The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness. If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
— Kahlil Gibran in “The Prophet”.
Early on in my leadership journey, I used to have a very directive leadership style. I am obsessed with efficiency. So during team discussions I would often jump in with my opinions, make quick decisions and basically guide the team quickly to the right path (from my perspective). I thought this is what good leaders are supposed to do, and I was amazing at this. Move things forward as fast as possible, and maximize team productivity and efficiency, right?
It took me years to get rid of this bad habit.
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.
— Steve Jobs
In 2017, I joined Tesla as a Staff Engineer, walking away from a Senior Director position in the Analog Semiconductor space and starting all over again after 15 years. Why? Because I wanted to work in the emerging field of EVs and FSD. The next 9 years were definitely the most rewarding I have ever had in my career, both financially and for my own self-growth.
Domain knowledge is overrated. I never really cared about it from the start, but in the age of AI this has become even more true. There is no room for an elderly statesman in today’s high performance world. We all need to keep growing.
When I am hiring engineers, I use a framework I call STAR:
While much has been said about Tesla’s production hell, not many are aware of the delivery hell we faced after overcoming the first challenge.
I talked about getting out of my comfort zone in my previous blog post. Today, I want to expand on it a bit more – talking about my time during Tesla’s “production hell”. For the uninitiated, this time in Tesla is defined as “a chaotic period from roughly 2017-2018 where the company almost went bankrupt trying to mass-produce the Model 3”. I would say as an employee, it was a lot more.
“The tree the tempest with a crash of wood
Throws down in front of us is not bar
Our passage to our journey’s end for good,
But just to ask us who we think we are.”
— Robert Frost
Resets are good in life. One of my mentors at Tesla once told me: sometimes if we slow down 20%, we will actually move faster. Many times we’re moving with high speed but zero velocity.
After 9 years at Tesla, the time has come for me to move on to the next chapter of my life.
If I had to sum up my journey in one word, it would be: gratitude.