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THE BALTIMORE JEWISH HOME
APRIL 28, 2022
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TJH
Centerfold
MUSK LISTEN Some of Elon Musk’s most memorable quotes to date We could definitely make a flying car, but that’s not the hard part. The hard part is, how do you make a flying car that’s super safe and quiet? Because if it’s a howler, you’re going to make people very unhappy. We have essentially no patents in SpaceX. Our primary long-term competition is in China — if we published patents, it would be farcical, because the Chinese would just use them as a recipe book. Good ideas are always crazy until they’re not. I would like to die on Mars. But not during a fatal impact. I always invest my money in the companies I create. I don’t believe in using just other people’s money. I don’t think that’s fair. I will not ask other people to invest in something if I am not prepared to do it myself.
When Henry Ford made cheap and reliable cars, people said, “Nah, what about a horse?” It was a huge bet that he made and it worked. Don’t confuse schooling with education. I didn’t go to Harvard but the people that work for me did. I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary. Any product that needs a manual to work is broken. Funded by the government just means funded by the people. Government, by the way, has no money. It only takes money from the people. It’s a fixer-upper of a planet but we could make it work. My proceeds from the PayPal acquisition were $180 million. I put $100 million in SpaceX, $70 million in Tesla, and $10 million in Solar City. I had to borrow money for rent.
I wouldn’t say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I’d like my fear emotion to be less because it’s very distracting and fried my nervous system.
I take the position that I’m always to some degree wrong, and the aspiration is to be less wrong.
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My biggest mistake is probably weighing too much on someone’s talent and not someone’s personality. I think it’s important if someone has a good heart.
You Gotta Be Kidding Me! Yankel says to Moishe: “Oy, I wish I was a billionaire, just like my father...” Moishe replies incredulously, “Your father was a
billionaire?!” “No,” says Yankel, “but he also wished that he was a billionaire.”
