No.
It's not. It's it. There's no need even to have a college degree
at all or even high schools the
I mean if somebody graduated from a great university that maybe an
you know if you look at
Say people like Bill Gates for Larry Ellison Steve Jobs
These guys didn't graduate from college, but if you had a chance to hire them of course. That would be a good idea
so you know just really looking just for evidence of
exceptional ability, and if there's a track record of exceptional achievement
Then it's likely that that will continue into the future how I describe myself
Well I mean I seem to have a high innate drive
And that's been true even since I was a little kid you know really?
Had a very strong Drive did all sorts of risky things for his kid that I like why did I do those things are crazy?
I care a lot about the truth of things and trying to understand the truth of things I think so I think
that's
important
If you're going to come up with some solution then the truth is really really important, I think I
Try to think of I mean, it's it's difficult obviously come up with like things that are praise for oneself
You know or like it. There's and there's bad and good here, but?
I
think like sometimes they're just like the things that seem quite clear and obvious to me and I I
I don't understand why they aren't so obvious to everyone
So how would you educate your five boys?
Actually, I created a little school
hahaha
Yeah, what kind of school could you describe sure it's I mean it's small
It's only got 14 kids now, and it'll have 20 kids and in September
It's called ad astra which means to the stars. That's maybe a bit different from
From most of the schools is that there aren't any grades?
There's no there's no like look grade 1 grade 2 grade 3 type of thing
I'm making all the children go and that in the same grade at the same time like an assembly line
I know you know cuz some people love English or languages some people love math some people love music and
And different abilities different times it makes more sense to to cater the education to match their aptitudes and abilities
It's like that's one principle
Another is that it's important to teach?
Teach problem solving or teach to the problem not to the tools so this would be like
Let's say
You're trying to teach people about
How engines work before you know you could start by the more traditional approach would be to say we're going to teach you all about
screwdrivers and wrenches and and you even have a course on screwdrivers a course on wrenches and all these things and it's
This is a very difficult way to do it a much better way would be like here's the engine now
Let's take it apart. How are we going to take it apart? Oh you need a screwdriver?
That's what the screwdrivers for you need a wrench. That's what the wrench is for
And then a very important thing happens
Which is that the relevance of the tools becomes apparent so all five boys are in that school? Yes until when this is from?
When you're old, haha
They like it they like it yeah, and you want to keep them away from regular schools
No, I just didn't see that the regular schools
Just they weren't doing the things that I thought should be done like you know those two principals. They weren't
adhering to those principles, so I thought well, let's see what we can do maybe creating a school will be better and
Actually hired a teacher from the school
they were at
You also agreed with me that there was a better way to do it have they surprised you in a way of their innovative
thinking
Yeah, it seems to be going pretty. Well. I mean I the kids really love going to school
I think that's a good sign. You know I mean I hated going to school when I was a kid it was torture
So the fact that they like they actually think occasions are too long, mmm. They want to go back to school
Yeah, exactly I know
What is it?
Well I mean those are pretty different personalities in it between gates and jobs and Alison's at success
Well, I think you know all
All three of those were technologists, but with different types of skills
and their jobs was obviously very good with aesthetics and
You know
against the technology of course
and you really insert where people wanted even when they didn't know themselves and
He was not afraid to break boundaries, but say like gates would probably be better at
You know sort of raw engineering and technology than jobs, but not as good on aesthetics
But I mean for these guys of the obviously very driven and they're very talented and
Yeah, and they're able to attract great people to hold a company
But I needed that like the
the ability to attract and motivate great people is
critical to the success of a company because the company is just that's a group of people that are assembled to create a product or
service
That's the purpose of a company
if you all some of us forget this elementary truth and so if
You know if you're able to get great people to join the company and work together towards a common goal and
and you sort of have a
relentless sense of perfection about that goal, then you will end up with a great product and
Have a great product. Let's if you will buy it and then we kind of know we'll be successful. Yeah really
It's pretty straightforward really yeah, I mean yeah, that's the reason for it
I wouldn't say I'm fearless in fact. I I think I fear I feel fear quite strongly
but I am
if the if what we're doing isn't
you know what I'm doing is I think it's important enough then I just
override the fear
So, but it's not as that I don't feel I feel a little like more stronger than I would like
Well it really depends on the stakes if the stakes are high if it's really important
then one should then I you know will overcome the fear and just do it anyway I
Essentially I mean I just
Drive over rights fear, but I feel the fear. It's kind of annoying. I wish isn't oh, Sh. I felt it less
So
Yeah these all these introspective questions are interesting. I don't get the ask these very often
And then like I try to think like what is like an evident an accurate reply
And somebody said it's like I know it's hard to evaluate yourself on these things yeah
Well probably SpaceX I thought it had the lowest chance of success
I
Mean I thought both Tesla and SpaceX would fail at the beginning
You saw it yeah really of course, but nevertheless you put all your money in that
Expected to lose it well technically what I thought was well
I'll take half the money from PayPal, and if I lose half of it. That's okay
But then of course the companies encounter difficulties and then have a choice of that you like let the company die
Or put you know you know
all the money into the companies and so I
Really didn't want the companies to die so I put all the money in the companies
Yeah, and then I had to borrow money for friends should pay living expenses yes
What was your best idea ever my best idea ever yeah?
This is tricky I suppose
coming to
North America was my best idea okay, because I think these things would not have been accomplished
Anyway, you know almost anywhere else. It's really hard to start a company
but
You know in particularly?
California Silicon Valley is very conducive to startup companies and
Yeah, and so yeah
You know whenever I read books in South Africa it would seem like the cutting edge of technology was
In Silicon Valley and so that that's what I wanted to come and I wanted to move move to this mythical place
Well there's there's lots of things, but you know when life is short, and there's lots of things that
Could be done that one can't necessarily do
And these really are introspective questions
I think it no I mean
I'm overall I think I'm pretty pretty happy with what wait you know where things are it's hard not to be honestly
I'd be
Yeah
If things are in a good place right now
and I
Mean I'd like to at looking ahead I'd like to see
Humanity go beyond Earth and have
People on Mars that would be really great
and to see widespread adoption of electric vehicles and
renewable energy
these were great things and
Yeah, thought I thought would be really really cool