In the documentary Elon Musk: The Real Life Ironman an early PayPal employee who worked with Elon in PR shared a story about his high expectations:
“Elon expected a lot out of the people, but we all expected a lot of each other, that’s how you get it done.”
“In the culture of startups the expectation is that everybody is working all the time. You get there at 9 or 10 in the morning and not leave until 9 or 10 or maybe after that at night and Elon was definitely working until midnight every night…
It was just what we did. And it was exciting. Rarely did anyone complain…”
It’s important to keep in mind that the first person Elon had high expectations of was himself. And if he was not working until midnight every night the people he worked with probably would have been less vigilant about holding themselves to such a high standard also.
Elon fully acknowledged the improbability of starting SpaceX at the Living Legends of Aviation dinner:
“In the beginning when I told people I was trying to create a rocket company, they thought I was crazy. That seemed like a very improbable thing. And I agreed with them – I think it was improbable. But sometimes the improbable happens.”
Elon is living proof of the power possible when you go all in and work hard to make the improbable into reality.
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