I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness to make sure it continues into the future.

Talent is extremely important. It’s like a sports team, the team that has the best individual player will often win, but then there’s a multiplier from how those players work together and the strategy they employ.

We have a strict ‘no-assholes policy’ at SpaceX.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to plan to sell a company.

Really pay attention to negative feedback and solicit it, particularly from friends. … Hardly anyone does that, and it’s incredibly helpful.

If you’re co-founder or CEO, you have to do all kinds of tasks you might not want to do… If you don’t do your chores, the company won’t succeed… No task is too menial.

Being an entrepreneur is like eating glass and staring into the abyss of death.

Don’t delude yourself into thinking something’s working when it’s not, or you’re gonna get fixated on a bad solution.

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

I always invest my own money in the companies that I create. I don’t believe in the whole thing of just using other people’s money. I don’t think that’s right. I’m not going to ask other people to invest in something if I’m not prepared to do so myself.

There’s a tremendous bias against taking risks. Everyone is trying to optimize their ass-covering.

Starting and growing a business is as much about the innovation, drive, and determination of the people behind it as the product they sell.

You have to say, ‘Well, why did it succeed where others did not?

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.

I always have optimism, but I’m realistic. It was not with the expectation of great success that I started Tesla or SpaceX… It’s just that I thought they were important enough to do anyway.

If you’re trying to create a company, it’s like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion.

I don’t create companies for the sake of creating companies, but to get things done.

Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.

When somebody has a breakthrough innovation, it is rarely one little thing. Very rarely, is it one little thing. It’s usually a whole bunch of things that collectively amount to a huge innovation.