Justine Musk revealed one of the best productivity secrets that Elon Musk shares with Warren Buffet: saying no

Justine Musk is the first wife and mother of six of 11 children children of Elon Musk. He shared a life with Musk even before he became a millionaire after the sale of Zip2. This perspective of Elon Musk, before and after being a millionaire, has allowed the now writer and lecturer to discover one of the secrets of the success of the richest person in the world: say no. During a TEDx talk in 2014Justine Musk highlighted Elon Musk’s ambition and ability to focus, but also a talent that not everyone possesses, such as saying no. Saying no is saying yes As Justine Musk explained, a good part of her ex-husband’s success lay in saying no to many things that they were going to consume your timeto say yes to others that were going to lead him to success. “He said no to people who wanted his time, attention and energy. He said no in a way that protected his resources so he could channel them toward his own goals. And I understood that behind every no there is a deeper ‘yes’ to what what you want,” Justine said in her talk. “Your deep yes is your right to dream,” the writer concluded. The author of six books pointed out that this ability to saying no is a talent which is acquired at a young age and their children also began to develop it. As Justine Musk said in her TED talk, her children were already exercising their power by refusing to do certain things, thus reaffirming their individuality and the talent of wanting to be masters of their own schedule. However, Justine herself recognized that she herself had lost that ability to say no to others between the ages of eight and thirteen. The writer highlighted that this ability to know how to say no to other people not only denotes power to confront negative reactions of whoever requests to occupy your time, also reveals precision in the management of one’s own time and intention. Warren Buffett has his calendar full of noes Elon Musk is not the only one who values ​​his time above anything else and therefore preserves it from any interference. Warren Buffett is also very careful with the use of his time and has the ability to keep his calendar with large spaces available. This was revealed by his good friend Bill Gates during a intervention on the Charlie Ross show in which both millionaires talked about the topic. Bill Gates pointed out how careful Warren Buffett is with his time. “The fact that he’s so careful with time, he has days where there’s nothing on (his schedule)…sitting and thinking can be a priority much older. “It is not an indicator of your seriousness that you have occupied every minute of your schedule.” Greg McKeown, in his book ‘Essentialism‘, highlights a curious paradox about productivity, stating that true productivity is not about doing more, but about doing less. Saying no to other people prevents you from loading your to-do list with tasks unrelated to your goals, so they should be eliminated at all costs. At first, saying no may take an internal effort, but in the long run, that turns into more time to dedicate to what really interests you. In Xataka | Being kind at work is positive, as long as doing so does not affect productivity: the benefits of saying ‘No’ Image | Flickr (NASA HQ PHOTO), TEDx Talks

Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos are candidates

2024 was a year especially good for big fortunes in which, except some exceptionsall increased their assets. This growth trend has changed the forecasts regarding the idea that, in the next ten years, one of these billionaires will become a billionaire, accumulating wealth in excess of a trillion dollars. According to a report that Oxfam Intemón has presented during the Davos Summit 2025the accumulation of wealth has become so extreme that the forecast now is that up to five billionaires will exceed that trillion-dollar ceiling in the next ten years. Fortunes accelerate. According to Oxfam Intermón, previous forecasts that a person could reach a fortune exceeding one trillion dollars (European trillion, not American), have become obsolete following the rapid growth rate recorded by large fortunes during 2024. The humanitarian organization highlights that, during the fiscal year 2024, large fortunes tripled the rate of increase in your assets with respect to 2023. According to data from Oxfam Intermón“in 2024, the number of billionaires was already 2,769, compared to 2,565 the previous year, and their combined wealth increased from 13 to 15 trillion dollars in just 12 months. This is the second largest increase in the combined wealth of billionaires in a single year, since records have been kept”. The year of AI and the space race. This accelerated growth of the largest fortunes is mainly due to two important factors: the rise in the development of AI and the beginning of private space race. In the heat of the development of AI, the fortunes of some of its protagonists have increased, such as meteoric rise of Jensen Huang to the top of the millionaire lists, of Larry Ellison or of Mark Zuckerberg. The space race has two proper names: Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Both millionaires have placed their aerospace companies among the best valued, and the contracts with NASA They have provided them with a good financial cushion. The case of Bezos and Musk is especially notable because both millionaires “play both sides” because their companies They are also at the forefront of AI development. Trump’s victory has influenced. The Oxfam Intermón report noted that “this growing concentration of wealth is possible thanks to a monopolistic concentration of power, in which billionaires exercise more and more influence over industries and public opinion.” The victory of Donald Trump and the closing of the ranks of big technology companies supporting the new president has been another important factor in the increase in the forecast that up to five billionaires will exceed one trillion dollars in the next decade. The now president of the United States has demonstrated it in his first decreeslegislating for prioritize interests of these companies around the world and, therefore, boosting the fortunes of their founders and CEOs. Elon Musk was already a candidate. With a fortune of $432.6 billion, Elon Musk is currently the richest person in the world, according to the list of millionaires of Forbes. As such, he already appeared in all the pools as a candidate to be one of the first billionaires in history. The businessman of South African origin beat a double record at the end of 2024: he managed to surpass the threshold of $400 billion and did so by almost doubling his fortune in just two months. Added to these estimates is the foreseeable growth in the assets of Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison or Jensen Huang, before a deregulated scene in which the large corporations on which their fortunes are based will have fewer legal restrictions on expanding. In Xataka | Trump has made big technology companies change, but not because of ideology: they are companies behaving like companies Image | Meta, Blue Origin, Flickr (Government of India)

An executive order paves the way for Elon Musk to fire them from DOGE

As soon as Trump was sworn in under the watchful eye of his new Praetorian Guard made up of the greatest fortunes in the worldgot to work signing the first decrees. One of the priority decrees was the official creation of DOGEhe Efficiency Department Government that will be directed by Elon Musk. The second, change the status of federal workers so that Musk can fire them at his discretion. Fire career officials. One of the most controversial points of the executive order that Donald Trump signed after his appointment is the change in status for career officials, in charge of enforcing regulations regardless of who occupies the Oval Office. To guarantee this independence, these officials had additional protection contemplated in Annex F (Schedule F). One of Trump’s executive orders mandates change this protected statusso they can now be fired if they do not comply with the orders of their superiors. This was one of the requirements of Project 2025 which has been developed by the most radical wing of the Republican Party, and which Trump has denied throughout the campaign, until just after his appointment. Only loyal officials. In another section of this executive order it is established that “Because SES officials exercise significant government authority, they must act at the will of the president”, placing special emphasis on that presidential figure, for which it has modified different sections of Annex F “Failure to do so will be grounds for dismissal,” the order states. Scott Michelman, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia, assured from a statement issued by the organization that “The executive order on the federal workforce is a power grab by Trump, expanding his authority to fire employees he perceives as insufficiently loyal.” Michelman claims that, “during the last Trump administration, he encountered federal workers who were following the law, rather than indiscriminately following his orders. Federal workers should not be fired because they are more loyal to the US Constitution than to the president. That is a threat to both our constitutional values ​​and the rule of law.” “The real goal of the order is to target workers based on their real or perceived disloyalty toward the president and his political goals,” Scott Michelman concludes. The excuse of efficiency. Another of the controversial points that complement this executive order is that all officials and the 2.3 million federal civilian employees must be evaluated for the efficiency of their work and, if it is not satisfactory, they could be fired. However, that same order prohibits “certain personnel actions” and “actions based on the employee’s partisan affiliation, other protected characteristics or due to the employee’s status as a whistleblower.” Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, declared to the cnn: “President Trump’s order is a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by removing employees’ due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons. It will eliminate hundreds of thousands of federal nonpartisan professional civil service jobs and make them responsible before the will of a man”. Closing of hiring and teleworking. Given the massive filtering that the entire US federal administration is going to face, the executive order signed by Trump hours after his appointment, indefinitely canceled any contracting process of the administration. Furthermore, the order signed by Trump urges all federal employees without exception to go to their offices, all being revoked teleworking agreements. The only exception would be that, as how it happened In some Amazon offices, the facilities did not have enough capacity to accommodate them all. In that case, it is anticipated that “provided department and agency heads make such exemptions as they deem necessary,” so they could send some officials back home. According to data provided by nearby sources to the new government, its calculations show that only 6% of public employees work from the offices of their agencies. However, a report prepared by the US Congress reveals that the figure is much higher, exceeding 54%, and only 10% of civil servants do it completely remotely. In Xataka | Musk begins to reap the fruits of his support for Trump: he will be in charge of a cuts department called DOGE Image | Flickr (Gage Skidmore, Government of India)

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