Elon Musk's CRAZY $1 A Day Diet

Benzinga

Discover the extreme personal challenge Elon Musk undertook in his early days in America: living on just $1 a day for food. This surprising story reveals the unconventional mindset that allowed him to take massive risks and build companies like Tesla and SpaceX. Learn what his budget diet consisted of (hot dogs, oranges, and pasta!) and how today's inflation would make such a challenge nearly impossible. This video delves into Musk's philosophy on survival, risk-taking, and why understanding your "threshold for existing" can be the ultimate entrepreneurial advantage.

Transcript

00:00Elon Musk, before he was the world's richest man, had a bizarre personal challenge that reveals a lot about his risk-taking mindset.

00:07Back in the mid-90s, when he first arrived in the U.S. after college, Musk wanted to prove something.

00:13He told Neil deGrasse Tyson, in America, it's pretty easy to keep yourself alive.

00:18So he put that theory to the ultimate test.

00:20Musk challenged himself to live on just $1 a day for food.

00:24His diet, hot dogs, pasta, oranges, and bulk green peppers.

00:30He admitted he got really tired of hot dogs and oranges after a while.

00:33Now try living on that today.

00:35With inflation, a dollar barely buys you a half a banana.

00:38His point wasn't about culinary delight, it was about fear or the lack thereof.

00:43Musk wanted to know that even if all of his ventures failed, he could still survive.

00:47This extreme frugality, this self-imposed bottom line, allowed him to take the monumental risk that helped build Tesla and SpaceX.

00:56It's a fascinating look at the psychological bedrock of one of the world's greatest entrepreneurs.

01:02Proving that sometimes, understanding your absolute worst-case scenario is the key to achieving your biggest dreams.

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