Law #1: Fool Yourself to Fool Others
You must first delude yourself before you try and fool other people.
It is absolutely critical that you delude yourself first before you try and fool other people. A bullshitter is not necessarily the same thing as a liar. A bullshitter is not necessarily knowingly lying, but rather saying things to suit their purpose, without any care if what he says is true as he knows in the modern day and age of the internet there is zero accountability for his misleading words. In order to genuinely sell your claptrap vision, you must first delude yourself entirely into believing that you and your products/services are gifts from god. There is no exception to this Law of Hype--it is Law #1 for a reason--for if you do not truly believe (at least in the beginning), your entire hype campaign can be compromised, or worse yet, never get off the ground. There is a telling scene from the psychological powerhouse of a sitcom, Seinfeld, whereby George tells Jerry: "Remember, Jerry, it’s not a lie…if you believe it." Take this statement to heart and convince yourself of your grandiosity. Investors need to see the sparkle in your eye for if you do not exude confidence the sheep will move on to someone else who has much more false self-confidence. You must fool yourself first and internalize your hype--live it and breathe it...every...damn...day.
Observance of the Law:
Tesla CEO Elon Musk laughs at the mention of BMW EVs. Musk also laughs at BYD's low end EVs.
BMW meanwhile has sold over 2 million cars in the last four quarters, while Tesla has sold a combined 26,428. BMW has spent over $4.16 billion on R&D in the last year, while Tesla has spent $314 million. BMW's trailing twelve months R&D is equivalent to 171% of Tesla's sales, yet Tesla is dismissive of BMW and their history of innovation in luxury cars. The Chinese automaker BYD is literally everything that Elon Musk wants Tesla to be: they have multiple electric vehicles, selling half a million cars a year, they are a fully vertically integrated battery manufacturer, have energy storage products, etc., yet Musk scoffs at the mention of them and their smaller enterprise value.
Musk has publicly stated that Tesla has the best autonomous driving technology and team of engineers, promising a semi-autonomous vehicle on the road within three years. Unfortunately for Musk, almost every car manufacturer already has such features available (like reactive braking and partially autonomous cruise control) in models for sale now, including Mitsubishi, Mercedes, VW, Volvo, Jeep, Acura, Lexus, Jaguar, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Porsche, Bentley, Audi, BMW, Infiniti, Subaru, Hyundai, Kia, etc. So pretty much every other auto maker in the world is a few steps ahead of Tesla in terms of adaptive cruise control and multi-sensor safety systems. VW has all electric cars that can entirely self park themselves, acting a personal valet through a smart phone app. It takes true self delusion to be so blatantly ignorant of the competitive landscape and/or downplay it to such a degree.
The capability of genuinely giggling like a school girl at the mention of a competitive threat, on earnings conference calls or Bloomberg interviews no less--this is the type of extreme self delusion of your superiority that is required to truly enact one of the greatest hype campaigns of all time.
Authority:
Elon Musk: Elon Musk's self delusion regarding the Tesla Model S being a green car or a good deal for consumers is of such epic proportions, it is likely unmatched by any current CEO. "His greatest asset is to take this...big, big dream and make other people think that it's true." - Max Chafkin, journalist, introduction to Bloomberg Risk Takers profile on Elon Musk, published June 10th, 2014.
You must first delude yourself before you try and fool other people.
It is absolutely critical that you delude yourself first before you try and fool other people. A bullshitter is not necessarily the same thing as a liar. A bullshitter is not necessarily knowingly lying, but rather saying things to suit their purpose, without any care if what he says is true as he knows in the modern day and age of the internet there is zero accountability for his misleading words. In order to genuinely sell your claptrap vision, you must first delude yourself entirely into believing that you and your products/services are gifts from god. There is no exception to this Law of Hype--it is Law #1 for a reason--for if you do not truly believe (at least in the beginning), your entire hype campaign can be compromised, or worse yet, never get off the ground. There is a telling scene from the psychological powerhouse of a sitcom, Seinfeld, whereby George tells Jerry: "Remember, Jerry, it’s not a lie…if you believe it." Take this statement to heart and convince yourself of your grandiosity. Investors need to see the sparkle in your eye for if you do not exude confidence the sheep will move on to someone else who has much more false self-confidence. You must fool yourself first and internalize your hype--live it and breathe it...every...damn...day.
Observance of the Law:
Tesla CEO Elon Musk laughs at the mention of BMW EVs. Musk also laughs at BYD's low end EVs.
BMW meanwhile has sold over 2 million cars in the last four quarters, while Tesla has sold a combined 26,428. BMW has spent over $4.16 billion on R&D in the last year, while Tesla has spent $314 million. BMW's trailing twelve months R&D is equivalent to 171% of Tesla's sales, yet Tesla is dismissive of BMW and their history of innovation in luxury cars. The Chinese automaker BYD is literally everything that Elon Musk wants Tesla to be: they have multiple electric vehicles, selling half a million cars a year, they are a fully vertically integrated battery manufacturer, have energy storage products, etc., yet Musk scoffs at the mention of them and their smaller enterprise value.
Musk has publicly stated that Tesla has the best autonomous driving technology and team of engineers, promising a semi-autonomous vehicle on the road within three years. Unfortunately for Musk, almost every car manufacturer already has such features available (like reactive braking and partially autonomous cruise control) in models for sale now, including Mitsubishi, Mercedes, VW, Volvo, Jeep, Acura, Lexus, Jaguar, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Porsche, Bentley, Audi, BMW, Infiniti, Subaru, Hyundai, Kia, etc. So pretty much every other auto maker in the world is a few steps ahead of Tesla in terms of adaptive cruise control and multi-sensor safety systems. VW has all electric cars that can entirely self park themselves, acting a personal valet through a smart phone app. It takes true self delusion to be so blatantly ignorant of the competitive landscape and/or downplay it to such a degree.
The capability of genuinely giggling like a school girl at the mention of a competitive threat, on earnings conference calls or Bloomberg interviews no less--this is the type of extreme self delusion of your superiority that is required to truly enact one of the greatest hype campaigns of all time.
Authority:
Elon Musk: Elon Musk's self delusion regarding the Tesla Model S being a green car or a good deal for consumers is of such epic proportions, it is likely unmatched by any current CEO. "His greatest asset is to take this...big, big dream and make other people think that it's true." - Max Chafkin, journalist, introduction to Bloomberg Risk Takers profile on Elon Musk, published June 10th, 2014.
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