Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

his brand of empathy is unique. He seems to feel for the human species as a whole without always wanting to consider the wants and needs of individuals.

Musk may well have gone so far as to give people hope and to have renewed their faith in what technology can do for mankind.

“I’ve learned that your intuition about things you don’t know that much about isn’t very good,” Page said. “The way Elon talks about this is that you always need to start with the first principles of a problem. What are the physics of it? How much time will it take?

Most impressive to Thiel has been Musk’s ability to find bright, ambitious people and lure them to his companies. “He has the most talented people in the aerospace industry working for him, and the same case can be made for Tesla, where, if you’re a talented mechanical engineer who likes building cars, then you’re going to Tesla because it’s probab

SolarCity, like the rest of Musk’s ventures, did not represent a business opportunity so much as it represented a worldview.

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.

The guiding principle at SpaceX is to embrace your work and get stuff done. People who await guidance or detailed instructions languish.

One of my favorite things about Elon is his ability to make enormous decisions very quickly. That is still how it works today.”

That ability to stay focused in the midst of a crisis stands as one of Musk’s main advantages over other executives and competitors.