My mentality is that of a samurai. I would rather commit seppuku than fail.
I think you should always be seeking negative feedback.
Being an entrepreneur is like eating glass and staring into the abyss of death.
I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.
The tough thing is figuring out what questions to ask, but […] once you do that, the rest is really easy.
Fear is a hard thing to deal with. I feel it quite strongly. If I think something is important enough, I'll make myself do it in spite of fear. But it can really sap the will. I hate fear, I wish I had it less.
My motivation for all my companies has been to be involved in something that I thought would have a significant impact on the world.
Optimism, pessimism, f**k that; we're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work.
You should be innovating so fast that you're invalidating your prior patents.
You want to be extra rigorous about making the best possible thing you can. Find everything that's wrong with it and fix it.
The only reason I was able to accomplish things is the great people willing to work with me. A company is a group of people organized to create a product or service, and that product or service is only as good as the people in the company - and how excited they are about creating it. I do want to recognize a ton of super-talented people. Without them, I would have accomplished very little. I just happen to be the face of the companies.
I think it's important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it's like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there.
The thing that's worth doing is trying to improve our understanding of the world and gain a better appreciation of the universe and not to worry too much about there being no meaning. And, you know, try and enjoy yourself. Because, actually, life's pretty good. It really is.
In order for us to have a future that's exciting and inspiring, it has to be one where we're a space-bearing civilization.
I've actually not read any books on time management.
If humanity doesn't land on Mars in my lifetime, I would be very disappointed.
I'm extremely confident that solar will be at least a plurality of power, and most likely a majority... in less than 20 years.
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.
No I don't ever give up. I would have to be dead or completely incapacitated
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.
Don't be afraid of new arenas.
I think it's very important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better.
Don’t just follow the trend. You may have heard me say that it’s good to think in terms of the physics approach of first principles. Which is, rather than reasoning by analogy, you boil things down to the most fundamental truths you can imagine and you reason up from there.
I always had an existential crisis, trying to figure out ‘what does it all mean?’ I came to the conclusion that if we can advance the knowledge of the world, if we can expand the scope and scale of consciousness, then, we’re better able to ask the right questions and become more enlightened. That’s the only way to move forward.
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.
