How to Help Out in a Crisis

“In every artist there is a touch of audacity without which no talent is conceivable.”_Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

In a few years back—2016, to be precise—the revolutionary founder and CEO of the ultra-modern electric company (Tesla), Elon Musk enhanced his reputation as one of the true heroes of our time.

Heroes are said to emerge in a crisis. And that is true. But this time around, the crisis didn’t affect just a few persons; it affected almost two million people: the inhabitants of South Australia.

The country experienced a huge storm with devastating tornadoes which brought down key infrastructures of energy, electricity and power. And the aftermath resulted in almost total blackout of the whole South Australia.

To cut the long story shut, the country had a very serious problem to deal with, and she dealt with it awesomely.

As it turned out, South Australia dealt with it awesomely only because she had the help of white knight in formidable armour: Elon Musk was the one who saved the day in a pretty remarkable way.

Though many of us would prefer to flee from problems of any kind but very few people would rather think creatively on how to upturn such problems into an opportunity for service.  Elon Musk is one of those few.

To help out, Elon Musk made an offer to the South Australian government that is both ambitious and daring. He made a business deal out of the crisis by taking full responsibility for restoring the power grid in just 100 days.

In his own words, he wrote: “Tesla will get the system installed and working 100 days from contract signature OR IT IS FREE.”

Think about the last part of the sentence to really understand the confidence of the man. He placed a binding condition on himself to either deliver as promised or forfeit the sum of N50m dollars. Wow! 

And as you would expect, once the contract was signed, the whole world started counting from day one to see if Musk had bitten more than he could chew, this time around.

Alas, the iron man, Elon Musk not only won over his self-imposed challenge but he succeeded in a pretty remarkable way: he delivered on his promise forty-days ahead of schedule. Impressive!

And it was such a great success that didn’t just strengthened Tesla reputation; it really offered exceptional value to the people Australia.

The next part of this article is where we get to learn the secret power of the gallant man on a white horse.

Be Audacious in Your Preparation

“If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.”_Carl von Clausewitz 

After reading that remarkable story, I paused to reflect on what could be his secret.

What gave him the sheer confidence to make such a bold offer?

And how was he able to meet up in almost half the time?

And how can we strengthen our character so we can be a little more like him in striving to fulfill the big promises we make to others and ourselves?

In search of answers, I read more on ‘our knight’. And it turned out that Elon Musk truly knows something about life far above the average person on the street.

Elon Musk revealed the hidden secret of his blatant audacity in the following words:

“Work like hell.

I mean you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week; this improves the odds of success.

If other people are putting in 40 hour work weeks and you’re putting in 100 hour work weeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing.

You know that you will achieve in 4 months what it takes them a year to achieve.”

I think this quote says a lot on why he had the confidence to put himself in a tight corner, beforehand. It also says a lot on how he could cut his execution time into almost half.

You see, beneath his audacity to dream and aspire big is his audacity to act massively. 

You and I need to understand that our big promises mean nothing, if we are unwilling to correspondingly commit big and make amazing things happen. 

Arguably, the two qualities of men of confidence, which may portray a touch of wonder in the eye of an average person, are their sheer will and their incredible commitment to relentless action.

Truly Care and Be Genuinely Willing to Serve

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”_Mahatma Ghandi

In this case, Elon Musk’s motivation to big commitment springs not from fame or fortune but from his deep desire for service. He said: “For me it was never about money, but solving problems for the future of humanity.”

So to thrive out of a crisis, we need to truly care about people’s welfare and creating value to serve their greatest needs during such a period.

Finally, we should strive to be audacious in our aspiration to tackle meaningful problems in the society. Above all, we should always strive to matchup our actions with our bold promises. No wonder the former Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Benjamin Disraeli concluded that, “success is the child of audacity.”