Note: This article is based on a blog post by Darius Foroux, in which he discusses the positive impact of accepting flaws.
What makes this person impress most people is not that he is very rich or famous, as for a very long time, I had no interest in him, and I did not feel any connection brings me with him, but in recent years, he has shown his human side.
When he first spoke on Joe Rogan's podcast in 2018, he talked a lot about his challenges and the things that motivated him. Every year since then, his humanity has unfolded, making him seem more than just an entrepreneur or indifferent inventor. In addition, he revealed on Saturday Night Live that he had Asperger's Syndrome some time ago.
How he announced that he had this syndrome was remarkable. Instead of coming off as something negative, he actually celebrated the fact that he was the first person with Asperger's syndrome to be hosted on Saturday Night Live. Elon Musk said, "I'm actually making history tonight as the first person with Asperger's syndrome to be hosted on Saturday Night Live, or at least the first person to admit that they have this syndrome.”
He also jokingly described himself as a robot running a human-like program, and even talked about his mother at the end of his speech. The question here is: How do you not like a person who accepts himself as he is?
It's hard to accept your flaws
I watched an old video from 1999 of Elon Musk waiting to drop off his expensive $1 million fast car, and he's obviously trying really hard to impress the crew on it. When he talked about how rich he was, he saiad nonsense like, "Obviously, money is just money."
If you read this quote, it seems to come from someone who takes great pains to speak. What Elon Musk said does not detract from his genius and success. The name of this man is classified with the names of the most intelligent people in history, and there is no doubt about that. However, he always seemed to be an introverted person.
Although he was trying very hard to get rid of this, his attempt did not seem sincere, but now he has admitted and accepted what he is. This makes me respect him more than before. What I learned from Elon is not the obvious things people talk about, like "the habits of billionaires."
It's really amazing that Elon Musk took so long to accept his flaws publicly. For several years, he built companies that changed the world, but he rarely spoke about himself.
Unproductive internal struggle
Most of us believe that we need to hide our flaws from the people around us, as we believe that we need to be confident of ourselves, and we believe that we need to act in a certain way in order for others to accept us:
- "If you're in sales, you need to go after money and new business."
- "If you're an entrepreneur, you need to be a risk-taker."
- "If you're an artist, you need to take steroids."
- "If you're a writer, you need to drink stimulants."
- "If you're an investment banker, you need to sleep in the office and work on the weekends."
As a result of all these false beliefs about how one should act, we constantly suffer about the truth that we hide and the actions that we show. When we hide certain aspects of our personality, we feel frustrated because we feel constrained. In addition, as long as we are suffering inwardly, we can never reach our full potential.
In conclusion: Greatness comes from understanding our imperfections
What happens if we accept our flaws and weaknesses? When you accept who you are, you won't tire yourself out trying to accommodate or convince others. You can focus your energy on what you are trying to achieve in life.
Not everyone should be like Elon Musk, who is already changing the world. Now that we know that he no longer tries to hide his true self from others, we know that he can also inspire people personally, not just in business.
This is true of all of us too. Everyone knows that we can never be perfect, but what are we going to do? We will ignore this fact and try to be perfect, and if it doesn't make sense to ignore this fact, we can instead accept our imperfections. In this way, we can strive to be great at what we all do or simply to be great people on an individual level.
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