Speaker A
I'm available 24/7 to help solve issues. Right, call me 3 A.M. on a Sunday morning, I don't care. The way that I usually describe myself is an engineer, because that's mostly what I do. Most of what I do is engineering.
Elon Musk shares his relentless work ethic, entrepreneurial journey, and vision for sustainable energy and multi-planetary life.
Key Takeaways
- Relentless work ethic and long hours are crucial for startup success.
- Entrepreneurship requires high pain tolerance and willingness to take risks.
- Sustainable energy and space colonization are vital for humanity's future.
- Listening to feedback and adapting is key to product and company growth.
- Failure is an essential part of learning and innovation.
Summary
- Elon Musk describes himself primarily as an engineer deeply involved in designing cars, rockets, and spacecraft.
- He emphasizes his 24/7 availability and willingness to work extremely long hours to solve problems.
- Musk recounts his early life, moving from Canada to the US to pursue technology and entrepreneurship.
- He discusses the founding of PayPal, focusing on the importance of hard work and responding to user feedback.
- Musk highlights the significance of sustainable energy and making life multi-planetary as key challenges for humanity.
- He shares insights on the high risk and low initial probability of success for SpaceX and Tesla.
- Musk stresses the importance of working harder than others to increase chances of success.
- He talks about the personal sacrifices made, including financial risks and intense work schedules.
- Musk reflects on the value of failure as a learning tool and the need for resilience in entrepreneurship.
- He envisions a future where humanity expands beyond Earth while solving terrestrial energy problems.
Chapters
- 00:00Elon Musk's Engineering Focus and Work Ethic
- 01:45Early Life and Decision to Pursue Technology
- 05:20Starting PayPal and Importance of Hard Work
- 09:06Working Long Hours and Responding to Feedback
- 10:54Financial Risks and Commitment to Innovation
- 14:10Vision for Sustainable Energy and Space Exploration
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
engineering um so I spend most of the week with my engineering and design team working on you know the current car and future cars and the rockets and spacecraft and that kind of thing you know when I was a kid
Speaker A
So I spend most of the week with my engineering and design team working on, you know, the current car and future cars and the rockets and spacecraft and that kind of thing. You know, when I was a kid,
Speaker A
buy better computers so it wasn't really you know with some Grand Vision or anything when I was growing up I'd read lots of books and uh they were very often set in the United States and it seemed like a lot of new technology was
Speaker A
I didn't really have any grand designs. I mean, the reason I started programming computers is because I liked computer games, and I played lots of computer games. I learned that if I wrote software and sold it, then I could get more money and
Speaker A
were divorced and and So eventually I was able to get my Canadian citizenship because my mom had been born in Canada so I moved first to Canada by myself when I was 17 and then a few years later
Speaker A
buy better computers. So it wasn't really, you know, with some grand vision or anything. When I was growing up, I'd read lots of books, and they were very often set in the United States, and it seemed like a lot of new technology was
Speaker A
internet was going to have a big effect on Humanity so I I thought well I can either work on electric vehicle technology and do my PhD at Stanford and once the internet get built or I could put my studies on hold and try to
Speaker A
being developed in the United States. So I thought, okay, I really want to work on new technology, so I want to get to Silicon Valley. Foreign. At first, to convince my parents to move to the US, but none of them were—they
Speaker A
then I better try starting something but I talked to my professor and I said look I'm going to try starting a company I'm probably not going to succeed and if it doesn't succeed can I come back he said
Speaker A
were divorced, and so eventually I was able to get my Canadian citizenship because my mom had been born in Canada. So I moved first to Canada by myself when I was 17, and then a few years later
Speaker A
was kind of how it started because initially the initial I thought was with PayPal was to create an agglomeration of financial services so if you have one place where all your financial services needs would be seamlessly integrated and
Speaker A
I moved to the U.S. The reason I came out to Silicon Valley was actually to work on energy storage technologies for electric cars at that suburb of 95. I was looking at the internet, and it seemed to me like the
Speaker A
of financial services which was quite difficult to put together nobody was interested then we'd show people email payments which was actually quite easy and everybody was interested I think it's important to take feedback from your environment do you want to be as
Speaker A
internet was going to have a big effect on humanity. So I thought, well, I can either work on electric vehicle technology and do my PhD at Stanford once the internet gets built, or I could put my studies on hold and try to
Speaker A
would not have been successful going from PayPal I thought it will what what are some of the the other problems that are likely to most affect the future of humanity um it really wasn't from the perspective of what's the rank ordered best way to
Speaker A
be part of the internet. At first, I tried to get a job at Netscape because that was the only internet company, and they didn't respond to me. So I was like, okay, if I can't get a job at the only internet company,
Speaker A
consumption of energy in a sustainable manner if we don't solve that this the sensory is the century we're we're in deep trouble um and then the other one being the extension of life beyond Earth to make life multi-planetary
Speaker A
then I better try starting something. But I talked to my professor, and I said, look, I'm going to try starting a company. I'm probably not going to succeed, and if it doesn't succeed, can I come back? He said,
Speaker A
wasn't that crazy but but then I thought well what is a way to increase NASA's budget that was actually my initial goal so I actually went to I went to Russia three times to look at buying a refurbished icvm I can tell you it was
Speaker A
sure, no problem. So I put my studies on hold, and I started the company, did some internet stuff, one of which was PayPal. I think maybe it's helpful to say one of the things that was important then in the creation of PayPal was Whisk,
Speaker A
[Music] particularly if you're starting a company you need to work super hard so what what does Super heart mean well when my brother and I were starting our first company instead of getting an apartment we just rented a small office
Speaker A
was kind of how it started. Because initially, the initial thought with PayPal was to create an agglomeration of financial services. So if you have one place where all your financial services needs would be seamlessly integrated and
Speaker A
briefly had a girlfriend in that period and in order to be with me she had to sleep in the office so work hard like every waking hour that's that's the the thing I would I would say do simple math to say like okay if
Speaker A
work smoothly. And then we had like a little feature which was to do email payments. Whenever we showed the system off to someone, we'd show the hard part, which was the agglomeration
Speaker A
know 80 hour 80 to 100 hour weeks every week that all those things improve the odds of success if other people are putting in 40-hour work weeks and you're putting in 100 hour work weeks then even if uh
Speaker A
of financial services, which was quite difficult to put together. Nobody was interested. Then we'd show people email payments, which was actually quite easy, and everybody was interested. I think it's important to take feedback from your environment. Do you want to be as
Speaker A
of hours to actual working actually working so the way I generally do it is I'll be working at SpaceX on Monday and then Monday night fly to Bay Area I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at Bavaria then at Tesla and then fly back on
Speaker A
closed loop as possible? We focused on email payments and really tried to make that work, and that's what really got things to take off. But if we hadn't responded to what people said, then we probably
Speaker A
week sleeping in the factory I worked everything I worked in the Paint Shop General Assembly Body Shop you ever worry about yourself imploding like it's just too much absolutely no one should put this many hours into work this is not good
Speaker A
would not have been successful. Going from PayPal, I thought, what are some of the other problems that are likely to most affect the future of humanity? It really wasn't from the perspective of what's the rank-ordered best way to
Speaker A
then Tesla your chassis would die [Music] basically both SpaceX and Tesla from the beginning a probability of less than ten percent of like we've elected to succeed in the beginning I wouldn't actually wouldn't even let my friends invest
Speaker A
make money, which is okay, but it was really what I think is going to most affect the future of humanity. So I think the biggest terrestrial problem we've got is sustainable energy, the production and
Speaker A
plan where I had to have the money from PayPal I had like about 180 million from PayPal I thought you know I'll I'll allocate half of that to SpaceX and Tesla and SolarCity and um that should be fine I'll have 90 million
Speaker A
consumption of energy in a sustainable manner. If we don't solve that this century, we're in deep trouble. And then the other one being the extension of life beyond Earth to make life multi-planetary.
Speaker A
die um for example I ended up putting all the money in and borrowing money for rent from France if you want to try to come up with an Innovative breakthrough um that's kind of that's going to be how
Speaker A
So the latter is the basis for SpaceX, and the former is the basis for Tesla and SolarCity. Foreign. I started SpaceX. Initially, I thought that, well, there's no way one could possibly start a rocket company. I
Speaker A
taking a big risk is worthwhile really I approach it but but then once executing down a path I actually do my absolute best to reduce uh risk you know because or to improve the another way of saying to improve the probability of
Speaker A
wasn't that crazy. But then I thought, well, what is a way to increase NASA's budget? That was actually my initial goal. So I actually went to Russia three times to look at buying a refurbished ICBM. I can tell you it was
Speaker A
of constitutionally just geared to to just keep going I don't know um it's a [Music] yeah I mean it just like I I don't know I mean it certainly there are times when things don't go well and then that's
Speaker A
very weird going there in late 2001, 2002, going to the Russian rocket forces and saying I'd like to buy two of your biggest rockets, but you can keep the nuke. They thought I was crazy, but I did have money, so that was okay.
Speaker A
there's well there's there's not it's not clear what other things would succeed and if if we don't succeed then we'll be certainly pointed to as a reason why people shouldn't even try for these things so I think it's important that we do
Speaker A
[Music] Particularly if you're starting a company, you need to work super hard. So what does super hard mean? Well, when my brother and I were starting our first company, instead of getting an apartment, we just rented a small office
Speaker A
the big picture like you know you know where you're generally heading for and the actual path is going to be some sort of zigzaggy thing in that direction um I try not to deviate too far from the path that that you want to be on but
Speaker A
and we slept on the couch and we showered at the YMCA. We were so hot up, we had just one computer, so the website was up during the day, and I was coding at night, seven days a week, all the time.
Speaker A
put it all into one company and then the other company would definitely die or splitter between the two companies and but if I split it between the two companies they both might die and you know when you put your
Speaker A
I briefly had a girlfriend in that period, and in order to be with me, she had to sleep in the office. So work hard, like every waking hour. That's the thing I would say. Do simple math to say, like, okay, if
Speaker A
fortunately thank goodness they both came through was it a great feeling well I certainly have lost many battles uh so far I've not lost the war but I've certainly lost many battles oh yeah more than I could count probably
Speaker A
somebody else is working 50 hours and you're working 100, you'll get twice as much done in the course of a year as the other company. Work like hell. I mean, just have to put in, you
Speaker A
the Silicon Valley Mantra fail fast fail often or as Esther Dyson says always make new mistakes as if failure is The Crucible of learning I'm curious if you had any further thoughts on that and that maybe off the cuff comment you made
Speaker A
know, 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. All those things improve the odds of success. If other people are putting in 40-hour work weeks and you're putting in 100-hour work weeks, then even if
Speaker A
particularly like for a rocket there's like a thousand ways to think and fail in like one way it can work so uh you could you could have a lot of Rocket failures to explore all the ways in which you can fail
Speaker A
you're doing the same thing, in one year you will achieve what they achieve in four months when it takes them a year to achieve. [Music] Then you just have to apply a lot
Speaker A
can learn from that and you know do another company and it's not a big deal I mean I think it's it's like quite quite painful and difficult honestly and it feels terrible um but uh yeah I mean the the company's
Speaker A
of hours to actual working, actually working. So the way I generally do it is I'll be working at SpaceX on Monday, and then Monday night fly to Bay Area. I spend Tuesday and Wednesday at Bavaria, then at Tesla, and then fly back on
Speaker A
of really smart people working super hard to minimize the probability of failure it's still still there and it's um and it's you know it's quite significant you know people have asked me like well why why are Rockets you know especially
Speaker A
Wednesday night, spend Thursday and Friday at SpaceX. In the last several months, then I would fly back here on a Saturday, and either spend Saturday and Sunday at Tesla, or spend Saturday at Tesla and Sunday at SpaceX. So seven days a
Speaker A
over that mindset that Embraces failure how do you personally I mean it that those kinds of failures would drive a lot of us in this room nuts but it doesn't seem to drive you nuts seems like you're very
Speaker A
week sleeping in the factory. I worked everything. I worked in the paint shop, general assembly, body shop. You ever worry about yourself imploding, like it's just too much? Absolutely. No one should put this many hours into work. This is not good.
Speaker A
you know all the set of actions that you can do there's going to be uh and some which will fail some which will succeed and you want the the net useful output of your set of actions to be the
Speaker A
You should not work this hard. I'm not—they should not do this. This is very painful. Painful in what sense? It's because it hurts my brain and my heart. This is not recommended for anyone. I just did it because if I didn't do it,
Speaker A
third one and they say okay and they get off the go back to the put somebody else up there um so these three strikes on on baseball so what you're really looking for is like what's your batting average
Speaker A
then Tesla, your chassis would die. [Music] Basically, both SpaceX and Tesla from the beginning had a probability of less than ten percent of being elected to succeed. In the beginning, I wouldn't actually even let my friends invest
Speaker A
and uh we're just barely able to scrape together enough parts and money to do the fourth launch that fourth launch had failed we would have been dead so multiple failures along the way um I tried very hard to get the right
Speaker A
because I didn't want to lose their money. I thought it was like, I don't lose my own money. We almost did die at SpaceX, actually. So I budgeted for three flights. I mean, technically, I didn't have a
Speaker A
of the rocket so if I could have found somebody better than we would have maybe had less than three failures how do you think about making a decision when everyone tells you this is a crazy idea where do you get the internal
Speaker A
plan where I had to have the money from PayPal. I had like about 180 million from PayPal. I thought, you know, I'll allocate half of that to SpaceX and Tesla and SolarCity, and that should be fine. I'll have 90 million
Speaker A
something is important enough you believe in it enough that you do it in spite of fear there are people who've been in the rocketry business for decades yeah who say about you that you don't know what you don't know
Speaker A
left, just flats, you know. But then what happened is things cost more and took longer than I thought, so I had a choice of either put the rest of the money in or the companies are going to
Speaker A
cernan have both testified against commercial space flight in the way that you're developing it and I wonder what you think of that I was very sad to see that because those guys are yeah [Music] you know those guys are heroes of mine
Speaker A
die. For example, I ended up putting all the money in and borrowing money for rent from friends. If you want to try to come up with an innovative breakthrough,
Speaker A
direction it's difficult did you expect them to cheer you on so they hoping they would what are you trying to prove to them what I'm trying to do is to make a significant difference in in space flight and and and help make
Speaker A
that's kind of how it is. Anything which is significantly innovative is going...
Speaker A
made me watch those you just didn't want me to lose all my money we're doing these things that seemed unlikely to succeed and we've been fortunate and at least thus far they have succeeded generally starting a business I'd say
Speaker A
number one is have a high pain threshold that's it there's a friend of mine who's got a good saying which is that starting a company is like eating glass and staring into the abyss okay that's that's generally what happens because
Speaker A
um when you first start a company there's lots of optimism and things that things are great and then so happiness at first is high then you encounter all sorts of issues and happiness will steadily Decline and then you'll go
Speaker A
through a whole world of hurt and then eventually you'll if you succeed and in most cases you will not succeed and Tesla almost didn't succeed came very close to failure um then if you succeed then after a long
Speaker A
time you will finally get back to happiness frankly the starting company you I would advise people to have a high pain tolerance it is definitely true that I mean maybe they're occasionally companies that get created where where there's not an extended period of
Speaker A
extreme pain um but I'm not aware of you know very many of such instances but I do think that your new great entrepreneurs are born of every day and we'll continue to see amazing companies get built but I I
Speaker A
would uh definitely advise people for starting a company to expect a long period of quite High difficulty it's really not that fun I mean there are periods of fun and there are periods of where where's the store for
Speaker A
um and particularly if you're a CEO of the company um you actually have a distillation of all the worst problems in the company there's no point in spending your time on things that are going right so you only spend on things on your time and
Speaker A
things that are going wrong and and the things that are going wrong that other people can't can't take care of so you're like the worst you have a filter for the Crafters problems in the company the most pernicious and painful
Speaker A
problem I think you have to feel quite compelled to do it and have a fairly High pain professional I mean as long as people stay super focused on creating the absolute best product or service that really Delights their end customer
Speaker A
like if they stay focused on that then basically if if you get a search that your customers want you to succeed then then you probably will if your customers love you your Art's a success or dramatically higher for somebody who's just starting out as
Speaker A
an entrepreneur I think the internet is a great place to start because if you're just starting out unless you've got a ton of capital that you somebody gave you or you're inherited or something you have to do something you have to start a
Speaker A
company that requires a small amount of capital where it's heavily awaited towards the intellectual capital in your head um so I think anything to do with with sort of software and you know the internet is is a really good starting
Speaker A
point you know it would have been impossible for me to to have done electric cars or Rockets you know right from the start because I would have those require money to get anything done being focused on something that you're
Speaker A
confident will have high value to someone else um and just being really rigorous in making that assessment because people tend to natural human tendency is wishful thinking um so a challenge for entrepreneurs is to say well what's the difference
Speaker A
between really believing in your ideals and sticking sticking to them versus pursuing some unrealistic dream that doesn't actually have Merit and it's it's that is a that is a really difficult thing to to tell you can you tell the difference between those two
Speaker A
things you know so you need to be sort of very rigorous in yourself self-analysis a successful entrepreneur has probably come in all sides of shapes and flavors and obsessive nature with respect to the quality of the product thank you
Speaker A
it is very important but even if you if you're the best the best there's always a chance of failure so I think it's important that you really like whatever you're doing if you don't like it life is too short if you like what you're
Speaker A
doing you think about it even when you're not working I mean it'll just it's something that your mind is drawn to um and and if you don't like it just really can't make it work I think if you're creating a company or if
Speaker A
you're joining a company the most important thing is to uh is to attract great people so either be with join a group that's amazing that you really respect or if you if you're building a company you've got to gather
Speaker A
great people I mean all the company is is a group of people that are gathered together to create a product or service and so depending upon how talented and hard-working that group is and the degree to which they're focused uh
Speaker A
cohesively in a good direction that will determine the success of the company so do everything you can to to gather great people if you're creating a company then I'd say focus on on signal over noise a lot of companies get get confused they
Speaker A
spend money on things that don't actually make the product better so for example at a Tesla we've we've never spent any money on Advertising we put all the money into r d and Manufacturing and design to try to make
Speaker A
the car as good as possible and I think that's that's the way to go so for any given company just could keep thinking about are these efforts that people are expanding are they resulting in a better product or service if
Speaker A
they're not stop those efforts [Music] don't just follow the trend so um you may have heard me say that it's good to think in terms of the physics approach your first principles which is rather than reasoning by analogy you
Speaker A
boil things down to the most fundamental truths you can imagine and you reason up from there and this is a good way to figure out if if something really makes sense or if it's just what everybody else is doing
Speaker A
it's hard to think that way you can't think think that way about everything it takes a lot of effort but if you're trying to do something new it's the best way to think and that framework was developed by by physicists to figure out
Speaker A
counter-intuitive things like quantum mechanics so it's really a powerful powerful method I think that's the final thing I would encourage you to do is now is the time to take risk you don't have kids as you get older your
Speaker A
obligations increase so and once you have a family you start taking risks not just for yourself but for your family as well it gets much harder to do things that might not work out so now is the time to do that uh before
Speaker A
you before you have those obligations so I would encourage you to take risks now do something bold um you won't regret it I think when I was I don't know five or six or something I thought I was insane
Speaker A
it was just strange because it was clear that other people did not their mind wasn't exploding with ideas it was like hmm and strange I don't think I don't think you'd necessarily want to be me it's very hard to turn it off
Speaker A
it's like a never-ending explosion all the time when I was a kid I was wondering kind of what's the meaning of life why are we here what's it all about came to the conclusion that work really matters is
Speaker A
trying to understand the right questions to ask the more that we can increase the scope and scale of human consciousness the better we are able to ask these questions there's certain things that are necessary to ensure that the future is
Speaker A
good some of those things are in the long term having long-term sustainable transport and sustainable energy generation be a space-bearing civilization and for Humanity to be out there among the stars and be a multi-planetary species being a multiplayer species and being
Speaker A
out there Among the Stars is important for the long-term survival of humanity the part that I find personally most motivating is that it creates a sense of adventure and it makes people excited about the future how many things can you buy that you
Speaker A
really love that really give you Joy so rare So Rare I wish there were more things that's what we're trying to do is make things that somebody loves the universe as we know it will dissipate into a fine mist
Speaker A
of cold nothingness eventually I don't want to sound like like things are too dark because I think like you kind of have to be optimistic about the future there's no point in being pessimistic like what are the set of things that can be done
Speaker A
to make the future better I think that a future where we are a space-faring civilization and out there Among the Stars this is very exciting this makes me look forward to the future it makes me want that future
Speaker A
I need to be things that make you look forward to waking up in the morning you wake up in the morning you look forward to the day look forward to the future that second version is incredibly exciting and inspiring
Speaker A
you know life can't just be about solving problems otherwise what's the point there's got to be things that people find inspiring and make life worth living in a future where we are space-bearing civilization and out there Among the
Speaker A
Stars I think that's very exciting that is a thing we want whereas if if you knew we would not be a space-frying civilization but forever confined to Earth this would not be a good future that would be very sad I
Speaker A
think [Music] there are two futurists and one future as we're out there among the stars and things we read about and see in science fiction movies the good ones are true we have these starships and we're [Music] going to see what other planets are like
Speaker A
we're a multi-penet species and the scope and scale of Consciousness is expanded across many civilizations and many planets and many Star systems this is a great future [Music] this is a wonderful thing to me and that's what we should strive for
Topics:Elon Muskwork ethicentrepreneurshipstartup motivationPayPalSpaceXTeslasustainable energymulti-planetary lifeinnovation
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