There’s no substitute for sacrifice when it comes to success

It turns out there’s no substitute for sacrifice when it comes to success.

Tesla’s founder, Elon Musk, is one of those entrepreneurs we love to hold up as a shining beacon of entrepreneurship. But then a couple of weeks ago, he shared his ‘price’ story – the cost he’s paid to be held up as an icon of space-defying innovation.

Musk revealed that the pressure to meet production deadlines has seen him work 120-hour weeks, which means he’s hustling about 17 hours a day. Every day.

And in an older interview, Ashlee Vance, who wrote a biography on Musk, said this of him: “This guy is committed on a level that is insane. He has no life on a lot of levels. He works all the time. He has burned through three marriages. He doesn’t get enough time with his kids. He doesn’t have anything like a normal existence.”

It makes you think. Musk’s success may be something a lot of us idolise, but is his life one we’d want?

And could insights into his price story make us rethink our definition of what it means to ‘make it’?