#30 Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one-time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets, they're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. Elon is brilliant. He's involved in just about everything. He understands everything. If he asks you a question, you learn very quickly not to give him a gut reaction. He wants answers that get down to the fundamental laws of physics.
One thing he understands really well is the physics of rockets. He understands that like nobody else. The stuff I have seen him do in his head is crazy. He can get in discussions about flying a satellite and whether we can make the right orbit and deliver a dragon at the same time and solve all these equations in real time. It's amazing to watch the amount of knowledge he has accumulated over the years.
I don't want to be the person who ever has to compete with Elon. You might as well leave the business and find something else fun to do. He will outmaneuver you, outthink you, and outexecute you.
Welcome to Founders, my podcast about the lives of company builders. In case you're new here, for every podcast, I read a biography or autobiography of someone who has created a company. And then I try to share with you some of the things that I learned. That excerpt was from the book, Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance.
So I want to get into the book, but before we do that, I'd like to tell you that this episode is brought to you by Blinkist. Blinkist pits big ideas from the world's best nonfiction books and powerful little summaries you can read or listen to in just 15 minutes. Over 5 million people are using Blinkist. Blinkist app has been nominated by Apple as one of the best in the app store. Blinkist also received the World Summit Award granted by the United Nations, as well as the Google Material Design Award. So in other words, a lot of people like Blinkist. So get key insights from 2,200 plus best-selling non-fiction books. They're also adding more summaries every month that are transformed into powerful packs you can read or listen to in just 15 minutes by using Blinkist.
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So I just want to get right into the book, and I'm going to share with you some of the highlights that stuck out to me, and hopefully you find this information useful. So we're going to start off with this excerpt that is describing to us Elon's life goal.
So let's go right to the book. Turning humans into space colonizers is his stated life purpose. I would like to die thinking that humanity has a bright future, he said. If we can solve sustainable energy and be well on our way to becoming a multi-planetary species with a self-sustaining civilization on another planet to cope with a worst-case scenario happening and extinguishing human consciousness, then, and here he paused for a moment, I think that would be really good. Alright, so I want to skip ahead to this part on his, a little bit about his personality, which I find is, which I always find interesting when I'm reading these biographies of these company builders, is, you know, trying to get a sense of how, how, how they act and what would it be like if you were around them.