Example

Musk used this approach in his space ventures. Instead of accepting that building rockets had to be astronomically expensive (as most thought), he broke the problem down. He asked, “What are the actual raw materials required to build a rocket?” By sourcing these raw materials and focusing on optimizing the process, SpaceX could create rockets for a fraction of the traditional cost. By rebuilding from first principles—starting with the raw materials and engineering new ways to construct rockets—SpaceX drastically reduced costs.