Elon Musk's advice to startup founders: "Seek out negative feedback"

“I think it’s very important to actively seek out and listen very carefully to negative feedback. This is something people tend to avoid because it’s painful. But I think this is a very common mistake.”

When friends try a product, Elon will say:

“Don’t tell me what you like. Tell me what you don’t like.”

As he explains:

“Otherwise your friend will not tell you what they don’t like… Most of your friends don’t want to offend you, so you really need to coax negative feedback… People should view positive feedback like water off a duck’s back—really underweight that and overweight negative feedback.”

Full video: Kevin Rose “Elon Musk and Kevin Rose“ (Sep 2012)

P.S. We’ve put together a YouTube playlist with every Elon Musk insight we’ve ever shared. You can watch it here: "Best startup advice from Elon Musk"