Elon Musk

born in 1971 AD; still alive (age ~53)

business magnet


Quotes (Authored)

[Elon Musk] decided to major in physics because, like his father, he was drawn to engineering. The essence of being an engineer, he felt, was to address any problem by drilling down to the most fundamental tenets of physics. He also decide to pursue a joint degree in business. "I was concerned that if I didn't study business, I would be forced to work for someone who did," he says. "My goal was to engineer products by having a feel for the physics and never have to work for a boss with business degree."

  • Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk

    • I never wanted to be a CEO, but I learned that you could not truly be the chief technology or product officer unless you were the CEO.


    Quotes (About)

    At first she and Errol were going to name him Nice, after the town in France where he was conceived. History may have been different, or at least amused, if the boy had to go through life with the name Nice Musk.

  • by Walter Isaacson
  • about Elon Musk, Maye Musk, Errol Musk

    • He had no friends or social life in Toronto, and he spent most of his time reading or working on the computer. Tosca, on the contrary, was a saucy teenager, eager to go out. "I'm coming with you," Elon would declare, not wanting to be lonely. "No you're not," she would reply. But when he insisted, she ordered, "You have to stay ten feet away from me at all times." He did. He would walk behind her and her friends, carrying a book to read whenever they went into a club or party.

  • by Walter Isaacson
  • about Elon Musk, Tosca Musk

    • At Penn, Musk received some internship offers from Wall Street, all lucrative, but finance did not interest him. He felt that bankers and lawyers did not contribute much to society. Besides, he disliked the students he met in business classes.

  • Walter Isaacson

    • Unlike other ambitious people, [Elon Musk] never talked about making money. He assumed that he would either be wealthy or broke, but nothing in between. What interested him were the problems he wanted to solve.

  • Justine Musk

    • It was not in Musk's nature to make niche products. He wanted to remake entire industries.

  • Walter Isaacson

    • There's irony in everything [Elon Musk] does. He operates on an irony setting that goes up to eleven but never goes below four.

  • Max Levchin

    • Elon will say crazy stuff, but every once in a while, he'll surprise you by knowing way more than you do about your own specialty. I think a huge part of the way he motivates people are these displays of sharpness, which people just don't expect from him, because they mistake him for a bullshitter or a goofball.

  • Max Levchin