Thread by @BrianFeroldi

Today is @elonmusk’s 50th birthday

To celebrate, here are 20 great Elon Musk quotes on business, mental models, and life:

1/ On doing it despite the odds:

“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”

2/ On the willingness to change:

"Some people don't like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is a disaster."

3/ On his demise:

"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact."

4/ On feedback:

"I think that's the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself."

5/ On holding grudges:

"Life is too short for long-term grudges."

6/ On financial concentration:

"It's OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket."

7/ On product design:

"Any product that needs a manual to work is broken."

8/ On the importance of mission:

"People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working."

(I’m a HUGE believer in mission statements

Here’s a thread on why)

https://twitter.com/BrianFeroldi/status/1346812390613127170?s=20

9/ On society

"Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment."

10/ On brand:

"Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product."

11/ On failure:

"There's a silly notion that failure's not an option at NASA. Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough."

12/ On video games:

"To make an embarrassing admission, I like video games. That's what got me into software engineering when I was a kid. I wanted to make money so I could buy a better computer to play better video games - nothing like saving the world."

13/ On reasoning:

"I tend to approach things from a physics framework. And physics teaches you to reason from first principles rather than by analogy."

14/ On co-workers:

"It's very important to like the people you work with. Otherwise, your job is going to be quite miserable."

15/ On motivation:

“If you need inspiring words, don’t do it”

16/ On the traits of an entrepreneur:

"Number one is having a high pain threshold."

17/ On skin-in-the-game:
"I always invest my own money in the companies that I create. I don't believe in the whole thing of just using other people's money. I don't think that's right. I'm not going to ask other people to invest in something if I'm not prepared to do so myself."

17/ On the U.S.:

"The United States is definitely ahead in culture of innovation. If someone wants to accomplish great things, there is no better place than the U.S."

18/ On why he creates companies:

"I don't create companies for the sake of creating companies, but to get things done."

19/ On his motivation

"I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness to make sure it continues into the future."

20/ I saved my favorite for last:

"I'd rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right."

Fun fact:

$10k investing in $TSLA at IPO is currently worth:
$1.406 million

Is $TSLA still a good investment today?

We recently took $TSLA through the anti-fragile investing framework on my youtube channel to find out

Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that he has had a tremendous impact on the world

From one long-term $TSLA shareholder to another

#HappyBirthdayElonMusk!