A friend sent me a link to a post on Quora from Elon Musk’s ex-wife, Justine Musk.

Musk answers a question on Quora “How can I be as great as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Richard Branson?” Her advice is interesting:

Don’t follow a pre-existing path, and don’t look to imitate your role models. There is no “next step”. Extreme success is not like other kinds of success; what has worked for someone else, probably won’t work for you. They are individuals with bold points of view who exploit their very particular set of unique and particular strengths. They are unconventional, and one reason they become the entrepreneurs they become is because they can’t or don’t or won’t fit into the structures and routines of corporate life. They are dyslexic, they are autistic, they have ADD, they are square pegs in round holes, they piss people off, get into arguments, rock the boat, laugh in the face of paperwork. But they transform weaknesses in ways that create added advantage — the strategies I mentioned earlier — and seek partnerships with people who excel in the areas where they have no talent whatsoever.

Extreme success is out of my reach. I’m too old, and I have to balance personal ambitions with family responsibilities. Even in my 20s, I was never willing to do what was necessary for extreme success. Extreme success is a horcrux that tears the soul.

I am, however, in the process of reassessing my time usage and long-term goals, so elements of her post were useful for me. And as a parent of a kid who is neurologically different, her comments about square pegs were especially interesting.