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I work 7 days a week, but but I I'm not
expecting others to do that. Um,
>> how much sleep do you get, by the way?
>> Uh, about 6 hours.
>> You do 6 hours typically?
>> Yes.
>> Oh, that's not bad. I thought it would
be less. I've tried less, but uh I uh my
productivity my even though I'm awake
more hours, I get less done.
>> Okay.
>> And and the brain pain level is bad if
if I get less than 6 hours.
>> When you had that third failure in a
row,
>> did you think I need to pack this in?
>> Never.
>> Why not?
>> I don't ever give up. I mean, I'd have
to be dead or completely incapacitated.
you need to work if depending upon how
well you want to do and particularly if
you're starting a company, you need to
work super hard. So what what does super
hard mean? Um well, when my brother and
I were starting our first company, uh in
instead of getting an apartment, we just
rented a a small office and we slept on
the couch. Um and we we showered at the
the YMCA and uh we're we're so hot up we
had just one computer. So the this the
the the website was up during the day uh
and I was coding at night 7 days a week
all the time sort of briefly had a
girlfriend in that period and in order
to be with me she have to sleep in the
office. So work hard like it I mean
every waking hour that's that's the the
thing I would I would say if if you
particularly if you're starting a
company
you have to apply a lot of hours to
actual working actually working. So the
the way I generally do it is I'll be uh
[music]
working at SpaceX
on Monday and then Monday night flight
to Bay Area. Uh spent Tuesday and
Wednesday at the barrier then at at
Tesla and then fly back on Wednesday
night. Spent Thursday and Friday at
SpaceX.
um in [music] in in the last several
months. Then I I would fly back here on
a Saturday um and either spend Saturday
and Sunday at Tesla uh or spend Saturday
at Tesla and Sunday at SpaceX.
I was living in the in the in the
factory in Fremont um and and the one in
in Nevada for 3 years straight. It was
my primary residence. I I actually slept
well I slept in a couch at one point on
a in a tent on the roof. Um, and then
but but for a while there I was just
sleeping uh under my desk which is out
in the open in the factory. Um, and and
for an important reason [music] and it
was damn uncomfortable sleeping on that
floor and always when I woke up I'd
smell like metal dust. So during shift
change, the entire team could see me.
And this is important because if they
think that the the sort of their leader
is is off somewhere having a good time,
you know, drinking my ties on a tropical
island, which I could definitely have
have been doing and would much have
preferred to do, but but the thing is
that since the team could see me
sleeping on the floor during shift
change, they knew I was there and that
made a huge difference and then they
gave it their role.
work like hell. I mean, you just have to
put in, you know, 80 hour 80 to 100 hour
weeks every week. That all those things
improve the odds of success. If if other
people are putting in 40hour work weeks
and you're putting in 100hour work
weeks, then even if uh you're doing the
same thing, you know that in in one year
you will achieve what they achieve, you
you will achieve in 4 months what it
takes them a year to achieve.
If if you're creating a company or if
you're joining a company, uh the most
important thing is to uh is to attract
great people. So either be with join a
group that's amazing that you really
respect or if you if you're building a
company, you've got to gather great
people. I mean all a company is is a
group of people that have gathered
together to create a product or service.
And so depending upon how talented and
hardworking that group is and the degree
to which they are focused uh cohesively
in in a good direction that will
determine the success of the company. So
do everything you can to to gather great
people uh if if you're creating a
company. I think a lot of people think
I'm kind of a business person or
something, which is fine. Like business
is fine, but um like I uh but really
it's, you know, it was like it's SpaceX.
Uh Gwen Shotwell is chief operating
officer. She kind of manages um uh
legal, finance, um [music] sales, um and
kind of general business activity. And
then my time is almost entirely with the
uh engineering team working on improving
the Falcon 9 and the Dragon spacecraft
and developing the MOS colonial
architecture. Um and then at Tesla it's
working on the Model 3 and the yeah
something in the design studio typically
um half a day a week um dealing with
aesthetics and and uh look and feel
things and and then most the rest of
week is just going through engineering
of of of the car itself as well as
engineering of the the factory.
>> What's your mission life? why you do
whatever you do.
>> When when I was a kid, I was wondering
kind of what's the meaning of life? Like
why are we here? What's it all about?
And um I came to the conclusion that uh
what what really matters is trying to
understand the right questions to ask.
And [music] the more that we can
increase the scope and scale of uh human
consciousness, the better we are able to
ask these questions. So, so I think that
there's certain things that are
necessary to ensure that the future is
good and [music] some of those things
are in the long term having long-term
sustainable transport and sustainable
energy generation.
um and uh to be a space fairing
civilization and for humanity to be out
there among the stars and be a
multilanetary
uh species. Um I [music] mean I think
the being a multilanet species and being
out there among the stars is important
for uh the long-term survival of
humanity and uh that's one reason kind
of like life insurance for life
collectively life as we know it. Um, but
then the part that I find personally
most motivating is that it creates a
sense of adventure and it makes people
excited about the future.
You know, my goal is like try to do
useful things, try to maximize the
probability the future is good.
um make the future exciting, something
you look forward to, you know.
You know, with uh you know, with Tesla,
we're like trying to make things that
people love. How many how many things
can you buy that you really love that
really give you joy? So rare. So rare. I
wish there were more things. That's what
we try to do. Just make things that
somebody loves. Now is the time to take
risk. U you don't have Yeah. Yeah, you
don't you don't have you don't have
kids, but as you as you get older, your
obligations increase. So you the and
once you have a family, you start taking
risk, not just for yourself, but for
your family as well. It gets much harder
to uh do things that might not work out.
Um so now is the time to do that uh
before you before you have those
obligations. So I would I would
encourage you to take risks now. Do
something bold. Um you won't regret it.
If you want to do things like me, you
have to like learn how to be good at
technology. That's like so study
engineering, physics, that kind of
thing. Um, understand how the world
works. Uh, and uh, and try to be as
accurate as possible about that. Uh, and
then like I said, also try to be
creative, which means just like try
[music] to think of of things that
haven't been done before, but that would
probably make the [music] world better.
And it require I mean that's it requires
a lot of mental effort to do that. It's
not you know I don't just like come with
stuff like willy-nilly. Um I mean
occasionally but it's rare
but you really have to like think until
your brain hurts. That's basically
[music] if you haven't thought until
your brain hurts then you haven't tried
hard enough. I'd encourage people to
read a lot of books. Just read like
basically try to ingest as much
information as you can and try to also
just develop a good general knowledge.
Um, so so you at least have like a rough
lay of the land, of the the knowledge
landscape. Um, like try to learn a
little about about a lot of things cuz
you might not know what you're really
interested. How would you know what
you're really interested in if you at
least aren't like doing a peripheral
explor exploration broadly of the
knowledge landscape and and you talk to
people from different walks of life and
different uh industries and professions
and skills and occupations like just try
you know learn as much as possible. I
think um I think certainly uh being
focused on something that [music] you're
confident will have high value to
someone else um and just being really
rigorous in [music] making that
assessment. Um because people are tend
tend to a natural human tendency is
wishful thinking. Um so a challenge for
entrepreneurs is to say well what's the
difference between [music] really
believing in your ideals and sticking
sticking to them
>> versus pursuing some unrealistic dream
that doesn't actually have merit [music]
and it's it's that is a that is a really
difficult thing to to tell you can you
tell the difference between those two
things you [music] know so you need to
be sort of very rigorous um in in your
self self analysis there are a lot of
negative things in the world there's a
lot of terrible things that are
happening all over the world all the
time. Uh there are lots of problems that
need to get solved. There's lots of
things that are yeah that are miserable
and kind of get you down. But that life
cannot just be about solving one
miserable problem after another. Can't
that can't be the only thing. They need
to be need to be things that inspire you
that make you glad to be to wake up in
the morning and be part of humanity. It
is time to go forth. Become a a
star-fing civilization.
Be out there among the stars. Expand the
scope and scale of human consciousness.
I I find that incredibly exciting.
That makes me glad to be alive.
I I hope you feel the same way.
Focus on on signal over noise. Um a lot
of companies get get confused. they they
spend money on things that don't
actually make the product better. So,
for example, at at Tesla, we've we've
never spent any money on advertising.
Um, we we put all of the money into R&D
and and manufacturing and design, try to
make the car as good as possible. Um,
[music] and uh I think that's that's
that's the way to go. So
for for any given company just can keep
thinking about are these efforts that
people are are expending are they
resulting in a better product or service
and if they're not stop those efforts
>> so many young people actually from
across the globe if you have an advice
to them young people globally who want
to be like Elon Musk what's your advice
to them
>> advice I mean if you want to make
progress in things [music] I think that
the best analytical framework for
understanding the future [music] is
physics. Um, I'd recommend studying the
the the thinking process around physics.
Like not not just not not the equations.
I mean the equations certainly they're
helpful but the the the way of thinking
in physics is
the it's the best framework for
understanding things that are
counterintuitive.
Um and um and you know always taking the
position that you're some degree wrong
and your goal is to be less wrong over
time. I one of the biggest mistakes
people generally make and I'm guilty of
it too is wishful thinking. You know
like you want something to be true even
if it isn't true. Um [music] and so you
ignore the things that uh you you ignore
the real truth because of what you want
to be true.
Um, this is a very difficult trap to
avoid. Um, and like I said, certainly
one that I find myself in having
problems with. But if you just take that
approach of you're always to some degree
wrong and your goal is to be less wrong.
Try to be useful. Um, you do things that
are useful to your fellow human beings,
to the world. It's very hard to be
useful. Um, very hard. you know, are are
you contributing more than you consume?
You know, like uh try to have a positive
net contribution to [music] society. I
think that's the thing to aim for, you
know, not not to try to be sort of a
leader for just for the sake of being a
leader or whatever. Um the people you
want as leaders are the people who don't
want to be leaders.
So if you can live a useful life, that
is a good life, a life worth having
lived. I think um if somebody is doing
something that is useful to the rest of
society, I think that's a good thing.
Like it doesn't have to change the
world. like you know um if you're doing
something that has high value to to
people um and and frankly even if it's
something if it's like um just a little
game um or you know the some improvement
in photo sharing or something if it if
it has if it has a small amount of of
good for a large number of people um
that's I mean I think that's that's fine
like stuff doesn't need to be changed
[music] the world just to be good. What
is the one thing that has surprised you
about your life?
>> Oh, one thing. Wow. Well, I certainly
I'm surprised by the whole thing,
honestly. [laughter]
I certainly didn't expect to be to be uh
for any of these things to happen.
Honestly, I knew I wanted to be involved
in technology. Um and uh in fact, the
only reason I started a company back in
'95, an internet company, was because I
couldn't get a 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. Um, and I sent my resume
and I and tried hanging out in the
lobby, but I was too shy to talk to
anyone. And and then I was like, "Okay,
well, I guess I'll have to start a
company cuz I can't get a job anywhere."
I mean, we got to be excited about the
future. We got to do things that make us
want to live. You know, it cannot always
be about problems every day. I mean, do
you want to wake up every morning and
everything's just a problem? Well, what
what inspires you and what makes you
excited about the future? There's got to
be some things like that.