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.