Now 0-for-3, SpaceX's Elon Musk Vows to Make Orbit (2008)

http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2008/08/musk_qa

by 6ren • 14 years ago

75 40 14 years ago

I love how he doesn't consider himself an optimist. There's an important distinction between knowing that something is possible and going for it and hoping to accomplish something that may not be possible. I think many people confuse one for the other.

JumpCrisscross• 14 years ago

"All entrepreneurs have an aptitude for risk, but more important than that is their capacity for self-delusion. Indeed, psychological investigations have found that entrepreneurs aren’t more risk-tolerant than non-entrepreneurs. They just have an extraordinary ability to believe in their own visions, so much so that they think what they’re embarking on isn’t really that risky."

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/10/ff-elon-musk-qa/

http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-01-31/ego-makes-ent...

tsotha5• 14 years ago

According to some guy who writes for Wired. Yeah, that's definitive.

subsystem2• 14 years ago

Actually I think his ability to perform "due diligence" on his own ideas both from a technical and a business perspective is one thing that sets him apart from other entrepreneurs. In my opinion there's also a big difference between doing something hard that's most likely valuable and doing something relatively easy that's uncertain if it's valuable.

jervisfm• 14 years ago

Yes. This quote is lovely :

> Optimism, pessimism, fuck that; we're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work.

steve918• 14 years ago

I'm sure they'll make it. They've already accomplished so much no one else though possible. They've built technology no one else has. Even if they didn't Elon would still be a legend for even trying.

frisco• 14 years ago

(2008)

ceejayoz• 14 years ago

They've already made it, several times over now.

srlake3• 14 years ago

"Optimism, pessimism, fuck that; we're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work."

If you need a thesis for why, 4 year later, SpaceX and Tesla are seeing the succes they are, this attitude might be at its' core.

seanlinehan• 14 years ago

If there is any quote that every would be world-changing entrepreneur should live by, it is this one.

Maro5• 14 years ago

That's Magic Thinking. Just because you want something doesn't mean it's going to come true. There are thousands of other entrepreneurs you've never heard of, who were also highly motivated but it didn't work out for them. (That's why you've never heard of them.)

To explain the relative success of SpaceX and Tesla by Elon Musk "wanting success" is a fallacy. You should instead reason by first principles (as Musk himself recommends for entrepreneurs to do) and analyze what they did in the past couple of years, what worked and didn't work, what factors were involved, and how that led to where they are today.

omegant• 14 years ago

Also is known as troop morale, you may hace all the best team with the best plan and execution, if you leave your morale to drift down, your team is not going to hold it for you(they are looking at you for inspiration).

In combat, troops have surrendered to weaker enemies just because they just gave up. The same happens with bussinesess. You must hold that "magic thinking" way up because if you dont, all that perfect assets you posses(at leat on paper) are not going to perform at their best(if at all). We are talking of human teams here, not circuits.

tisme3• 14 years ago

I read that as 'I'm throwing all that I've got, time, resources, anything towards achieving my goal'. That's no guarantee for success but it works a lot better than doing nothing at all.

In order to win you have to first enter the games. Most people that are claiming this is 'magic thinking', survivor bias or generally down on achievement have never actually done any of this, let alone entered the game.

srlake3• 14 years ago

You can slice and dice the success of Tesla and SpaceX in all sorts of ways: analyze the external factors, the market, their employee compensation stratagies, the competitive environment, and so on, and you will probably find several interesting factors which were a contributor to their success.

But to ignore the visionary leadership and determination of Musk as a core factor to this success on the basis of other "motivated" entrepreneurs failing would be, I think, unwise. One of the defining charateristics of many of the leaders who have shaped our present is that they are/were resolute in some belief, even in the face of setbacks. Others with firm determination having failed isn't an antithesis - I'm not claiming this represents the only factor for success in business, but rather that in the case of Tesla and SpaceX this attitude that achieving their lofty goals was possibe, was a core driver in theirs.

Edit: BB typo

AceJohnny2• 14 years ago

This was an interview from 2008.

gyozaking• 14 years ago

Good example of relentlessly resourceful: http://www.paulgraham.com/relres.html

tylerlh• 14 years ago

Can someone edit the title of this to correctly reflect that the linked article is from 2008? Without a close look it gives the impression all this happened last weekend.

socialist_coder• 14 years ago

I am visiting my dad here in the Space Coast of Florida (Cape Canaveral) and the old retired people here I've spoken to are almost universally "angry at Obama" for "ending the space program".

I mention SpaceX and how they're advancing rocket technologies and doing things far cheaper than NASA ever could but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

I know it's pointless to argue, but I can't help myself. What else can I use in my argument?

lnanek2• 14 years ago

I guess this was posted as look back to before they were successful? They've launched the Falcon 9 heavy to the ISS now, so no one would consider them not. Maybe all those failures with the F1 light model are part of why the Falcon 9 was designed to and managed to do its job even with one of the engines failing...

jlgreco• 14 years ago

They've been launching Falcon 9's to the ISS. So far they haven't flown a Falcon 9 Heavy (which they have actually renamed to "Falcon Heavy", no "9" (maybe because the first stage will actually have 27 merlin engines)).

Now 0-for-3, SpaceX's Elon Musk Vows to Make Orbit (2008)

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