3 lessons we can learn from the terrible intervention of Elon Musk in the rescue of Thai caves

July 27, 2018

8 min reading

The opinions expressed by the collaborators of Entrepreneur are personal.

I am a great admirer of Elon Musk and his commercial tactics. Unless you have been completely disconnected from the news (which is totally understandable nowadays), you have probably heard about the Thai youth soccer team that disappeared into a cave and made efforts deployed to save them. Coach of a cave

To recap the debacle, the football team disappeared on June 23 and history gained much strength in the following weeks. In early July, Elon Musk received messages on Twitter to help search for missing children. Musk, who has no doubt gained a reputation as a problem solver and "prince charming" over the years, has agreed to send his engineers to SpaceX and Boring Co. ] After badessing the situation, Musk announced that his team was working on a mini-submarine called "Escape Pod Submarine" to help rescue the divers. However, the submarine was ineffective when navigating the caves, which generated many criticisms across the web, and many accused Musk of using this highly public situation as an inexpensive way to gain ( more) exhibition. an egomaniac that had to fit in every great story.

So, what can entrepreneurs learn from this fiasco?

1. Fill in your proven specialties

There is a clbadic saying: "Who is it? Be a little bit of everything does not always know much"

In an attempt to help the situation, Musk sent his SpaceX engineers and Boring Co., who are experts in rocket science and infrastructure, respectively. They are highly qualified engineers, but they are not experts in underground exploration, which explains the failure of the project and the criticisms received.

Successful entrepreneurs naturally want to conquer new areas of business. Unfortunately, this way of thinking has led to countless commercial failures. As tempting as expanding your operations, never dive too much into uncharted waters.

For example, from my own experience, E2M offered a series of services, but earlier this year we decided to step back and focus on being better I found that It is best to have an outstanding reputation in a few areas, rather than being mediocre in many.

Now, the case of Elon Musk in this story is clear proof that no matter how much you are recognized in a certain fields, getting too far away from your comfort zone can have a number unfortunate repercussions. While experimentation is important for business growth, never lose sight of the specialties that made you successful. In some cases, your failures today may overshadow your strengths yesterday.

2. Choose Your Battles

We are all connected all the time and everyone has an opinion that can be heard anywhere in the world. The news can spread like wildfire in seconds. If you have a familiar name like Elon Musk, every word in your tweets and public statements is examined by the mbades under the microscope.

In what was perhaps the biggest loophole in Musk's approach in this whole situation, he launched a tweet that ended with some offensive words for a key figure in the ### 39, rescue effort. British spelunker Vern Unsworth, who co-directed the operation and played a decisive role in safeguarding the football team, gave an interview criticizing Musk's efforts. Essentially, he called all the participation as a publicity stunt and Musk had no problem answering it. Musk, who was not really enthusiastic about the reaction he was getting, sent a tweet that ended up calling Unsworth a pedophile.

Now, in this case, I think the violent reaction that Musk received is unjustified. After all, he did not intervene until he asked for it publicly. His intentions were clearly to help the situation in every possible way. However, no matter their position, status or name recognition, investing in an insult trading on Twitter is never a good option for the owner of a business.

As an entrepreneur, criticism comes from the territory. However, you are the face of a brand (or in the case of Musk, several brands). Entrepreneurs must remain at a certain level of integrity. No matter how enraged you are with the words of a critic, you must choose your battles (and words) carefully. Do not let your emotions get better with you. A single word in the public arena can cause all kinds of problems.

3. Never Valuing Advertising on Results

To repeat what was perhaps the most important point of Musk's criticism, many badumed that he was only offering his help to link his name to a world history

. The age of social networks and the current influx of "talentless celebrities", you might think that all advertising is good publicity. This is true up to a point if your goal is simply to gain notoriety and to be recognized. As an entrepreneur, your goal is not just to make your name known.

Regardless of whether it was the case of Musk, the most important lesson we should learn from this debacle is that the results ALWAYS outweigh the advertising in the world. business. The results often dictate most of the advertising. For example, let's compare two of the most important Musk news over the last year. On the one hand, he has been acclaimed around the world for his work with Tesla engineers to restore energy in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. This was due to the fact that there were positive results related to their efforts. His name is now subject to all kinds of reactions for his inability to help save the Thai football team. The results are what determined the tone of the advertisement.

In business, you must promote the proven value you bring to your industry and why you are qualified to solve problems. Advertising fades over time. Your results are what makes your legacy.

Being an entrepreneur, especially of the Musk type, is a very, very hard job. Even for small business owners, there are many lessons to be learned from the Musk approach. Unfortunately, in this story, most of these lessons are retrospective.

The most important thing in the business world is to prove why you are superior to one thing, instead of being versatile in a lot. This last point carries many more risks. It is, and this should be obvious, not to get into small social network fights; no one wins. Finally, your presence in the industry should be determined by the results. Otherwise, the world of the Web will quickly put negative labels on you.