“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” Interviews perseverancerisk
“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” Interviews failureinnovation
“If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day.” Interviews mindsetvision
“I didn’t really expect to make any money. If I could make enough to cover the rent and buy some food that would be fine. As it turns out, it turned out to be quite valuable in the end.” money
“I don’t have an issue with serving in the military per se, but serving in the South African army suppressing black people just didn’t seem like a really good way to spend time.” executionleadership
“If you wanted to be close to the cutting edge, particularly in technology, you came to North America.” mindset
“Tuition costs are outrageous. Fortunately, they gave me a scholarship…so I only had to cover living expenses, books, etc., by working.” executionmoney
“We could figure out ways with small aerospace companies to do a low-cost spacecraft and lander. But we could not find a way to do a low-cost launcher, unless we went to the Russians.” executionmoney
“There is nothing inherently expensive about rockets. It's just that those who have built and operated them in the past have done so with horrendously poor efficiency.” execution
“Falcon One is going to be the lowest cost per flight to orbit of any production rocket.” moneyproduct
“Which means we’re cheaper than the Chinese, cheaper than [the] Russians or anywhere else – and we’re doing it in the United States with American labour costs.” executionmoney
“There’s a graveyard of prior attempts, a big graveyard. There’s probably some freshly dug graves just waiting to be filled. Our aspiration is to avoid that destination.” mindset
“I think we’ve got the risks pretty well characterized. I think we are at least avoiding the mistakes that have been made in the past.” failureriskmindset
“When thinking about starting a business, I think it’s actually better to start in a trough and come to market in a peak, than the other way around. Frankly, if anything does, and it’s almost cliché, space has a long-term future.” executioninvestingrisk
“I want to be able to make sure that we have enough capital to survive at least three consecutive failures. If you want to make a small fortune in the launch vehicle business, start with a large one.” failure
“The long term ultimate objective – the holy grail – is we would like to help make life multi-planetary.” mindset
“We got to the moon, but have never done anything better since. I'm disappointed that we have not made more progress since Apollo. I don't even see a plan that says we're going to do better than Apollo to exceed that goal.” executionrisk
“I like to be involved in things that change the world. The Internet did, and space will probably be more responsible for changing the world than anything else. If humanity can expand beyond the Earth, obviously that's where the future is.” vision
“When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars people said, "Nah, what's wrong with a horse?" That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.” leadershipfailurerisk
“It doesn’t do a great deal to advance the goal of humanity. I would pay $20 million not to spend six months in Russia. And besides this, my interest is how do we enable many other people to go to space, not necessarily me, personally.” executionleadership
“Starting and growing a business is as much about the innovation, drive and determination of the people who do it as it is about the product they sell.” executionleadershipgrowth
“So even if a fire develops, it can't really attack the particularly vulnerable locations like the pneumatic system or the avionics or the engine bay. We want to be in the situation that even if a fire develops, the rocket just keeps going.” mindset
“My approach is simply to seek out very talented people, ensure that the environment at SpaceX is as motivating & enjoyable as possible and establish clear & measurable objectives.” leadership