NEW DELHI — Elon Musk urged Indian entrepreneurs to stop chasing money and instead concentrate on creating genuine value, saying financial success naturally follows those who build useful products and services.
Speaking on investor and entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath’s People of WTF podcast, Musk said money, like happiness, cannot be pursued directly. “If you want to create something valuable financially, you don’t pursue that. You pursue providing useful products and services, and money will come as a natural consequence,” he said.
Musk, who described himself as “a big fan of anyone who wants to build,” said that meaningful work, purpose, and relationships generate happiness — and similarly, value creation drives financial outcomes. He urged founders to “make more than you take” and aim to be net contributors to society. “I think anyone who wants to make more than they take has my respect,” he said.
He also cautioned entrepreneurs to prepare for difficulty. “Expect to grind super hard,” Musk said, noting that failure is always possible. “Make more than you take.”
Musk advised founders to avoid politics for as long as possible. “Founders don’t need politics to build something great until their company becomes too large to avoid it,” he said. He warned that the political environment can be harsh. “Politics is a blood sport. You enter politics, they’re going to go for the jugular. So best to avoid politics where possible.”
On Starlink’s potential in India, Musk said the technology is designed to provide low-cost, reliable internet worldwide, but not to replace dense urban networks. “It’s not physically possible for Starlink to serve densely populated cities… maybe 1 per cent or 2 per cent, but it can be much more effective in rural areas,” he said. He added that SpaceX “would love to be operating in India,” positioning Starlink as a transformative solution for remote regions rather than a substitute for existing city infrastructure. (Source: IANS)
