I don't spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems.
It is a mistake to hire huge numbers of people to get a complicated job done. Numbers will never compensate for talent in getting the right answer (two people who don't know something are no better than one), will tend to slow down progress, and will make the task incredibly expensive.
Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product.
I do love email. Wherever possible I try to communicate asynchronously. I'm really good at email.
If you go back back a few hundred years, what we take for granted today would seem like magic - being able to talk to people over long distances, to transmit images, flying, accessing vast amounts of data like an oracle. These are all things that would have been considered magic a few hundred years ago.
I think life on Earth must be about more than just solving problems... It's got to be something inspiring, even if it is vicarious.
You have to be pretty driven to make it happen. Otherwise, you will just make yourself miserable.
I wouldn't say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I'd like my fear emotion to be less because it's very distracting and fries my nervous system.
Let's think beyond the normal stuff and have an environment where that sort of thinking is encouraged and rewarded and where it's okay to fail as well. Because when you try new things, you try this idea, that idea... well a large number of them are not gonna work, and that has to be okay. If every time somebody comes up with an idea it has to be successful, you're not gonna get people coming up with ideas.
My motivation for all my companies has been to be involved in something that I thought would have a significant impact on the world.
Physics is a good framework for thinking. ... Boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there.
You want to be extra rigorous about making the best possible thing you can. Find everything that's wrong with it and fix it.
I think we are at the dawn of a new era in commercial space exploration.
I just want to retire before I go senile because if I don't retire before I go senile, then I'll do more damage than good at that point.
America is the spirit of human exploration distilled.
To make an embarrassing admission, I like video games. That's what got me into software engineering when I was a kid. I wanted to make money so I could buy a better computer to play better video games. Nothing like saving the world.
As a child I would just question things...
Don't be afraid of new arenas.
You shouldn't do things differently just because they're different. They need to be... better.
I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.
I could either watch it happen or be a part of it.
An asteroid or a supervolcano could certainly destroy us, but we also face risks the dinosaurs never saw: An engineered virus, nuclear war, inadvertent creation of a micro black hole, or some as-yet-unknown technology could spell the end of us.
When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars people said, 'Nah, what's wrong with a horse?' That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.
There are some important differences between me and Tony Stark, like I have five kids, so I spend more time going to Disneyland than parties.
Patience is a virtue, and I'm learning patience. It's a tough lesson.
People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.
I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.
It's OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.
If you're trying to create a company, it's like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion.
Yeah, well I think anyone who likes fast cars will love the Tesla. And it has fantastic handling by the way. I mean this car will crush a Porsche on the track, just crush it. So if you like fast cars, you'll love this car. And then oh, by the way, it happens to be electric and it's twice the efficiency of a Prius.
When I was in college, I wanted to be involved in things that would change the world.
Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.
Weighing too much on someone's talent and not someone's personality. I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.
The path to the CEO's office should not be through the CFO's office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design.
Life is too short for long-term grudges.
If something's important enough, you should try. Even if you - the probable outcome is failure.
When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.