So what, what advice do I have for college graduates?
Certainly, I do want you to apply for a job at solar city or Tesla or SpaceX
and
if not then, if that doesn't work for whatever reason then
apply to jobs at other companies in that arena or
try starting a company.
If you study engineering and you figure out how to design new things
then it's relatively easy to start a company
you just need to get a few like-minded people
with you.
I have to say that the space business is quite
it's quite hard to start a company in space business
because it's such a capital intensive business
So it may be better to do something in Solar power
or if you're gonna do it in cars
do it in, as kind of a component supplier for cars or something like that.
Musk has college degrees in business and physics
but SpaceX is his first venture in aerospace.
How did you get the expertise to be the chief technology officer of a rocket ship company?
Well, I do have a physics background, that's helpful as a foundation
and then I read a lot of books and talked to a lot of, lot of smart people.
don't just follow the trend
you may have heard me say
that it's good to think in terms of the physics approach of first principles
which is rather than reasoning by analogy
you 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
and 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 physicists
to figure out counterintuitive things like quantum mechanics.
So it's really a powerful powerful method.
And I want to know what is the one thing that has surprised you about your life?
Well, I simply I'm surprised about the whole thing honestly
I certainly didn't expect to be, to be, for any of these things to happen, honestly
Yeah, I just you know, I know I wanted to be involved in technology
and
in fact the only reason I started a company back in 95
an internet company was because I couldn't get it
there were only a few internet companies and I couldn’t get a job at any of them
I tried to get a job at at Netscape and I sent my resume
and I tried hanging out in the lobby, but I was too shy to talk to anyone
and it was like okay, well I guess I'll have to start a company
cause I can't get a job anywhere.
thank you
I wouldn't say I'm fearless
in fact I I think I fear, I feel fear quite strongly
but I
if the
if what we're doing isn't
if what I'm doing I think is important enough then I just override the fear
so, but it's not as though I don't fear, I feel fear like more stronger than I would like.
I think also people tend to overweight risk on a personal level
it's one thing if you've got you know a mortgage to pay and kids to support
and that if you were to deviate from your job
than well, how are you going to feed your family and pay the rent?
Okay, that's understandable
but let's say you're young and you're just coming out of college
or coming out of high school or whatever
What do you- What do you risk?
You know you're not gonna starve, I mean...
It's really, certainly not in any kind of modern economy
It's so easy to earn enough money just to live somewhere and eat food.
I don’t know what other people- what they are afraid of
they are mostly afraid of failure I think.
People should be less risk-averse when there's not much at risk.
What is education like?
you're basically downloading data and algorithms into your brain
and
it's it's actually amazingly bad in conventional education
It's like it shouldn't be like this huge chore
like the more you can gamify the process of learning the better.
I always had sort of a slight existential crisis
because I was trying to figure out what does it all mean?
like what's the purpose of things?
and I came to the conclusion that if we can advance the the knowledge of the world
if we can do things that expand the scope and and scale of consciousness
Then we're better able to ask the right questions
and become more enlightened
and that's really the only way forward.
What drives you?
what what is it that when you wake up in the morning
do you see a problem and you want to solve it?
The thing that drives me is that I want to be able to think about the future
and feel good about that
so that, you know we're doing what we can to
have the future be, be as good as possible
to be inspired by what is likely to happen
and to look forward to the next day.
So that's that's what really really drives me
is trying to figure out how do we, how do we make sure that things are great?
I'm gonna be so and
that's the unlined principle behind Tesla and SpaceX
is that, I think it's pretty important
that we accelerate the transition to sustainable generation
and consumption of energy.
It's inevitable, but it's- it matters if, if it happens sooner or later
And then SpaceX is about helping make life multi-planetary
and doing what we can to continue the dream of Apollo
and ultimately make contribution to life becoming multi-planetary.
Let's talk a little more about that
I think everyone is very interested that when you say making life multi-planetary
yeah
that's exciting
it is exciting
So what's your vision there?
You know, I think particularly for Americans
you know, like if you think about it America is a nation of explorers.
People came here from other parts of the world
that you know chose to give up the known in favor of the unknown.
So I think exploration like the United States is a distillation of the human spirit of exploration
and
So that's why it appeals to Americans so much
you know
you can see this when
there was a shuttle tragedy and seven people died
and that's that's terrible but, you know a lot of people die all the time
but why do we care so much?
because it was the dream of exploration that was dying along with those people
that's why.
I mean I thought both Tesla and SpaceX would fail at the beginning
You thought?
Yeah, sure
really?
of course
nevertheless you put all your money in them
I expected to lose it, and 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, I have a choice of either like let the company die
or put you know all the money into the companies
and so
I really don’t want the companies to die so I put all the money in the companies
yeah
and then I had to borrow money form friends to pay living expenses
yes
you know just 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.
Well, it really depends on the stakes
if the stakes are high, if it's really important
then one should, then I, you know overcome the fear and just do it anyway
I essentially
I mean I just
drive overrides fear, but I feel the fear
It's kind of annoying, I wish I didn't
I wish I felt it less.