He's creating game-changing businesses like PayPal, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX.

He's the closest thing we have to real-life Iron Man.

He's Elon Musk, and here are his 10 rules for success.

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 have to be that dead or completely incapacitated.

Really liking what you do-- Whatever area that you get into...

Given that-- even if you're the best the best, there's always a chance of failure.

So, I think it's important that you really like whatever you're doing.

If you don't like it... life is too short.

If you like what you're doing, you think about it even when you're not working.

I mean it'll just... it's something that your mind is drawn to.

Um, and...and if you don't like it, you just really can't make it work, I think.

So many people try to talk me out of starting our own company, it was crazy.

One good friend of mine, collected a whole series of videos of rocket blowing up and made me watch those.

He's just didn't want me to lose all my money.

We're doing these things that seem unlikely to succeed, and we've been fortunate, and at least thus far, they have succeeded.

Now is the time to take risk, you don't have kids.

As you get older, your obligations increase.

So you... 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 do things that might not work out.

Umm, so now is the time to do that, before you have those obligations.

So I would encourage you to take risks now, do something bold! You wont regret it.

How did you figure you were gonna start a car company and be successful at it.

Well, I didn't really think Tesla would be successful. I thought we'd most likely fail.

But I thought that, uh, we at least could address the false perception that people had, that an electric car had to be ugly and slow and boring, like a golf cart.

But you say you didn't expect the company be successful?

Then why try?

If something's important enough, you should try even if the probable outcome is failure.

We focus on signal over noise.

A lot of companies get confused, they spend money on things that don't actually make the product better.

For example, at Tesla, we've never spent any money on advertising.

Put all the money into R&D and manufacturing and design to try to make the car as good as possible.

I think that's the way to go.

For any given company just keep thinking about, "Are these efforts that people are expecting? Are they resulting in a better product or service?"

And if they're not, stop those efforts.

When I interview someone to work at the companies, I ask them to tell me about the problems they worked on and how they solved them.

And if someone was really the person that solved it, they'll be able to answer multiple levels,

they'll be able to go down to the brass tacks and if they weren't they'll get stuck.

And then you can say, Oh, this person was not really the person who solved it.

Because anyone who struggles hard with a problem never forgets it.

If you're creating a company or if you're joining a company,

the most important thing is to attract great people.

So either join a group that's amazing, that you really respect, or if you're building a company you've gotta gather great people.

I mean all a company is a group of people that have gathered together to create a product or service.

And so depending upon how talented and hard-working that group is, and the degree to which they're focused cohesively in a good direction,

that will determine the success the company.

So, do everything you can to gather great people, if you're creating company.

You gotta make sure that whatever you're doing is a great product or service, it has to be really great.

And I go back to what I was saying earlier, where, if you're a new company...

I mean unless it's like some new industry or or new market that--

if it's an untapped market, then, you have more ability to...

The standard is lower for your product or service.

But if you're entering anything where there's existing market place against large, entrenched competitors,

then your product or service needs to be much better than theirs.

It can't be a little bit better because then you put yourself in the shoes of the consumer,

and they say, "Why would you buy it?" as a consumer.

You're always gonna buy the trusted brand, unless there's a big difference.

So, a lot of times, you know, an entrepreneur will come up with something which is only slightly better,

and it's not-- it can't just be slightly better, it's got to be a lot better.

Depending on how well you wanna do, and particularly if you're starting a company, you need to work super hard.

So, what does "super hard" mean?

Well, when my brother and I were starting our first company,

instead of getting an apartment we just rented a small office, and we slept on the couch.

Uh, and we showered at the YMCA, and we were so hard up we had one computer,

so the website was up during the day, and I was coding at night, seven days a week, all the time.

And, and I sort of briefly had a girlfriend in that period and in order to be with me, she had to sleep in the office.

so, work hard like, I mean, every waking hour, that's the thing I would say if you're particularly starting a company.

Um, and I mean, if you do the simple maths, say like, if somebody else is working 50 hours, and you're working 100...

You'll get twice as much done in the course of a year as the other company.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I'll see you soon.