Samwel Theophilus Thomas.

Great is thy faithfulness!

[Samwel Theophilus Thomas. @samthomasTz]

Mtandaoni kuna maoni mengi ila mengi ni ajenda za watu aidha za kweli au za uongo. Kutumia mtandao vizuri jitahidi kutafuta taarifa kutoka vyanzo rasmi na kusikiliza wahusika moja kwa moja. Jitahidi kufuata sheria, kanuni na desturi za kitaifa na kimataifa katika utoaji wa maoni.

[Lewis 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @WaldronLewis]

Elon Musk literally sat down for a 45-minute talk with Y Combinator that explains how to build world-changing companies better than any business school on earth. This is the advice he gave a room full of young founders:

1. Don't try to build something great. Try to build something useful.

Everyone obsesses over greatness. Musk says that's the wrong target. "I didn't originally think I would build something great. I wanted to try to build something useful. I didn't think I would build anything particularly great. Seemed unlikely, but I wanted to at least try." Aim for useful first. Greatness, if it comes, is a byproduct.

2. When you can't get in the front door, build your own door.

Before Musk started his first company, he tried to get a job at Netscape. "I sent my resume into Netscape and nobody responded. I tried hanging out in the lobby to see if I could bump into someone, but I was too shy to talk to anyone. So I'm like, this is ridiculous, I'll just write software myself." He didn't set out to be a founder. He became one because no one would hire him.

3. He slept in the office and showered at the YMCA.

The origin of his first company was not glamorous. "We couldn't even afford a place to stay. The office was 500 bucks a month, so we just slept in the office and showered at the YMCA." He couldn't afford proper internet either, so he drilled a hole through the office floor and ran a cable to the internet provider downstairs. That was the founder of the future richest man on earth.

4. Keep the chips on the table.

When Musk sold his first company, he received a $20 million cheque. His bank balance went from $10,000 to $20 million overnight. Most people would have stopped. He put almost all of it straight back into his next company. "I kept the chips on the table." He did the same thing decades later, over and over. He hates money sitting idle. Money is fuel for the next mission.

5. Start with the mission, then work backwards to make it a business.

Musk didn't start SpaceX to make money. He went on the NASA website to find out when humans were going to Mars, and there was no plan. So he decided to build one. "There had been no prior example of a rocket startup succeeding. A small chance of success is better than no chance of success." The mission came first. The business model came later.

6. He started SpaceX expecting to fail.

He is brutally honest about the odds. "SpaceX started in mid-2002 expecting to fail. Probably 90% chance of failing. When recruiting people, I said, we're probably going to die, but small chance we might not die." The first three launches failed. The fourth one worked with no money left. "If the fourth launch hadn't worked, it would have been curtains. We made it by the skin of our teeth."

7. Break every problem down to physics.

This is the core of how Musk thinks. "First principles means break things down to the fundamental elements that are most likely to be true, then reason up from there, as opposed to reasoning by analogy." His example is rockets. Everyone priced them based on what old rockets cost. Musk asked what a rocket is actually made of, priced the raw metals, and found the materials were only 1-2% of the historical price. The rest was inefficiency he could attack.

8. When told something takes 24 months, break it down and do it in six.

Last year xAI needed a giant computer to train its AI. Suppliers said it would take 18 to 24 months. "It's like, well, we need to get that done in six months or we won't be competitive." So he broke it into parts. Needed a building, so he found an old factory. Needed power, so he rented generators. Needed cooling, so he rented a quarter of America's mobile cooling capacity. He slept in the data centre and ran cabling himself. It got done.

9. Watch your ego-to-ability ratio.

Musk's single sharpest piece of advice for young founders is about staying honest with yourself. "A major failure mode is when your ego-to-ability ratio gets too high. Then you break the feedback loop to reality." Keep the ego small, internalise responsibility for everything, and stay ruthlessly connected to what's actually true. "You want to close the loop on reality hard. That's a super big deal."

10. Chase work, not glory.

His closing philosophy ties it all together. "It's so hard to be useful. The area under the curve of total utility is how useful you've been to your fellow human beings times how many people. If you aspire to do true work, your probability of success is much higher. Don't aspire to glory, aspire to work."

He was ridiculed for years. The press called him "internet guy attempting to build a rocket company." He agreed it sounded absurd. He did it anyway, because a small chance of doing something useful beat no chance at all.

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[Samwel Theophilus Thomas. @samthomasTz]

@AskMichaelTaiwo England, USA & All other African Countries( I don’t care if we lose; We are learning)

[Samwel Theophilus Thomas. @samthomasTz]

@Adikastakes @Adikastakes Your rant yesterday was so deep that it echoed in East Africa. https://t.co/C2IqkCGKv9

[Michael Taiwo @AskMichaelTaiwo]

A bit of history for anyone dismissing Senegal tonight.

The last time they truly shocked the world was 2002. Their first ever World Cup. Their opening match. Against France, the reigning world champions.

Senegal won 1-0.

And here is the twist: much of that squad earned their living in France, the very country they had just beaten. Debutants, underdogs, written off before kickoff, and they toppled the champions on day one.

Tonight stings. But this is not a nation that folds forever. History says they come back.

[Tech_baby @Tech_babby]

If you wanna learn to sell softwares you should follow accounts like this and replicate everything he does! Building SaaS is cheap. The content and sales is what matters now.

[Samwel Theophilus Thomas. @samthomasTz]

@ESPNUK Canadians are decent people.

[Samwel Theophilus Thomas. @samthomasTz]

@PereEgbi Very nice

[Samwel Theophilus Thomas. @samthomasTz]

@Dwarren08 It’s really nice and South Africans like to sing it…The same rhythm as Mungu ibariki Tanzania

[Samwel Theophilus Thomas. @samthomasTz]

@tshepi_mosagale The National anthem is really nice…We sing the same song Nkosi Sikeleli in Swahili-Mungu ibariki Tanzania…All the best in your game!

[Samwel Theophilus Thomas. @samthomasTz]

@ayubu_madenge Nafasi za best loser hazijatolewa kwa timu za Afrika peke yake hata hao waliotoka walikua na fursa ya kuzichukua na pili zamani timu zilikua 32 na 6 kutoka Afrika ila mfumo mpya umevusha 9 maana soka letu limepanda. Japokuwa bado tunatakiwa kufanya zaidi na kutoshangilia mapema.

[Tunde Onakoya @Tunde_OD]

I think you should be ridiculously optimistic about life however it sways. Do it with glee, do it with a deep sense of wonder.

[Pray The Rosary @PrayTheRosary]

If you wanna hate America, watch the news

If you wanna love America, drive through it

World Cup travelers have had their eyes opened to what a great country this is

[Typical African @Joe__Bassey]

Overlooking nature's masterpiece, the Maasai way with eyes on the Crater and hearts rooted in tradition in Tanzania 🇹🇿, Africa.

[yimika| @yimikaaaa]

You MUST by all means develop a strong opinion of yourself so you don't end up internalizing the beliefs others have of you.

[Samwel Theophilus Thomas. @samthomasTz]

@tobyasky I will watch it

[Samwel Theophilus Thomas. @samthomasTz]

@MurattiGs @EricNjiiru This is true, Americans are great people!

[Samwel Theophilus Thomas. @samthomasTz]

@KipepeComrade @hassankham1s Tuna push kwa sababu tunapapenda nyumbani. Tunatamani watu wasipoteze uraia kwa sababu wamepata uraia wa nchi nyingine.

Nchini Tanzania kuna watu wengi wanakubaliana nasi ila hatuwezi kujua mimi na wewe sababu halijawahi kupigiwa kura.

Ni jambo la kufiria and I second it!