One thing that Musk holds in the highest regard is resolve, and he respects people who continue on

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1 Elon Musk One thing that Musk holds in the highest regard is resolve, and he respects people who continue on after being told no. The planet has been heated up and transformed to suit humans Turning humans into space colonizers is his stated life s purpose When Musk sets unrealistic goals, verbally abuses employees, and works them to the bone, it s understood to be on some level part of the Mars agenda. He s the possessed genius on the grandest quest anyone has ever concocted. He s less a CEO chasing riches than a general marshaling troops to secure victory. Where Mark Zuckerberg wants to help you share baby photos, Musk wants to well save the human race from self-imposed or accidental annihilation. Asked how he survives this schedule, Musk said, I had a tough childhood, so maybe that was helpful. Musk has taken industries like aerospace and automotive that America seemed to have given up on and recast them as something new and fantastic. At the heart of this transformation are Musk s skills as a software maker and his ability to apply them to machines. We need to look at different models of how to do things that are longer term in nature and where technology is more integrated. He does what he wants, and he is relentless about it. It s Elon s world, and the rest of us live in it. Musk came to see man s fate in the universe is a personal obligation. He points out that one of the really tough things is figuring out what questions to ask. Once you figure out the question, then the answer is relatively easy. I came to the conclusion that really we should aspire to increase the scope and scale of human consciousness in order to better understand what questions to ask. The only thing that makes sense to do is strive for greater collective enlightment. Ever in search to do something new You just have to make a decision and do it It does not improve automatically, it improves because a lot of people work very hard to make it better He had found a way to block out the world and dedicate all of his concentration to a single task You don t know what you don t know. You realize there are all these things out there. Ultra-present and very intense You don t grow up thinking getting a job is the hard part. That s not interesting enough Set the tone for keeping people captivated and inspired. You can t blow him off ( ) He locks his gaze on to something and says, It shall be mine. Bit by bit, he won me over When Elon gets into something, he develops just this different level of interest in it than other people. He s been in pursuit of a master plan all along. Be inspired yourself Profit is a sign that you make things right that you make good use of your research that people are willing to pay for it Why do you want to live? What inspires you? What do you love about the future? Have future that is inspiring and appealing. There must be reasons that you get up in the morning and want to live

2 I like to make technologies real that I think are important for the future and useful in some sort of way. After a short while, I don t think anyone was giving him any direction, and he ended up making what he wanted to make Take over the situation confident and in control The word no does not exist, and he expects that attitude from everyone around him Do or die but don t give up Quick thinking and work ethic He takes things very personally and usually seeks war While others tried to wrap their heads around the Internet s implications, Musk had already set off on a purposeful plan of attack. He always works from a different understanding than the rest of us He wasn t afraid of responsibility. He didn t run from things I am the alpha in this relationship He s built like a tank. He has a level of stamina and an ability to deal with levels of stress that I ve never seen in anyone else That s my lesson for taking a vacation: vacations will kill you The sacrifice he made in order to be where he was Scientific mind Do something meaningful with his life something lasting He has this belief that he is the guy who can change the world Musk never flinched Weeding out the naysayers meeting by meeting and forming a crew of bright, committed engineers He doesn t do well in dark places. He s forward-moving, and I think it s a survival thing with him What Musk would not tolerate were excuses or the lack of a clear plan of attack He s not afraid to get his hands dirty Can be very demanding, but he ll make sure the obstacles in your way are removed Looking for brainy engineers who had not just done well at school but had done something exceptional with their talents When you interview make sure you can talk concretely about what you do rather than use buzzwords No time to wait for permits No tolerance for that kind of stuff

3 This is a guy that thinks big Know how to get shit done Would dig in deeper We re changing the world and changing history, and you either commit or you don t What we have to do is fucking hard and half-assing things won t be tolerated Just get the job done ( ) He listens, asks good questions, is fast on his feet, and gets to the bottom of things Being with me was choosing the hard path Build quick and learn quickly You guys need to get your shit together He didn t just survive. He kept working and stayed focused. I ve just never seen anything like his ability to take pain That sort of quest gets you out of bed in the morning. They re asked to write an essay for Musk about why they want to work at SpaceX If you want as hard as it gets, then great. If not, then you shouldn t come here He just knows what the fuck he wants done The issue is doing it and like actually creating a rocket that can make that happen Everything he does is fast But in order to achieve the external promised schedule, you ve got to have an internal schedule that s more aggressive than that You could see that he was a step or three ahead of everyone else and one hundred percent committed to what we were doing Make enormous decisions very quickly He wants answers that get down to the fundamental laws of physics That needs to stop immediately or I will take drastic action I have given enough warnings over the years Wants things done as efficiently as possible Embrace your work and get stuff done guidance/ instruction/ feedback/ impossible Fine. You re off the project and I am now the CEO of the project If the rules are such that you can t make progress, then you have to fight the rules At some point, the being nice to everyone thing doesn t work He gets twice as much as anyone else out of people Creating great products

4 A place where we are doing things, not talking about things Knew better than to go into a meeting and deliver bad news without some sort of alternative plan at the ready Take it down to the physics We have to decide what is the best ( ) in the world and then do better Can store things that others have deemed to look good away in his brain for recall at any time Think up things that consumers did not even know they wanted Anyone can make a car big on the outside. The trick is to make it big on the inside All of the design and technology choices should be directed toward the goal of making a car as close to perfect as possible Either you re trying to make something spectacular with no compromises or you re not. And if you re not, ( ) considers you a failure. Promoted a flood of junior people who had been doing above-average work So, I don t care what job you were doing. Your new job is Felt like it was the most important problem facing Tesla at the time and that s always what he deals with and how he prioritizes Played off the crowd s enthusiasm. The man who had been awkward in front of media during the PayPal years had developed a unique, slick stagecraft Turn Tesla into a lifestyle It adds features one by one It s not really like there was a rush to this idea, and we got there first. It is frequently forgotten in hindsight that people thought this was the shittiest business opportunity on the planet What separated Tesla from the competition was the willingness to charge after its vision without compromise, a complete commitment to execute to Musk s standards It seemed like the right thing to do, not because it made business sense Did not represent a business opportunity so much as it represented a worldview Raise a huge amount of money just in case something terrible happens I like the idea of it Musk remains willing to lose it all. He doesn t want to build just one Gigafactory but several. Timing is important. We have to do everything we can to minimize the timing risk Speaks about ( ) with such passion He thinks they re the right things to pursue for the betterment of mankind Raison d être (turning humans into an interplanetary species) Musk has decided ( ) that he should dedicate his life to making this happen

5 If Musk wanted to get to Mars, he would have to earn it Idea originated out of his hatred for California s proposed high-speed rail system make the public and legislators rethink Wanted to show people that more creative ideas were out there for things that might actually solve problems and push the state forward He s so passionate. He can be impatient and say God damn it! This is what we have to do! He has risked more than anyone else They re expected to jump in without missing a beat and to execute at the highest level Ultimate confirmation of his cruel stoicism He s smart in all sorts of areas. He s very well read and has incredible wit When he feels something, he feels it so completely and purely. Nothing else can impose on it He would do everything in his considerable power to help that friend / He will protect those close to him at all costs Help solve the problems to the absolute best of their abilities or they need to get out of the way He s trying to solve problems that have been consuming him for decades Well, what should I really do in this world? You always need to start with the first principles of a problem. What are the physics of it? How much time will it take? How much will it cost? How much cheaper can I make it? We go through hundreds or thousands of possible things before arriving at the ones that are most promising Was going to make them work no matter what. He s willing to suffer some personal cost Came to the conclusion ( ) that life is short ( ) If you really embrace this, it leaves you with the obvious conclusion that you should be working as hard as you can Suffering helped to make him who he is and gave him extra reserves of strength and will Possess a level of conviction that is so intense and exceptional as to be off-putting to some Is a body that remains very much in motion Man on a quest The objective should be what delivers fundamental value