Electric car pioneer Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, has been hitting the headlines virtually every day these last few months.

Everybody’s talking about the billionaire entrepreneur’s ambitious plans to colonise Mars, introduce the first driverless cars and invent a 700 mph “Hyperloop” transport system, which could cut the journey time from LA to San Francisco to just 30 minutes (a similar distance to travelling from London to Edinburgh).

It certainly makes for interesting reading, but what can event planners learn from this awe-inspiring, one-man PR machine? We take a look at the factors behind the $11.4 billion success of this 45-year-old father-of-five.

1. Be ambitious

Elon Musk had big ambitions since he was a young boy. He taught himself computer programming and, at the age of 12, sold the code he created for a video game for $500.

By the time he was 24 he had two Bachelor of Science degrees, in physics and economics, and was about to embark on a PhD. However, after just two days on the programme, he decided to leave to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations – the world was calling.

Musk persuaded his father to lend him $28,000 and, together with his brother Kimbal, started web software company Zip2. Just four years later it was sold to Compaq for a hefty $307 million.

Musk received $22 million from the sale, $10 million of which he put into setting up X.com, an e-payment company. One year later the company merged and became PayPal. Soon after it was acquired by eBay and Musk received $165 million.

With that kind of money in his pocket, Musk knew he could do something amazing and thus his company Space Exploration Technologies (also known as SpaceX) was born.

Right from the start, Musk’s ambition knew no boundaries, founding SpaceX with the long-term goal of creating a “true spacefaring civilisation.” It just goes to show that dreaming big – even what others might deem laughably big – can be the precursor to success.

The lesson for event planners? You’ll only get to the stars if you reach for them in the first place. Have an audacious plan for your events, and then set about working backwards to achieve it.

2. Think long-term – success doesn’t happen overnight

Despite being hugely ambitious and driven, Elon Musk was sensible enough to realise his vision couldn’t be achieved overnight. He hopes to establish a Mars colony by 2040, but in the meantime he has earned his space travel stripes by developing rockets and slashing production costs by applying the modular approach learnt from software engineering.

In 2018, SpaceX intends to launch an unmanned Dragon spacecraft to soft-land on Mars – if all goes well, this will be the first of a regular cargo mission supply-run to Mars building up to later crewed flights, first departing in 2024.

Musk’s long-term vision is to drastically reduce the cost of human spaceflight, bringing the cost of a ticket down to no more than the price of a house on Earth. The entrepreneur envisions 1,000 passenger ships flying en masse to the red planet within the next century.

By the mid-2060s, Musk hopes to have a community of one million people on Mars – even the ambitious must have patience!

The lesson for event planners? Your ambitious vision for your events is achievable, but you might not get there in the very first event. Build up to it, and have patience, it will be worth it!

3. Don’t listen to conventional wisdom

If Elon Musk didn’t think outside the box he wouldn’t be where he is today. He is a true visionary, an interrupter who follows his instincts rather than listening to the doubters.

One factor that has led to his success has been bringing all stages of production in-house and combining, sometimes seemingly unrelated, companies – like a car company (Tesla) and a solar energy company (SolarCity).

The idea of vertical integration is to help companies reduce costs and improve efficiencies by decreasing transportation expenses, but it’s something that’s been avoided by modern manufacturing businesses (especially car manufacturers) over the last few decades. It is considered highly risky as it’s complex and costly to implement and very difficult to reverse.

However, Musk is not deterred and states that Tesla’s recent acquisition of SolarCity will create a “tremendous opportunity to create a vertically integrated sustainable energy company offering end-to-end clean energy products.”

Musk sees Tesla and SolarCity as an ecosystem, selling electric cars that run on power captured by solar panels and stored in home battery packs. His vision is an expansive one, and to achieve it he knows he must go against the grain sometimes.

The lesson for event planners? While you should listen to your friends and supporters, sometimes to create a truly unique and exceptional experience you’ll need to buck conventional wisdom and do something original, even daring.

4. Surround yourself with great talent

To make life on Mars a possibility, a reliable electric transportation system is a must, since there’s no oxygen on the planet. As such, Musk hopes to create a 700 mph “Hyperloop” – essentially a long tube that has had the air removed to create a vacuum. Passengers seated inside pods would then be accelerated with magnets.

To make his vision a reality, Musk isn’t relying solely on his own engineering knowledge. He created a design competition in which 125 teams from America’s top colleges and universities competed.

Now, 30 teams selected through the SpaceX competition are developing working prototypes that will be put to the test in January. A one-mile test track is being built in the Nevada desert and Musk will also be turning to the competitors for suggestions on how a real world track should be built. With their help, he hopes to create a fully operational Hyperloop system by 2020.

Musk knows that when people come together and pool their talents, great things really are possible.

The lesson for event planners? You hold the vision, but to organise a really momentous event is a team game. You’ll need to learn to lead, delegate and inspire to bring your vision to life through others.

5. Beautiful design matters as much as functionality

Musk wants the world to move away from fossil fuels and encourage the adoption of alternative energy sources, but he knows he won’t get wholesale buy-in if it means we must drive frugal eco cars or mar our homes with ugly solar panels.

To win the hearts and minds of the people, Musk knows his alternatives need to be as good – if not better – than the traditional alternatives.

“I’ve never seen a solar roof that I would actually want… they’re weird,” he said when unveiling Tesla’s new solar roof tiles. “Every one of them that I’ve seen is worse than a normal roof, without exception. So unless you’re going to beat a roof on aesthetics, why bother?”

Consequently, Musk and his team worked to create something “super hard” – a solar tile that looks like authentic French slate. There are three other tile designs to match different housing aesthetics, enabling construction companies to make their new buildings eco friendly and efficient without compromising on appearance. What’s more, they should cost the same as regular roof singles.

Credit: Tesla

The lesson for event planners? While people might buy into a aspirational vision, many will still be motivated by ‘whats in it for them’? So make sure your event clearly shows the benefits of attending, and stands out from the competition on the features your attendees care about.

6. A steady stream of positive news builds momentum

Not all the news about Elon Musk’s ventures has been positive. Tesla is significantly behind its car production schedule and is dealing with the fallout of a fatal crash involving a vehicle using Autopilot (the semi-self-driving technology), while SpaceX is investigating an exploding rocket.

However, by making regular announcements about new products and developments, Musk makes sure there’s always enough ‘good news’ to keep shares ascending.

In October there were two big announcements – the launch of Tesla’s solar roof products and the news that all Tesla vehicles produced from now on will have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability.

And in November, SpaceX revealed that it had applied to the US government for permission to put more than 4,000 satellites in orbit in order to blanket the Earth with high-speed internet access; while also completing the merger with SolarCity.

Drip-feeding information and making big media-friendly announcements has helped keep Musk in the headlines and build excitement around his endeavours.

The lesson for event planners? People buy into progress, so make sure you keep everyone regularly updated about how things are going with your events, and this will build a positive momentum all of it’s own.

Conclusion

Musk is clearly an exceptional individual who has made awe-inspiring achievements. While most of us are not able to compete on is level, we can take inspiration from his actions and ethics. How could you reimagine your event and take it out of this world with these 6 lessons for event planners?