The Boring Company

“Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging…” Elon Musk(@elonmusk) tweet December 17, 2016.

Most of us stew when we’re stuck in a traffic jam. We wish we could do something about it, but are ultimately resigned to the fact that we simply have to tolerate it. Not Elon Musk. Today, a few months after he sent out that tweet there is a big hole in the SpaceX parking lot near Los Angeles International Airport. It’s the beginning of the first tunnel he’s boring.

While most of us don’t have the resources that billionaire Musk has, there are many lessons for us in his way of thinking and moving ahead with his ideas.

Several things have jumped out at me as the newly-formed Boring Company has bored forward. Starting with how Musk saw a problem, decided to do something about it, thought about it a short while, and then rapidly began to do things to test out his solution. He’s done this many times before. Sometimes the idea flames out and that’s the end of it. But other times the ideas lead to companies such as Tesla, SpaceX, Gigafactory, and Solar City.

Musk used his irritation with big city traffic to break free from accepted thinking and come up with a solution invisible to others. No flying or self-driving cars or additional roads or mass transit lines for Musk. He decided to skip all this and build a completely new infrastructure in a space that sat totally unused. The ground 50 feet below the surface.

As he and his people investigated how to build a network of tunnels under Los Angeles, they realized that instead of the flat traffic network that exists today they could build a multilayered network of essentially unlimited capacity. Need another roadway? Drop down 20 feet and drill another tunnel.

Then the critical problem emerged. Tunneling equipment is essentially the same as it has been for 50 years. And it moves at about the same speed, making only around 300 feet of progress in a typical week. 300 feet a week with miles and miles to go. No wonder boring takes so long, costs so much, and is not an obvious solution for moving cars along faster.

Many would stop their quest in frustration. Not Musk. He decided to fix this problem too by building better boring machines. His intended speed: a mile a week.

Re-designing big machinery takes some time, but that didn’t stop Musk from moving ahead while waiting for the new boring machines. He just started boring through his parking lot with existing equipment while thinking through next steps.  The plan? Miles of tunnels under Los Angeles…but first, a short tunnel from the SpaceX parking lot under Crenshaw Boulevard to provide safe passage for employees and equipment, including cars.

By saying “he just started boring” I mean he and his people. Musk is a master at understanding his personal limitations. His knowledge of boring and boring machines? Zero. Solution? Find people with the expertise to take his ideas forward and get them onboard by sharing his vision and getting them excited about participating in launching a new idea. (This way of approaching people also works well for finding the funding you need to realize your ideas.)

Result: Tesla, SpaceX, Gigafactory, Solar City, and now the chance before too long for motorists to rapidly motor along to their destinations under Los Angeles instead of crawling along on the surface.

There is no reason why we can’t grab smaller projects the same way Musk grabs huge ones. No reason we can’t take our ideas forward and get on with it. Quickly. All it takes is a belief in your idea and a willingness to get moving.