Elon Musk's Speech Will Leave You SPEECHLESS | Elon Musk Motivation

 

hi i'm elon musk um i'm the    co-founder of tesla spacex    uh paypal and zip2 i certainly didn't    expect to be    to be uh for any of these things to    happen honestly    yeah i just you know i know i wanted to    be involved in technology    um and uh in fact the only reason i    started a company back in 95 an internet    company was because    i couldn't get it there were only a few    internet companies and i couldn't get a    job at any of them    i tried to get a job at netscape um and    uh    sent my resume and i tried hanging out    in the lobby but i was too shy to talk    to anyone    and and then i was like okay well i    guess i'll have to start a company    because i can't get a job anywhere    you know there are american heroes who    don't like this idea    neil armstrong gene cernan have both    testified    against commercial space flight and the    way that you're developing it    and i wonder what you think of that    i was very sad to see that because those    guys are    yeah you know those guys are heroes of    mine so it's really tough    when you had that third failure in a row    did you think i need to pack this in    never    why not i don't ever give up technically    what i thought was well i'll take half    the money from paypal    and if i lose half of it that's okay    but then of course the companies    encounter difficulties and then    have a choice of the either like let the    company die    or put you know all the money    into the companies and so    i really didn't want the companies to    die so i put all the money in the    companies    yeah and then i had to borrow money for    friends to pay living expenses    and then i think the final thing i would    encourage you to do is    now is the time to take risk as you get    older your obligations    increase so and once you have a family    you start taking risk not just for    yourself but for your family as well it    gets much harder    to do things that might not work out    um so now is the time to do that    before you before you have those    obligations so i would encourage you to    take risks now and do something well    first of all i'd say starting a business    is not for everyone you know    so uh generally starting a business    i'd say number one is have a high pain    threshold    that's it um there's a friend of mine    who's got a good saying which is that    starting a company is like eating glass    and staring into the abyss    okay that's um that's generally what    happens    because um when you first start a    company there's lots of optimism    and things that things are great and    then so happiness at first is high    then you encounter all sorts of issues    uh and happiness will steadily decline    and then you'll go through a whole world    of hurt you'll if you succeed    and in most cases you will not succeed    and tesla almost didn't succeed came    very close to failure    um then if you succeed then    after a long time you will finally get    back to happiness    a lot of times uh you know entrepreneur    will    come up with something which is only    slightly better and it's    it's not can't just be slightly better    it's got to be a lot better    when trying different things you've got    to have some acceptance of failure    as you're alluding to earlier failure    must be an option if failure is not an    option it's going to result in extremely    conservative choices    and you may not may get something even    worse than    lack of innovation things may go    backwards    [Music]    you've said that this has been the    toughest year for you the most sort of    passing year for you    like why well i mean tesla really faced    the severe    uh threat threat of death due to the    model 3 production ramp    essentially the company was bleeding    money like crazy and and just    if if we didn't solve these problems in    a very short period of time uh we would    die    uh and it was extremely difficult to    solve them how close to death did you    come    we are within single digit weeks    22 hours a day or like what how many    hours yeah seven days a week    sleeping in the factory uh i worked    every day from the i worked in the oaks    in the paint shop    general assembly body shop you ever    worry about yourself imploding like it's    just too much    absolutely no one should    put this many hours into work    this is not good and people should not    work this hard i'm not    they should not do this this is very    painful    painful in what sense it's because my    ears my brain    and my heart so it's    this is not recommended for anyone i    just did it because    if i didn't do it then tesla    your chances would die if you're trying    to figure out what others love but you    don't love it it's    really hard to make that great so when    you work on something    if you fall in love with it that's    that's a good sign    and then don't worry about if others do    if you do others will do you see    apple building a car and that may be    being a threat to you    well i would encourage    more participation um by whoever it is    to create electric vehicles    um it's it's quite hard to do um    but i think uh companies like apple will    probably make a compelling electric car    it seems like the obvious thing to do    well there's a ton of failures along the    way that's for sure    um like so    as i said for spacex the first three    launches failed    and uh we actually were just barely able    to scrape    together enough parts and money to do    the    the fourth launch that fourth launch had    failed we would have been dead    so multiple failures along the way um    i tried very hard to get the right    expertise in for    for spacex i tried hard to to find a    great    chief engineer for the rocket but it not    the good chief engineers wouldn't join    and the bad ones well there was no point    in hiring them so i ended up being chief    engineer of the rocket    so if i could have found somebody better    than we would have maybe had    less than three failures all you want to    do particularly if you're starting a    company you need to work super hard    so what what does super hard mean well    when my brother and i were starting our    first company uh    instead of getting an apartment we just    rented us a small office    and we slept on the couch and we    we showered at the the ymca and uh we're    so hot up we had just    one computer so the website was up    during the day    uh and i was coding at night seven days    a week    all the time there are times when things    don't go well    and then uh that's quite dispersing for    sure    and so then it's difficult to proceed    with the same level of enthusiasm    um but um    but i do think like i do think the    things that we're doing are    you know pretty important to the future    um and if we don't succeed then we'll be    certainly pointed to    as a reason why people shouldn't even    try for these things    work hard like i mean every waking hour    that's that's the    the thing i would i would say if you    particularly if you're starting a    company    um and i mean if you do simple math say    like okay if somebody else is working    50 hours and you're working 100 you'll    get twice as done    as much done in the course of a year as    the other company    if you're if you're in a race um is it    don't worry about what how the other    what the other runners are doing just    wrong you can train yourself to    to pay attention to the tiny details i    think almost anyone can    although it it this is a very much    double-edged sword because then you see    all the little details and then little    things drive you crazy