Huawei recently launched a unique smartphone, the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate, and it has been the talk of the internet. Unlike foldable phones, which we have seen, the Mate XT Ultimate spots a triple-fold while maintaining a sleek design. One Tech Reviewer, Marques Brownlee, popularly known as MKBHD, had this to say about the phone;

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I was like, it's getting kind of weird that people are, like, showing off phones they're never gonna make. This could have been the coolest concept phone ever. But then they just went and decided to actually make a bunch of them and ship 'em.

Marques Brownlee

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You can say Huawei achieved the impossible with the Mate XT Ultimate and has set the bar high for other foldable smartphone manufacturers. But Huawei is not the only company that has achieved what would easily be considered “impossible.”

There’s another company that pulls off impossible feats regularly. This company is none other than SpaceX, and the secret to its extraordinary success is its enigmatic and controversial CEO and entrepreneur, Elon Musk.

So, how is Musk able to achieve feats that would scare even the most ambitious entrepreneurs? He’s mastered two concepts: First Principles and Modularity.

The Concept of First Principle

The concept of first principle thinking has been around for a while. But when it comes to business, no one seems to apply this concept as well and as often as the serial entrepreneur Elon Musk. Using this principle, Musk successfully founded SpaceX and turned what seemed like a pipe dream into reality.

What exactly is First Principle Thinking? Simply put, it involves simplifying a challenge or problem by breaking it down into basic building blocks. When Elon Musk decided to start a company that would accelerate his dream of colonizing Mars, there was one crucial piece of the puzzle that was missing: a space rocket.

It would cost the new company millions of dollars to buy a used space rocket, and that is if anyone was willing to sell. To solve this issue, Musk turned to the principle of First Principle and built a rocket from scratch. Here is how he explains it in an interview;

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First principles are kind of a physics way of looking at the world, and what that really means is you kind of boil things down to the most fundamental truths and say, okay, what are we sure is true or are we sure as possible is true and then reason up from there.

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So, instead of buying a rocket, Musk built one, and instead of buying battery packs for his electric car, Musk built a battery factory. Approaching a problem, this way strips it of any ambiguity and reveals the facts. Armed with these facts, any entrepreneur can turn the tides on what may have seemed like an impossible dream.

The Principle of Modularity

Modularity is the opposite of first principle. In first principle, you break the problem down to the simplest block, module, or form. The concept of modularity is about building or creating something one block or module at a time, just like Legos.

The Gigafactory is a testament to the effectiveness of this principle. When building the Gigafactory, which, by the way, is said to be the largest building in the world by volume, Musk ensured the factory was built in segments. Each segment was finished and operational, while the next segment was under construction.

With this approach, Musk was able to avoid delays and budget overruns that are typically associated with projects of this nature. The success of a modular concept lies in identifying a segment, block, or module that can be run independently without interfering with other aspects of the project. This is similar to identifying a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

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Put in basic terms: the minimum viable product, or MVP, is the simplest version of a product that you need to build to sell it to a market.

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As I mentioned, these concepts are not new, but then again, no one has applied them in business as well as Elon Musk. This has helped him defy the odds and do the impossible, making his dreams of colonizing Mars a possibility with each passing day.

Surely, you are not planning to colonize another planet, which means your dreams aren’t half as wild as Musk’s. And if he can figure it out with these principles, so can you.

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