Elon Musk

The biggest mistake, in general, I've made, is to put too much of a weighting on someone's talent and not enough on their personality. And I've made that mistake several times. I think it actually matters whether somebody has a good heart, it really does. I've made the mistake of thinking that it's sometimes just about the brain.

Target launch date for Falcon I maiden flight is Halloween(October 31) from our island launch complex in the Kwajalein Atoll. For potential customers out there, I should mention that Kwajalein has some of the worlds best scuba diving and snorkeling! It is literally a tropical paradise.

Entrepreneurship is like eating glass and walking on hot coals at the same time

Humans need to be a multiplanet species.

I could either watch it happen or be a part of it.

I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.

Don't be afraid of new arenas.

As a child I would just question things...

You shouldn't do things differently just because they're different. They need to be... better.

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

My motivation for all my companies has been to be involved in something that I thought would have a significant impact on the world.

I wouldn't say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I'd like my fear emotion to be less because it's very distracting and fries my nervous system.

Patience is a virtue, and I'm learning patience. It's a tough lesson.

Let's think beyond the normal stuff and have an environment where that sort of thinking is encouraged and rewarded and where it's okay to fail as well. Because when you try new things, you try this idea, that idea... well a large number of them are not gonna work, and that has to be okay. If every time somebody comes up with an idea it has to be successful, you're not gonna get people coming up with ideas.

People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.

You have to be pretty driven to make it happen. Otherwise, you will just make yourself miserable.

It is a mistake to hire huge numbers of people to get a complicated job done. Numbers will never compensate for talent in getting the right answer (two people who don't know something are no better than one), will tend to slow down progress, and will make the task incredibly expensive.

Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product.

Physics is a good framework for thinking. ... Boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there.

With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it's like, yeah, he's sure he can control the demon. Didn't work out.

Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.

So, there's quite a big keep-out zone, and when you factor the keep-out zone into account, the solar panels put on that area would typically generate more power than that nuclear power plant.

You could power the entire United States with about 150 to 200 square kilometers of solar panels, the entire United States. Take a corner of Utah... there's not much going on there, I've been there. There's not even radio stations.

The primary means of energy generation is going to solar. It will at least be a plurality, and probably be a slight majority in the long term.

We have this handy fusion reactor in the sky called the sun, you don't have to do anything, it just works. It shows up every day.

I don't think very highly of Henrik Fisker. [...H]e thinks the reason we don't have electric cars is for lack of styling

Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal. Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.

I think there are too many smart people pursuing internet stuff, finance, and law. That is part of the reason why we haven't seen as much innovation.

That's my lesson for taking a vacation: vacation will kill you.

My mentality is that of a samurai. I would rather commit seppuku than fail.