"I think successful entrepreneurs probably come in all sizes, shapes and flavors. I'm not sure there's any one particular thing. For me, some of the things I've described already I think are very important. I think really an obsessive nature with respect to the quality of the product is very important and so being an obsessive compulsive is a good thing in this context. Really liking what you do, whatever area that you get into, even if you're the best of 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. I'd say also, if you like what you're doing, you think about it even when you're not working. It's something that your mind is drawn to and if you don't like it, you just really can't make it work I think."
Elon Musk is the next Steve Jobs. What Jobs did for computing, Musk is doing for Space exploration. In this video he displays many of the same signs of a "reality distortion field". He describes quite candidly what the general public thinks is crazy and unachievable (especially in 2002). In some ways I think his way of thinking is much more contrarian than Jobs. This year seems to be a tipping point for how we (the average person) see the future of space.
Unrelated to this particular lecture, but the Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Seminar is a really excellent source of interesting interviews. I always get excited when I see a new podcast sitting on my phone, waiting to be listened to.
The whole series is really high quality...definitely recommend.
Assuming that you have seen a decent amount of interviews, how does Elon Musk's lecture compare to them? I thought that Elon's advice was simple but powerful, when you consider the list of his accomplishments.
Interesting to watch him talk about SpaceX only days after their successful mission. In this clip (http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=382) he says based on historical data it is unlikely the mission will stay within the 15 billion dollar development cost and 2012 timeline. Not sure about the budget, but they made their deadline. Makes their recent success even more impressive.
Elon once said: "I always knew that there was a chance of failure in all my endeavors. But I felt that they were important enough that I had to try, even if I thought the probability of success was less than 50%."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjuvIlskUf4#t=7m20s
Just look at Elon's excitement at the 9:36 mark of this video as well as all of SpaceX employee's enthusiasm. This was truly a huge success despite the challenging odds.
It's an amusing contrast of how Elon was like "Yeah that's pretty cool I guess." when director Jon Favreau based Iron Man on him and donated an Iron Man statue to SpaceX headquarters signed by the whole cast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CECAda_XCDU
SpaceX so far has spent roughly a billion dollars developing the Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and the unmanned Dragon capsule. They will spend a bit more developing the manned Dragon (a few hundred million) and are continuing to develop other hardware such as revisions of the Falcon 9 launcher (Block 2, and an upgraded version 1.1 with considerably greater payload), the Falcon Heavy launcher (with over 50 tonnes of payload, based on the Falcon 9 1.1 core), and a fully reusable Falcon 9 launcher as well as Dragon capsule.
Pretty sure that wasn't SpaceX he was talking about, but rather a spaceplane reminiscent of the X-37 (possibly actually it, from what I've heard in the past).
There are 23 videos, some more geared towards entrepreneurship like "Qualities of an Entrepreneur", "When is the right time to sell", "History of Zip2", "Viral Marketing", etc.
[+] [-] bearwithclaws|14 years ago|reply
"I think successful entrepreneurs probably come in all sizes, shapes and flavors. I'm not sure there's any one particular thing. For me, some of the things I've described already I think are very important. I think really an obsessive nature with respect to the quality of the product is very important and so being an obsessive compulsive is a good thing in this context. Really liking what you do, whatever area that you get into, even if you're the best of 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. I'd say also, if you like what you're doing, you think about it even when you're not working. It's something that your mind is drawn to and if you don't like it, you just really can't make it work I think."
[+] [-] mceachen|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] benackles|14 years ago|reply
From all who care to dream, Thank you Elon Musk!
[+] [-] philwelch|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] polyfractal|14 years ago|reply
The whole series is really high quality...definitely recommend.
[+] [-] Nevaeh|14 years ago|reply
He gives the same sort of advice on other interviews like these: Getting things done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOPgM7Sc2VQ Work hard: http://vator.tv/news/2010-12-23-elon-musk-work-twice-as-hard... Critical Thinking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nMQ0-1jqFs&feature=relat...
[+] [-] nl|14 years ago|reply
It took me a while to work out why it wasn't showing up in my Stanford eCorner iTunes subscription.
[+] [-] nabilt|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Nevaeh|14 years ago|reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjuvIlskUf4#t=7m20s Just look at Elon's excitement at the 9:36 mark of this video as well as all of SpaceX employee's enthusiasm. This was truly a huge success despite the challenging odds.
It's an amusing contrast of how Elon was like "Yeah that's pretty cool I guess." when director Jon Favreau based Iron Man on him and donated an Iron Man statue to SpaceX headquarters signed by the whole cast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CECAda_XCDU
[+] [-] InclinedPlane|14 years ago|reply
SpaceX so far has spent roughly a billion dollars developing the Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and the unmanned Dragon capsule. They will spend a bit more developing the manned Dragon (a few hundred million) and are continuing to develop other hardware such as revisions of the Falcon 9 launcher (Block 2, and an upgraded version 1.1 with considerably greater payload), the Falcon Heavy launcher (with over 50 tonnes of payload, based on the Falcon 9 1.1 core), and a fully reusable Falcon 9 launcher as well as Dragon capsule.
[+] [-] stevenbrianhall|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 46Bit|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] softbuilder|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jstanley|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _gbc|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Nevaeh|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jkuria|14 years ago|reply