How Elon Achieves the Impossible - Eric Jorgenson

How many copies of The Navalmanac have you sold now?

It's tough to know, but I think we're coming up on 2 million.

How's that feel?

I'm still, uh, the word I like to use is gobsmacked. Like, I really thought I was doing fan service for a few thousand Naval nerds.

Mm.

And the fact that it's, like, 40 languages and millions of people and we've given away a few million more, right? Like, I don't even really know.

Oh, so that's how many were sold-

Sold

... 'cause it was available for free through the website.

Yeah, which is another, like, 5 million plus. Really hard to track.

I think it's my most suggested book. When people say, "Where should I start with personal development?" Essentialism by Greg McKeown or The Navalmanac.

That's incredible. And, and that's-- I mean, I had no idea how many people were gonna resonate with it and recommend it and, you know, I think the highest compliment a gift, uh, the highest compliment a book can receive is to be gifted.

Mm.

Um, and so much of what we read comes from what's recommended. Like, how often do you see an ad for a book and buy it? Like, almost never.

Yeah.

The bars are too high.

Yeah. And the subtitle of this new one is A Guide to Purpose and Success, about Elon. Why pick that? Why purpose specifically?

It was-- It's emergent. I mean, when I write these books, I start with millions and millions of words of source material, everything they've ever shared publicly, and I try to figure out, like, what is the essence of the person? What is the thing that is most special about them that anybody can learn from? And we all know that Elon is, like, massively productive. I feel like the question everybody's asking is kind of like, "How the hell did this happen?" Like, how does he get so much done?

Mm.

But what I didn't realize until way into the process was that purpose was the other pillar. So I knew I wanted to know, like, how does he win, but I didn't know to the extent that purpose was a big part of why he wins, and that is actually, he has some really incredible answers for what do I do? What's important? How do I choose what's important?

Mm. Yeah, I think everyone looks and just assumes tactics, raw tactics.

Yeah.

But if there's something bigger driving that. Uh, Thiel says about Elon, "He seems to know something that, the, about risk that the rest of us do not." What do you think that thing is?

Yeah. I mean, I think Elon is risk on. Like, he takes risks that he shouldn't take. He's inherently biased towards risk. But the number of times that that pays off, I think reveals and puts in Thiel's context, like, Thiel is a risk manager, and Elon is a risk taker. And when you combine that with purpose, the fact that, like, Elon is on these missions, he's trying to accomplish something, and he almost doesn't care how much risk it takes. He'll just keep taking chances and keep taking chances until he breaks through. And he's got this amazing quote, um, "Failure is irrelevant unless it's catastrophic."