Linda Yaccarino spent 2 years as Elon Musk’s X CEO. She says his ‘insatiable sense of urgency’ is the secret to his trillionaire success

Linda Yaccarino served as CEO of Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, for two years. The media veteran revealed that Musk's "insatiable sense of urgency" was the key to his success across all his companies, from Tesla to SpaceX. Yaccarino noted that this mindset, which involves moving fast, rethinking everything, and not waiting for tomorrow, forces teams to strip projects down to their most essential components and figure out what truly needs to happen to succeed.

When she joined Twitter, the platform was undergoing significant changes, including the retirement of its blue-bird logo and its transformation into X, all with a fraction of its pre-Musk staff. The rapid pace of change and the challenges around misinformation, hate speech, and bots were part of the allure for Yaccarino. Her own career path began with a clerical error during her internship at NBC, but she used this setback as a stepping stone to a successful three-decade career in media sales and advertising.

Yaccarino's advice for the younger generation is to seek out challenging and consequential roles, rather than simply following a "good path." She also emphasizes the importance of developing unique skills and experiences that stand out in an AI-driven world, highlighting the significance of human skills like empathy and decision-making.