The Excel Habit: Break It Down
🧩 Mental Engine - Understanding a high performer’s mental wiring.
Before Elon Musk built SpaceX, he built an Excel sheet.
In the early 2000s, NASA was spending $30M+ per launch. Musk broke rockets down to raw materials: aerospace aluminum, titanium, and fuel.
The bill? Just 2–3% of the sticker price.
Why it matters:
Building rockets wasn’t inherently expensive. Throwing them out was.
It’s the same logic that makes air travel affordable. A Boeing 737 can fly thousands of times. A single-use jet would make NY–LA cost as much as a yacht.
The principle:
To spot a disruption, reduce the “impossible” to its parts.
Henry Ford split car manufacturing into 84 steps, cutting 12-hour builds down to 90 minutes.
The mass auto market was born.
Your move this week:
Take a problem that feels overwhelming. Break it into smaller units: inputs, steps, or costs. Where’s the waste? Where’s the leverage?
Bottom line: Myths intimidate; maps don’t—chart your solution step by step.