Bad Habits CEO’s Like Bill Gates and Elon Musk Had to Break

Not everyone is born productive. Even some of the most successful CEO’s have had to break bad habits like procrastination, caffeine addictions and shouting in the office.

There is an aura around CEO’s and their accomplishments. People look up to them and try to replicate their success by imitating their routine and activities. We’ve all heard how leaders like Apple CEO Tim Cook wake up before 6 AM or how Warren Buffet reads 500 pages everyday.

But just like us regular folk, they too have had to overcome bad habits to become more productive.

Bill Gates: Founder and former CEO of Microsoft

“I liked to show people that I didn’t do any work, that I didn’t go to classes and that I didn’t care,” Gates revealed about his time at Harvard University. “That was my positioning: the guy who did nothing until the last minute.”

But as his business began to grow, he realized he needed to stop procrastinating. To keep up with the pace of his peers, he stopped putting things off to the last minute and became more organized.

Elon Musk: CEO of Tesla and Space X

“I used to have so much coffee that I’d get really wired,” admitted Elon Musk in an interview. “I’d get over-caffeinated and it wouldn’t be good.”

After realizing that drinking up to 8 cans of Diet Cola a day was disturbing his sleep and health, Musk decided to to switch. He instead has water and limits himself to 2 caffeinated drinks per day.

Mark Cuban: CEO of Dallas Mavericks

“[Yelling] just increases stress. When you increase stress, the people around you, productivity, profitability and competitiveness decline,” said Mark Cuban on The Jamie Weinstein Show podcast, referring to spars with his partner Martin Woodall. The Shark Tank personality recognized that the only way to increase productivity was to be respectful and sensitive to others when communicating.

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