Latest / Elon Musk Thinking / Elon Musk's life and what he does every day.

Transcript

Elon Musk's life and what he does every day. · Elon Musk Thinking

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Is that water that that that is water, that's I mean,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: that's it tastes like water.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: But your favorite drink is well, I mean, uh, die
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: coke is good. There's that there's something that they put
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: in that stuff that is you know you never get
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: sick of it for some reason.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Uh, you know, have some infernal ingredients.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: How many cones you your bottle to you you have
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: a day?
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I mean I'm trying to cut down these days,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: so maybe from I mean there was probably times when
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: I had like eight a day or something ridiculous, but
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: I think these days it's probably one or two, so
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: it's not too.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Crazy, okay.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: And coffee, uh usually to a day, lots of them
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: so much.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I mean not really.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: So, but yeah the I I used to have, but
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: so much coffee and and uh you know die coke
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: that I I get really wired and then it gets
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: over caffeinated and a and uh it would wouldn't be good.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so an I've kind of gone to I think
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: more reasonable portions these days.
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: Okay, I think we you you drink so so much
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: coffee or a diet cook because you work so many
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: hours of every day? Yeah, how many hours do you
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: work how how looks a normal day in the life
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: of even must like?
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Well it it's really varied, uh quite a bit over time.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: So the you know, these days it's probably eighty eighty
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: five hours a week. For a while it was over
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: a hundred hours a week. And that's just it's just
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: too that's a very high amount of pain. So it's uh,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: you know, the the d the difficulty and paint of
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: of work hours really increases exponentially. It's not linear, m so,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: but w when you know the financial crisis uh hit
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: in two thousand eight, two thousand nine, you.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Know it was just every day, seven days a week. Wait,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: you know morningful night and dream about work. Yeah, yeah,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: it's so it's was terrible.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: And at the time there were bad dreams, I guess.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Bad dreams late, yes, yeah.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: And at what time do you get up normally.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: In the morning? Uh?
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: For me, it's usually about uh seven seven okay, but
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: I go to bed late. So usually it's I go
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: to bed around one am or so one am.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and you start day with a real breakfast or
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: just with a coffee or.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: With the water.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: You know that also varies a lot.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: I I think it's probably true that if you that
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: having a good breakfast is is a good idea, But
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: usually I don't have time for that. So sometimes, uh,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: sometimes it's it's made for me. But probably half the
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: time I don't have any breakfast. I had, let's have
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: like coffee or something like that and with it spam. Sure,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: and I well, I'm trying to cut down on the
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: on on sweet stuff. So but I think, I mean
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: the y I I think I probably should have like
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: a an omelet and a coffee or something like that.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: That seems like probably the right thing, And sometimes I
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: do have that.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: And for lunch is the lunch yeah yeah, the uh
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: lu lunch is usually served to meet during a meeting,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: and I finish it in five minutes.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Well okay, yeah, I know it's a bad habits at dinner.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Din That dinner is where the calgories really come into play,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: cause there's you know, if I have dinner meetings, like
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: dinner meetings are the worst cause then you you know,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: you eat enough for like two people, uh in those things,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: cause you have the appetizer in the main course and
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: all that stuff. So business dinners are like the the
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: thing that uh really uh you know where I probably
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: eat way too.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: Much, but you don't have a problem. Was your problem
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: was your weight?
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Uh? I certainly could be slimmer.
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: I think, yeah, what do you work out?
• 4:06
  Speaker 6: Then?
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Do you escort? I? You know, I work out once
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: or twice a week? Uh?
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: I mean I s well, yeah, yeah, once or twice.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: You should Uh I should do it more often for sure.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: At what are you doing? Do it runs through the
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: forest or.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Run through the forest?
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Uh no, yeah, I usually just uh uh like a
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: little bit on the treadmill, uh or on.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: You know, lifting some weights. I suppose.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: Let let's keep to my questions I have here with
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: just one hundred and twenty two, I guess, uh how
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: much musk is in Tesla and uh X and uh
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: hyperlups hundred percent of you.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Or oh well, of course definitely not. I mean.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: I certainly have had a strong influence, but uh but
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: I mean there are many people at the companies. So
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: SpaceX has four thousand to people now, uh Tesla we
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: just passed ten thousand people today, So there's there's a
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: lot of people that I've had a huge influence on
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: building the company for companies, more of an influence than
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: anyone else. But it is a big team effort from
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: a lot of talented people.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: Yes, you look for a CEO at former times for
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: Tesla and for.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Space six also I don't know for SpaceX, but no, uh,
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: the the the the plan I had when we created
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: UH Tesla was I wish I thought I would uh
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: allocate maybe twenty or thirty percent of my time UH
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: to Tesla and and then for Solar City, I figured
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: five percent, ten percent of my time that kind of thing.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Solar City turned out to be true.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: In fact, even better than that, probably takes me less
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: than five percent of my time on Solar City. Tesla
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: ended up being much more. And you know, unfortunately, like
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: the the first CEO didn't didn't work out, and then
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: I got sort of a temporary I mean I really
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: tried pretty hard not to be the CEO, Like I
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: could have been the CEO from day one, cause is
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: like people maybe sometimes don't realize that and I but
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: I you know it. It I just wasn't able to
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: find the right person. In the case of Solar City,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: there's like a great team that runs it, but it's
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: really hard to find someone who who can grow a company.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: You know, it's like running a company in steady state.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: M is much easier than growing a company. And and
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: and then with Tesla, you know, as M people joined
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: the team and an investors would I that they we
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: p you know P people during the team investors would
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: ask me, okay, well how long am I going to
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: be a CEO, And so I said, well, I'm committed
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: to v CEO through the high volume production vehicle.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: So two more years at least probably three.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Or four three or four years. Yeah, But at that
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: point I I would then have to consider what makes sense? Uh?
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: And I I would, I mean, I will never leave
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Tesla ever, but I'm I've you know, may may not
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: be CEO forever.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's one nobody should be CEO for ever.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: Did somebody in min who couldn't do a job already?
• 7:28
  Speaker 6: No?
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: What is white?
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: I I the there's no, no, no plans or anything
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Uh. Right now our plan is.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Just to uh you know, f for sure a b
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: CEO through the Model three, a volume production of the
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Model three and the Giga factory, and then evaluate.
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: Yes and Mottle three is still the uh the uh
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: price you you wanna thirty thousand dollar?
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: That's each other thirty five.
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: Thirty five thousand dollar and the same with euro I
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: guess fall for the European market.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Well, it might be less uh if Yeah, for depends
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: on what the exchange rating is of course, okay, uh.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: So yeah, and it's always a partricular like in the
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: in the US, the prices are quoted before sales tax
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: and of course in Europe it's with VAT and yeah
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: cause like twenty ten VAT and all that stuff. So
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: probably would be more like thirty thousand euros a little
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: bit less than that, okay, and it.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Should be on the market in two yeth time or
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: three I'd say three two.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: Two eight from now?
• 8:30
  Speaker 6: Yeah, okay, yeah, coming back to you, uh looking for
• 8:36
  Speaker 6: CEO when apart from CEOs, when you hire people, what
• 8:38
  Speaker 6: kind of skills do you want them to have? Are
• 8:40
  Speaker 6: there any do you like, look at a list and
• 8:44
  Speaker 6: for the people? Oh how do you say that?
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Well? The I mean the the the W.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: When I interviewed somebody, I really just ask them to
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: tell me the story of their career and what they
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: you know, W what are some of the tougher problems
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: that they dealt with, how they dealt with those and
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: how they made decisions at key transition points. And and
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: usually that's enough for me to get a very good
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: gut feel about someone. And and and what I'm really
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: looking for is evidence of exceptional ability. So did did
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: they face really difficult problems and overcome them? And and
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: then of course you wanna make sure that that if
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: if there was some significant accomplishment, were they really responsible?
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Was somebody else more responsible? And Uh?
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: And usually the person who's had to struggle with the problem,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: they really understand it, you know, they are then they
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: don't forget. Yeah, you know, if it was very difficult.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: So you can ask them detailed, very detailed questions about it,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: and they will they'll know the answer. Oh, whereas the
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: person who was not truly responsible for that accomplishment, uh
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: will not know the details.
• 10:00
  Speaker 6: Social college?
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: UH would teacher city?
• 10:02
  Speaker 6: No?
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: It do I?
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: I the I it's not it's it. There's no need
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: even to have a college degree. Oh, okay at all?
• 10:10
  Speaker 6: Uh?
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Or even high school?
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Do the I mean if somebody graduated from a great
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: university that may be in Indy, that may be an
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: indication that they will be capable of great things, But
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: it's not necessarily the case. You know, if you look
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: at say people like uh Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: These guys didn't graduate from college huts in. But if
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: you had a chance to hire them, of course that
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: would be a good idea. Yeah, so you know, just
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: rel l looking just for evidence of exceptional ability. And
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: if there's a track record of exceptional achievement, then it's
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: likely that that will continue into the future.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: And what does la people like uh you and uh
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: Steep Jobs haven't coming all the gaids or people like that.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: What is it you have of coming with them?
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean those are pretty different personalities, you know,
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: between Gates and Jobs, analysis and success.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Uh well, I think.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Uh, I you know, uh, all all three of those
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: were technologists, but with different types of skills. You know,
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Jobs was obviously very good with aesthetics and uh you
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: know he he he he he answered technology, of course,
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: and he really answered where people wanted even when they
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: didn't know themselves, and he was not afraid to break boundaries.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: But say, like Gates would probably be better at uh,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: you know, sort of raw engineering and technology than Jobs,
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: but not as good on esthetics. But I mean the
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: f for all of these guys, uh they're obviously very
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: driven and they're very talented and uh yeah, and they're
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: able to attract great p people to build a company.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: But I mean it it it th th th.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: Like the the the ability to attract and motivate great
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: people is critical to the success of a company. Cause
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: a company is just that's it's a group of people
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: that are assembled to create a product or service. That's
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: the purpose of a company. If you also, some of
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: us forget this elementary truth. And so if uh, you know,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: if if you're able to get great people to join
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: the company, work together towards a common goal and uh and.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: You your sort of have a.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Relentless sense of perfection about that goal, then you will
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: end up with a great product. And if you have
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: a great product, lots of people will buy it, and
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: then the company will be successful.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Really, it's it's pretty straightforward, really, I mean, yeah, that's
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: the reason for it.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: You have a lot of talents. Is there any tell
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: that you would like to have you build? Have you singing, dancing?
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: Do you to tique?
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean I suppose I'd like to play a
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: musical instrument. That'd be cool. I can whistle, I can whistle.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: What is your favorite song to whistle?
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: I don't.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: I kind of have like a whole bunch of songs
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: that kind of randomly I just went whistle randomly. Please
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: ask me to whistle, cause it's like you never I mean,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: I can whistle, but like it's this is like, yeah,
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: maybe not the coolest instrument to play. Yeah, but I
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: I can whistle Packaball's cannon, which is a tricky one.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: Really.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not going to whistle for good for you now,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: cause that'd be too embarrassing.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: It's good maybe when we planned something for bullet.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Alright, No, man, no, nor, I don't worry.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: We want to who you want to? Uh, how would
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: you describe yourself? What of the main attributes you'll you have?
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: From your point, how I describe myself?
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Well, I I mean I I seem to have a
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: high uh innate uh drive. And that's been true even
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: since I was a little kid. You know, I really
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: had a very strong drive. Uh you know, sort of
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: little sorts of risky things when I was a kid
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: that I like, why did I do? Those things are crazy?
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: But so I think that's very helpful, and.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Uh, I care a lot about the.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: Truth of things and trying to understand the truth of things.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: I think, So I think that's important. You know, if
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: you're gonna come up with some solution, then the truth
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: is really really important, I think. And uh yeah, I
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: I I try to think of I mean, it's it's
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: difficult to have they come up with like things that
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: are praise for oneself, you know, or like the there's
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: and there's bad and good here. But uh, I think
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: like sometimes they're just like the things that seem quite
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: clear and obvious to me, and I I it's they
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: I don't understand why they are so obvious to everyone.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 16:08
  Speaker 6: So would you describe yourself as feel less? I mean
• 16:10
  Speaker 6: other areas when you seek people for a wise and
• 16:13
  Speaker 6: who do people.
• 16:14
  Speaker 5: Would be ask for?
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't say I'm fearless. In fact, I I think
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: I fear. I feel fear quite strongly. Uh, but I
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: am if the if if what we're doing isn't if
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: what you know what I'm doing is, I think is
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: important enough, then I just uh overwrite the fear. So
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: but it's not as though I don't feel I feel
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: it qu like more stronger than I would like and.
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: Would areas would you never go full risk.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: If you're still.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: Off you at full.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Uh w Well, it really depends on the stakes. If
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the stakes are high.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: If if it's a really important then what should then
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: i'd you know, will overcome the fear and s just
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: do it anyway. But essentially, I mean, it's just drive
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: over right sphere.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: But I feel the fear. It's kind of annoying.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: I shouldn't, Okay, I wish I've felt it less. So Yeah,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: and these all these introspective questions are interesting. I don't
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: get the asked these very often. And then like I
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to think, like what is like an A
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: an A an accurate reply? It's it's something It's like
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: I don't it's hard to evaluate yourself on these things.
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, which company you founded was the most.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: Risky of it?
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Start? Well, probably SpaceX I thought had the lowest chance
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: of success.
• 17:45
  Speaker 6: Uh.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, I thought both Tesla and SpaceX would fail
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: at the beginning.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah you you saw it?
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sure really of course.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: But nevertheless you for all your money in that it both.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: I expected to lose it.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Uh Well, technically, what i'd I thought was, well, I'll
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: take half the money from PayPal and if I lose
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: half of it, that's okay.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: But then of course the companies encountered difficulties, and then
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: I have a choice of that either the let the
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: company die or put in you know, all the money
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: into the companies.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: And so.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: I really don't know what the companies did die. So
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: I put all the money in the companies. Yeah, and
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: then had to borrow money from friends to pay living expenses.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: Yes. And what went through your mind at the end
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: of two thousand eight when.
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: The last the force and the last what gets started?
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: What?
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: What ware a sword? That they It was a terrible time. Yeah. Yeah,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: everything was going wrong at once.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Uh, three rocket failures in a row in the beginning,
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: and uh till the financing round was falling.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: A plot or fell a pot.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: The uh Solo city was having difficulties getting divorced.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Was really terrible. Yeah.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Uh so Uh, I was a I was very sad.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: But then everything was perfect.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: We well, it took a while, it's it's space. Yeah.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: At at the end of two thousand and eight, the
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: fourth launch worked, yes, uh, which is very like we
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: that was all the money we had, but nothing more.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: You know. In fact, originally I budgeted.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: I thought, Okay, we can do three survived three failures,
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: so take like we'd we just barely barely scraped together
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: enough to do a fourth launch mm and and then
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: at the end of two thousand eight we we got
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: a big NASA contract r L L literally in December
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: twenty third, I think it was yeah hh yeah. So
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: it went from like really terrible to I remember that
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Sunday before Christmas in two thousand eight thinking like that,
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: like this is the closest I've ever come to a
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: nervous break down, Like I never thought would I would
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: ever be someone who could have another was breakdown.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: And I didn't.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, but it was like I I I could,
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: I could see it, like I could, I was in
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: within sight of it.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: It's like, this sucks, this is terrible.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: And then and then the next morning NASA called and
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: said that we would win this one happily.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: The next morning, like literally I was at home and uh,
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: I thought, I thought they'd all gone home for the holidays.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: I didn't think that. I if you, I would have
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: said there was no chance of a call. A few
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: days before Christmas. I thought people, you know, be on
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: vacation and that kind of thing.
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: So yeah, So what went through your mind when they
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: called you? What do you feel?
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: That was awesome? I was like I actually said to
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: the NASA guys, Uh, that's I love you. I don't
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: think they've gotten that response before.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: So so that was yeah, the Monday morning and then
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: I think it was the Tuesday night or the Wednesday
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: night was the uh was when we closed the financing
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: round for Tesla. And that was like six pm on
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Christmas Eve.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: It was the last hour of the last day when
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: it was possible, and we would have gone bankrupt a
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: few hours after, uh, a few days after Christmas if
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: if that ground had not closed.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: Ah. Uh. You flew for for the Nazar and for other.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we flourished the satellites for commercial yeah, uh operators
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: so sees in Europe and uh sorry, oh overcom in
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: the US and at a number of other companies.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Maybe we've got a anomaly alarm. Yeah, k.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: The car, you seemed quite stolen in the car, maybe
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: they stolen a doctor cele hothing like that hopefully.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: Okay, what was your best idea ever?
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Idea ever?
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, uh, that's tricky. I I suppose coming to.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: North America was m my best idea, okay, cause I
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: think these things would.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Not have been accomplished.
• 22:20
  Speaker 6: Yuh.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Anyway, you know, almost anywhere else it's really hard to
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: start a company. Uh, but you know, in particularly California,
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: Silicon Valley is very conducive to start up companies.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: And uh.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and so yeah, uh, you know, whenever I'd read
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: books in South Africa and it would seem like the
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: cutting edge of technology was in Sulicon Valley and.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: So that that's where I wanted to come. And mm
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: I wanted to move move to this mythical place.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: And now that things you regret having done off on
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: not having done so.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Far, well, there there's lots of things that you know,
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: one life is short, and there's lots of things that
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: could be done that one can't necessarily do.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: And these really are introspective questions. I think it.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: No, I mean, I mean, overall, I think I'm pretty
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: pretty happy with the what what you know, way things are.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: It's hard not to be, honestly, you know, i'd be Yeah,
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: they things are in a good place right now. And uh,
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: I mean I'd like to looking ahead. Makes I'd like
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: to see humanity go beyond Earth and have people on Mars.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: That would be really great and to see widespread ad
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: option of electric vehicles and uh renewable energy.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: These are great things. And uh uh yeah, I thought
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: I thought would be really really cool.
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: But it is there like a business decision which you regret,
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: like what you should have never done.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Uh, I mean, in retrospect, I should've Uh, I should've
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: betten the bullet and been CEO of Tesla from the beginning.
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: Uh Huh.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Then that would have been.
• 24:26
  Speaker 6: Good.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: You know that that that would have been the smart move.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Uh uh you know, cause it w we ended up
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: having to essentially recapitalize the company, you know, and and
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: l we l it went through a lot of grief.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Uh So that would have been wise move. I mean,
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: I it's yea sa some things are better with you know,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: with hindsight. Of course, you can say all this decision,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: of that decision, I mean tail it was essentially built
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: on two uh false ideas. Uh or started on for
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: two false ideas, one of which was that we would
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: be able to use the Lotus lease chassis to minimize
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: the cost of creating an electric vehicle.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Uh and the other words, that we could.
• 25:23
  Speaker 6: Use the.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: Technology from AC propulsion a small company in California for
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: the electric.
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: Power train, so you won't do the same mistake again,
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: So you'll start from from zero with this cel.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Well, we're I mean, we actually use uh A lot
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: of components from other companies.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: So it's like the.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: You know, fr uh Bosh's UH supplier of the ultra
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: long range ultrasonics and the radar, and then that the
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: whole camera assembly and everything we do the camera assembly,
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: would we use am obilid chip.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: And but but all of the software for integrating that
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: we do in Tesla.
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: Okay, we met each other last year for the interview,
• 26:05
  Speaker 5: and then you told me that you wanted to die
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: on Mars after landing that.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, well, it's not as though I'm dying to
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: die Mars, but it's like, if you're going to die somewhere,
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, choice a.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Choice, B, then.
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: What do you do with your ashes?
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: I with my ashes? I don't know.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: I don't actually I'm gone. I don't care if I
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: do anything. Yeah, I mean I guess maybe you scattered
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: the ashes on Mars. That would be cool, you know, sure,
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: But I mean the you know, the whole sort of
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: retired Mars thing was like it was like a reporter
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: asking that question six years ago or something, It's like
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: where you want to retire and actually said.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm not sure I'll ever retire completely, but.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: If I were to retire somewhere, then Mars would be
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: a you know, a good good way to go. I mean,
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: I I in ideal circumstance, I'd make one trip to Mars,
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: come back to us, and then and then when when
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: it's time to you know, when you get really old,
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: then like, yeah, go back to Mars when I'm like
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: seventy five or something, and then you know, you die there,
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: and you know, it seems like, yeah, if you're gonna
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: die anywhere, why not die on Mars?
• 27:31
  Speaker 6: Yeah?
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: Right, have you gone to Ready?
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: No?
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: No, you want to?
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Sure? I mean I'll probably go there and yeah, like
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: maybe three or.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: Four years Yes, yeah, you were were tested?
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Okay, what will happen first, the tube from San
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: Francisco to La the Hyperloupe, or the first men on Mars.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: I think the hypolie is more likely to happen first. Well,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: you know it's a good question.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Well, if you say that particular route, I'm not sure,
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: cause there are all sorts of constraints in getting permits
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: to build a big thing.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: But I think I I I would be.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: I think there's gonna be some company a group that
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: creates a hyper loop, but it may be a different route.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: M And I know there's uh one company that's looking
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: closely at the Los Angeles to Las Vegas, uh cause
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: that's quite a popular trip.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Uh and that's much easier to make that uh trip. Yeah,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: make make that route work.
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: Kay, Okay, what makes you happy? Well?
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: If I think if things are going well with uh
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: family and things are going well at work, then I'm happy.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: If the if either one of them is not going well,
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: then I'm well either half unhappy or completely unhappy.
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: Okay, I'm talking about my happiness.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: But that's like I mean, I think that's generally true.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: You know, if if things are going well on personal
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: life and work life, then then I per then then
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: one is happy.
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: Okay, and talk about happiness. How did you like learning men? Oh?
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: It was good.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's just my fourteenth time. Huh Uh
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: So it was uh yeah, it's always it's always good.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: It's yeh iten courage people to come and check it out.
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: So I've been there this year.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: So you did go, Okay, great, what do you think?
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Did you think? Yeah, it's crazy.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: It's it's like life changing, life changing exactly.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: See.
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: Have you have you ever thought about building an art car?
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: Have you built?
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, sure, have you built. I've I've done three
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: art cars.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: One was actually uh built built on uh this is
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: probably ten years ago.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: It was built on an Oldsmobile sh uh and an
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: old Oldsmobile with uh a big wrap around couch over
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: the the hood until you're sitting on top of the
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: engine driving backwards. Okay, And so that was kind of
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: a fun fun art car. Broke down a lot of course, Oldenville,
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: I mean broke down a lot.
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: Famespond Car, Submarine transformation.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Car to the Burnyment. No, Uh, I'm the James Bond car.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: The Lotus is free.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Submarine is it's in the Tesla Design studio.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: Okay, and.
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: So being worked on.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: No, it's just it's it's currently.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: Just sitting there the w What what uh I'm hopefully
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: gonna do at some point is we're gonna create a
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: uh sort of a replica, but not quite cause like
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: if you look at the James Bond car, it's not
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: it's not technically possible to make that a submarine cause
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: at at a transformative thing. Cause the fins are right
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: where the wheels are. Ah okay, so like there's just
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: that doesn't fit like that. It's not physically possible to
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: the transmission. But if you make the car about tamp
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: if you scale it up by about ten percent, and
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: you move the fins just a little bit more towards
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: the outer edges so that they're not like sitting right
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: in front of the wheels.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Then you can make it work.
• 30:59
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So and plus it's.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: Probably good to preserve the original you know movie art
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: essentially uh of of the of the original car. So
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: uh yeah, talked to a few of my guys, and
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: we think we can make it work, uh as a
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: transformation car with those constraints, you know, so it l
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: actually look very similar, Like you'd have to look closely
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: to see if it's different. But yeah, I think it'd
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: be fun to be able to, you know, drive up
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: on the beach and the submarine car.
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: Do you own how the old cars? Y?
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: You know, I'll, i'll, I'll tell you the So there's two,
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: there's a there's two gasoline cars that I that I own, HM,
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: and not that many people don't know about these. But
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: what one is uh Series one sixty seven E type
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: Jaguar uh GUK Roadster and uh that was the first
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: car I bought when I actually had any one. In fact,
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: when the when my first company received an investment, UH,
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: the bench Capitalists gave us a forty thousand dollar me
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: and my brother a forty thousand dollar bonus.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: And I spent thirty five thousand dollars on this car
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: and it broke down on the way on the way back.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: It was very sad, like, damn it. I didn't even
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: bake it home. But that was a car.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: When I was about seventeen, I was given for UH
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: my birthday, UH book of classic convertibles, and I thought, well,
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: you know, if I could ever afford a car one
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: of these cars in the book, I there were there
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: were two that I liked the most. One was the
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: gull wing Mercedes, but there's no way I could, you know,
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: that was like millions of dollars. And then the other
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: was the series th th this the E type jack
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: were this Series one, Yeah, and.
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: Now you put it forty h mery and.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: That you haven't board it yet, I I haven't.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: I do think it's a great design, really great.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: And you know, and uh, you know it's partly inspires
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: the Model X, of course, it's so I the uh.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah that that might be a good one to buy
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: at some point. And but the other car that I've
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: I got is uh a Model T that a friend
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: of mine, Bortant, gave me. Uh uh.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: Those things are hard to drive, though, if you'd ever
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: try to drive a middle Model T, it's like not easy.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really work.
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: Ship should be really worked.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: The controls are all totally different too, yes, the you know, the.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: Like the there's no gas pedal, it's like a there's
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: a gas Uh I mean to to change the throttle,
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: it's uh a stick on this steering wheel.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Mm mkay yeah,