gems in the talk was the following quote: > _"Your requirements are definitely dumb. It doesn't matter who gave them to you. It's particularly dangerous if a smart person gave you the requirements because you might not question them enough... Everyone's wrong, no matter who you are, everyone's wrong some of the time."_ A great way to do this is review the project requirements and ask "why" for each one, and then ask, "but really, do we need that?!" ##### 2. Try hard to just delete the part or process. Now that your requirements have been cut down, can you just delete the whole thing? > _"If you are not occasionally adding things back in at least 10% of the time, you are not deleting enough."_ There's a tendency for people to always add extra stuff. It's always easy to add things, but it's hard to be selective and choose what actually matters. Less is more. ##### 3. Simplify and optimize. So the third step -- not the first or second -- is simplify or optimize. The reason it's the third step, according to Elon, again with a gem of a quote that I can totally relate to: > _"The most common error of a smart engineer is to optimize a thing that should not exist."_ ##### 4. Accelerate cycle time. Now it's time to speed up the process. Self-explanatory. ##### 5. Automate. Finally, the last step is automation. Write code to make it happen, take humans out of the loop, etc. Elon follows up the list with an honest admission -- "I've gone backwards on this list, several times" and he shares a couple great stories of how he's gone backwards -- automating, accelerating, simplifying, and only later realizing that this $2m robot is installing a part that is not actually necessary for the final product. Great stuff we can all learn from, thanks Elon!