Elon Musk on "Entrepreneurial Persistence" v. "Optimism"

[Guillermo Söhnlein]

Thanks to Ryan Hudson for bringing this to my attention! Please enjoy the excerpt below from a Wired interview with Elon Musk this week:

Wired.com: At the end of the day you're still zero for three; you have so far failed to put a rocket into orbit.

Musk: We haven't gotten into orbit, true, but we've made considerable progress. If it's an all-or-nothing proposition then we've failed. But it's not all or nothing. We must get to orbit eventually, and we will. It might take us one, two or three more tries, but we will. We will make it work.

Wired.com: How do you maintain your optimism?

Musk: Do I sound optimistic?

Wired.com: Yeah, you always do.

Musk: Optimism, pessimism, fuck that; we're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work.

You can check out the entire interview here.

[Joe Latrell]

Amen

[Michael Mealling]

[Guillermo Söhnlein]

I LOVE IT!!!

[Colin Doughan]

Persistence is will.
Optismism?
Pessimism?
Mere emotion.

[Diane Kulisek]

This guy, an African immigrant to the U.S., is made of the stuff that Americans USED to be made of... the RIGHT stuff. Perhaps he will reawaken whatever it is that's been sleeping in so many American hearts by kicking one of our most sacred cows in the proverbial tush.... the monopolization of America's space programs by NASA. Elon Musk, and those who actively rise to the challenge of embracing his vision, WILL succeed... and if there is anything any of us can do to help make that happen, God HELP us.... if we don't!