A recent remark by Tesla CEO Elon Musk has ignited a firestorm of debate. He bluntly suggested that attending medical school might soon become ‘’pointless”, as AI and robotics are poised to outpace human capabilities. Beyond social networking, he argued, a university degree is no longer a prerequisite for success.
His words challenge a deeply ingrained belief: that following a time-tested formula will inevitably lead to a stable and prosperous life. Yet, as technological change accelerates, even the most prestigious skills are seeing their “shelf life” contract at an alarming rate.
While Musk highlighted how specialized fields like medicine could be upended, he left the most critical question unanswered: How should we respond?
This question resonates with the pivotal transitions in my own career. My journey has taken me from the life of a national-level tennis player to elite academic institutions, and eventually into the worlds of entrepreneurship and venture capital. From the outside, this path may look like a seamless collection of high-status labels. But behind those accolades was a constant need for profound identity shifts and mental recalibration.
In my view, regardless of your field, the most vital asset is not your title, but the courage to constantly adjust.
Tennis, entrepreneurship, and investing are vastly different arenas. Each transition forced me to dismantle and rebuild my mental frameworks from the ground up. My appetite for risk and innate curiosity repeatedly pulled me into unfamiliar territory, expanding both my resilience and my worldview.
Had I stayed on the tennis court, I might be a professional coach today—an honorable and stable career. But had I clung to that singular identity or refused to adapt to the unknown, I never would have survived the volatility of business, let alone entered the high-stakes world of investing, which demands constant macro-level judgment.
This journey led me to a realization: the most successful individuals possess an exceptional degree of cognitive agility. When the landscape shifts, they don’t linger in frustration. They acknowledge when their original assumptions are no longer valid and move swiftly to identify the next opportunity. They experiment boldly, fail fast, and course-correct even faster.
Elon Musk’s commentary is certainly thought-provoking. However, more than any specific career choice, it is this ability to shatter our own assumptions and lean into change that will serve as our compass through the technological storms ahead.
