elonology.com

Tag: Innovation

  • Elon’s Why: Saving the World

    “The heroes of the books I read, The Lord of the Rings and the Foundation series, always felt a duty to save the world.“

    ~Elon Musk

    Elon’s businesses are seen through the lens of saving the world.

    They are distilled as Mission Statements and Master Plans.

    With SpaceX the overarching goal is to make human life multi-planetary with a city on Mars.

    Tesla has four master plans, in fact.

    Two have already been completed in full.

    On Tesla’s website there are links to the other four Master plans:

    The first plan summarizes them as:

    1. Build sports car
    2. Use that money to build an affordable car
    3. Use that money to build an even more affordable car
    4. While doing above, also provide zero emission electric power generation options

    Plan deux is:

    1. Create stunning solar roofs with seamlessly integrated battery storage
    2. Expand the electric vehicle product line to address all major segments
    3. Develop a self-driving capability that is 10X safer than manual via massive fleet learning
    4. Enable your car to make money for you when you aren’t using it

    Master Plan Part 3 the mission is:

    A roadmap for achieving a fully sustainable global energy economy by shifting all energy use—transport, heating, industry—to renewable sources.

    This is explained .PDF to outline a proposed path to reach a sustainable global energy economy through end-use electrification and sustainable electricity generation and storage.

    With Plan 4the mission is :

    We’re accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable abundance.

    It is posted on X and Elon calls it Master Plan Part IV.

    The new Tesla Model S Plaid is the fastest production car in the world and the first production car ever to go 0-60 MPH in under 2.0 seconds. It also goes 0-100 km/h in 2.1 seconds.  This is called the “Tesla effect” and Tesla has affected the entire market to shift towards Electricity by 2035…

    Tesla Model S

    In Tesla’s X post Tesla claims Since Tesla’s founding, each iteration of our master plan has focused on our north star: to deliver unconstrained sustainability without compromise.

    The PDF about this topic and landing page prior explain Growth is infinite and in videos such as the Nov 2025 video with Joe Rogan Elon explain this will likely mean unlimited goods and services for everyone.  Eventually.

    Elon has completed parts one and two and has made amazing strides forward with plans 3 and 4.

    Tesla’s Optimus Robots Elon claims will become a bigger business than the cars by affecting the labor force and helping create sustainable abundance at scale.

    xAi and Grok (ai) are two (somewhat) new ventures which playing more of a and a term Elon has been using more and more is Convergence to describe the crossover between his companies.

    What makes this most impressive is how he has done so while building a rocket company which sends more payload to orbit than all other companies and countries combined, and the only rockets which relaunch.

    SpaceX has hustled its way into the #1 spot in the world of rockets with an awesome mission as well. The Mission of SpaceX is found at SpaceX.com/mission where it says: 

    “You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great – and that’s what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It’s about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.” -Elon Musk

    Revolutionizing the Automotive and Aerospace Companies

    Elon’s brilliant mind, epic work ethic and the awesome teams he has assembled have produced the most valuable car company in the world: Tesla.

    Simultaneously Elon and his teams have built the most successful rocket company in the world: SpaceX.

    And when the epic SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket first lifted off it became the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two.

    The new Starship rocket exceeds even Falcon Heavy with the Super Heavy booster boasting 33 Raptor engines in the first stage booster, and six Raptor engines in the upper stage.

    SpaceX has effectively revolutionized the rocket industry with their ability to rapidly launch, refurbish, and re-use rockets.

    The Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost.

    As of the time of writing (December 2025) SpaceX has launched 591 completed missions.

    And even though Elon has sent his original Tesla Roadster into orbit around Mars and the sun, Elon is down to Earth…for now.

    And the best part is with SpaceX the mission of making life multiplanetary is well on its way to becoming a reality.  There is a mission coming when Mars is closest to Earth.

    The rocket will have the name Heart of Gold.  Inspired by the book Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

    However with strong growth so far of his core companies in 2023 so Elon looks in strong shape to regain the title and is well positioned for even greater financial growth in the future…

    Elon enjoyed a number of achievements in recent years, specifically with rolling out the Starlink high speed internet system and his massive move to buy the social network Twitter for $44 billion.

    As of mid-December 2025, Starlink has over 10,000 satellites launched, with around 9,000+ actively operational and providing internet service.

    Interestingly DOGE spelled backwards is E God…and Elon calls himself the Dogefather.  DOGE in the US government context means Department of Government Efficiency.

    DOGE is also a crypto currency with the symbol $DOGE.  He has said “Don’t bet the farm on DOGE” in the past so be careful with your investments.  DOGE has supply added to the market daily so be careful when investing as it is not anti-inflationary in design like Bitcoin.
    Elon’s massive wealth is a great indication of the value he has added to the market.

    His humanity saving missions are his why.

  • The Internet is a Great Place to Start

    The Internet is a Great Place to Start

    Elon used to sleep on the floor.

    When Elon started out as an Entrepreneur in Silicon Valley with his brother Kimbal they were so hard up for cash they rented a small office. They slept on the couch, and a beanbag on the floor.

    When you’re just starting out the odds are you don’t have a ton of capital to work with.  This is why Elon recommends starting out online:

    “I think for somebody who’s just starting out as an Entrepreneur,I think the Internet is a great place to start because if you’re just starting out, unless you’ve got a ton of capital that somebody gave you or you inherited or something you have to start a company that requires a small amount of capital…

    Where it’s heavily weighted toward the intellectual capital in your head…so I think anything to do with software and with the Internet is a really good starting point.”

    When Zip2 was acquired by Compaq Elon got $20,000,000 out of the deal.

    It would have been impossible for Elon to have done electric cars or rockets right out of the gate because it requires plenty of capital to enter those industries.  

    In fact even with the over $100 million Elon earned from being the largest shareholder of PayPal when they were acquired by Ebay he went all in with SpaceX and Tesla to the point where he invested every single dollar and had to borrow money to pay his bills.

    Elon’s heroic investments of capital, blood, sweat and tears are a big part of the reason why SpaceX and Tesla have been able to survive, thrive and dominate.

    The Paradigm Shifting Power of The Internet

    When Elon describes the birth of the Internet he often exclaims the invention of the Internet is like humanity acquiring a nervous system.

    In his 2020 AxelSpringer Award Talk Elon said of the Internet:

    “The Internet…Really the Internet is like a nervous system for humanity.

    Whereas previously communication was more like osmosis.  For information to travel someone would have to call someone over the phone.  Or write them a letter.  And then that letter would be carried by a series of people to the destination.

    Now communication can happen instantly from any place in the world to anyone and does not need a human to carry it.

    This is sort of like at a cellular level you see say a primitive small multicellular creature will communicate via osmosis from one cell to the next or diffusion essentially.

    But once you have a more sophisticated organism you have a nervous system.  The speed at which information can travel is much faster.  And the accessibility of information is fundamentally different.

    If you want in the middle of the amazon jungle with a satellite connection and you have access to all the world’s information…

    Whereas previously even if you live in the library of congress in the US where all the books are, you still would only have access to a fraction of the world’s information.

    This is basically humanity becoming a super organism.  To the degree that’s not possible unless you have essentially instant live speed communication from anywhere to anywhere, as opposed to osmosis.  Diffusion.”

    The above statement from Elon puts into powerful perspective the power and importance of the Internet.

    And Elon lived near the heart of Silicon Valley for decades.  Only recently did Elon move to Texas, where SpaceX now launches rockets from Boca Chica (AKA Starbase).

  • Reinvest In Your Own Success

    Self-Funded Ambition: Elon Musk’s Path of Personal Reinvestment.

    “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.“ ~Elon Musk

    When Elon started Zip2 with his younger brother Kimbal he was so hard up for money they worked and slept in the office, because it was cheaper than an apartment, and they could not afford both.

    Elon and Kimbal only had one computer so during the day it was used as a server for Zip2, and Elon would code during the night, every night.

    Elon is one year older than Kimbal and “Team Musk” proved to be an awesome duo.

    Zip2 was acquired by Compaq for $307,000,000.  Elon received $22 million and Kimbal received $15 million for their shares of the company when Elon was 27 years-old and Kimbal was 26.


    After becoming a multi-millionaire Elon could have easily retired and lived the rest of his life relaxing on a beach…but laziness has never been Elon’s style.

    Elon took half of his money and put it into an online financial services company he launched, called X.com.

    This is why Elon became the largest shareholder when X.com merged with PayPal.  Elon brought the most to the table.

    In large part because of the $12,000,000 Elon reinvested into his success with PayPal they were able to offer $20 for each new user and this turbo-boosted new user growth and helped PayPal achieve 100,000 users within their first active month.

    After the new user bonus was removed people continued to join PayPal for many reasons because it was – and still is – a very robust online payment and financial solution.

    At first Elon and the PayPal team built out a large suite of solutions to solve all financial services desired by customers.  It turned out email payments intrigued investors the most so they focused on that innovation and the business grew at an amazing pace, often many thousands of new users per day.

    In October 2002 when eBay acquired PayPal the acquisition was for $1.5 Billion dollars and of this amount Elon received $180 Million.

    In 2020 PayPal Elon bought back his x.com domain, which was part of the acquisition deal with eBay.

    Of the $180,000,000 Elon had after selling PayPal he ended up investing all of that money into SpaceX, Tesla, and Solar City.

    “My proceeds from PayPal were $180m. I put $100m in SpaceX, $70m in Tesla and $10m in Solar City. I had to borrow money for rent.”

    And though it certainly seemed very risky at the time reinvesting everything in his success the effort has definitely paid off.  If Elon had chosen to quit rather than risk it all he would certainly not be one of the wealthiest humans alive today and the world would not be as awesome of a place.

    SpaceX has revolutionized the rocket industry by making rockets reusable.  They first achieved a successful landing and recovery of a first stage rocket booster in December 2015.

    In November 2016 Tesla acquired Solar City, which was then the largest provider of solar rooftop panels.

    Tesla has been revolutionizing the auto industry and energy market since Elon Musk became involved with the new company in 2004.

    Since then Tesla has won the highest safety honor from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.  

    With ceaseless innovation they have successfully shifted the entire car market towards electrification and emerged as the market leader.  In 2020 Tesla became the most valuable car company in the world.

    And on January 7th, 2021 Elon Musk surpassed Jeff Bezos and officially became the wealthiest man alive.

  • The Importance of Prototypes and Production

    Stop Celebrating Prototypes; Start Planning Production.

    When asked why the Tesla Cybertruck and Roadster are taking so much time to produce, Elon explains: “Design Is Easy.  Production is Hard.”

    Don’t get Elon wrong: He’s not saying design is not worth obsessing over or that Tesla and SpaceX do not obsess over design…

    Because obsessing over design has helped make Tesla vehicles and SpaceX products as awesome as they are.

    But a design on paper is easier than a prototype in clay, and a prototype is easier than a product on a production line.

    The machine that builds the machine is the ultimate challenge.

    Elon has said production is at least an order of magnitude harder than developing a prototype, when talking about Tesla.

    So once you get a prototype to work with, you can shift your focus to finding investors and getting the funds, factory and people so you can get into production!

    The rate of innovation is why Tesla’s do not have model years, because improvements are being made constantly, and certainly not at a once per year pace.

    Because you’ve got to constantly innovate and iterate to create something great.

    Get from the design to the prototype phase as soon as possible.

    Because once you have a prototype you can focus on the challenges that come with production and delivery.

  • Manifest Motives Worth More Than Money

    Manifest Motives Worth More Than Money

    Be guided by doing the right thing.  It’s always right to do the right thing.

    Elon has a current estimated net worth of $600+ billion as of December, 2025, and this does not factor in his crypto assets. 

    His net worth fluctuates depending on the price of Tesla shares and the valuation of SpaceX.

    Interestingly Elon went on the record in a Reddit Storytime with NASA and said:

    “I actually don’t care about money at all.  At all.  But I do care about us becoming a space faring civilization.”

    For Elon it’s certainly not all about the money: First and foremost for Elon it’s about the missions.

    When we make mistakes, it’s just because we were being foolish or stupid or whatever, but it’s really always made with the right motivations.  

    We say the things we believe even when sometimes those things we believe are delusional.”

    Elon is a genius among geniuses and part of this is his ability to recognize when re-calibration is necessary.

    Even the smartest among us make mistakes.  Making mistakes is a part of making things work better.  Elon elaborated on this idea at a Baron Investment Conference: 

    “We’d made so many mistakes in the beginning of Tesla we basically had to recapitalize the company completely…Almost every decision we made was wrong.”

    Being right is often a process of eliminating and learning from what is wrong…

    A big part of the power of Tesla and everything Elon does is his willingness to be wrong, and then use this knowledge to pave the path to a more righteous realization.

    Thinking you are always right will always stifle innovation.

    Naive teenagers often think they are always right…and they often are proved wrong at this point.

    Elon has likely made more right business decisions than almost anyone else alive and yet he says: 

    “We start from the point of view that we are wrong.  And our goal is to be less wrong.”

    The more wrongs you can improve upon…

    The more likely you will ultimately be right.

  • Focus on Signal Over Noise

    For years Elon and Tesla never spent any money on advertising.

    They focused instead on investing in R&D and design since these aspects of business help make the products as good as possible.

     “I ask myself: Will this activity result in a better product or service? If not, I stop those efforts.”

    There are grey areas like “Is a Tesla sign design an ad?” but ultimately the important takeaway is how money invested into design and manufacturing is a far better value than money burned on ads that do not significantly move a company forward.

    Elon has created Billions of dollars in growth by focusing his investments and then exercising control to accelerate growth.

    Here’s a quote from Elon talking with Inc. on the subject:

    “It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.”

    Speaking of focus, a powerful statement Elon shared at the USC commencement address he gave is to:

    “Focus on signal over noise. A lot of companies get confused.  They spend money on things that don’t actually make the product better.

    For example at Tesla we’ve never spent any money on advertising.  We put all of the money into R&D and manufacturing and design to try to make the car as good as possible.

    And I think that’s the way to go.

    For any given company just keep thinking about are these efforts that people expending are they resulting in a better product or service, and if they are not, stop those efforts.“

    Focus on what actually moves the needle forward.  

    Focus on signal over noise.

  • Build a Fantastic Future

    Build a Fantastic Future

    The New Frontier: Why We Must Dream Big to Save Humanity

    If you look at each of Elon’s businesses they solve huge problems in emerging markets where there is little competition.

    When Elon helped build PayPal they were the only email money transferring solution in the world.

    SpaceX is the first private company to send a spacecraft (Dragon) to the ISS, and the first company to create reusable rockets.

    Tesla is the world’s leading and first highly successful electric car company.  And as of 2020 Tesla is the most valuable car company in the world.

    In his USC commencement speech Elon recommends “Don’t just follow the trend” and his actions have certainly followed this advice.

    To reap the greatest rewards, focus on innovation.  Be fuelled by competition but focus on innovation.

    Strive to innovate to such a degree that there are no competitors.  

    Elon’s Billionaire business associate Peter Thiel writes on this topic in his book Zero to One.

    If you want to create and capture lasting value, seek to innovate and create a monopoly.

    Monopolies by definition transcend competition and are how the greatest business profits can be achieved.

  • Create The Most Compelling Product or Service Possible

    Create The Most Compelling Product or Service Possible

    Build It Like Elon: The Secret to Creating Products That Sell Themselves

    Creating an amazing product is one of the strongest types of marketing there is.

    Word of mouth marketing is a remarkable form of influencer marketing and it remains powerful to this day.

    Influencers, the media, and everyone in between are all human beings.  And the best way to get them to spread the word about your company for free is to develop an incredible product or service that amazes and delights.

    Apple is an example of this.  Although Apple certainly does not shy away from advertising their marketing would fall flat if their products and design were not high quality.

    Elon explains how for him it is not about the companies, it is about creating compelling products and services, and companies are the means to this end.

    In an interview with the Babylon Bee Elon elaborates:

    “It’s not like I care about starting companies.  Like is there is a very compelling product or service that’s the thing that is important, not the company.  A company is just an assemblage of people to create a compelling product or service.  And if a company does not provide great products or services it should not exist.”

    So relentlessly strive to improve the product or service you have to offer.

    When media outlets start talking about how your product is the best you’ll know you are on the right track.

  • Innovate Faster

    Innovate Faster

    Embrace Risk and Rapid Cycles: Building the Future Like Elon.

    The decisions Elon makes may appear risky to others but because of the setup of his companies he is able to roll out innovations on the fly.

    Fast decisions give Elon’s companies an edge because either they improve, or they learn, and this helps innovation.

    Elon’s companies have an edge whereas entrenched management in legacy companies cannot keep up due to managerial lag.

    Too often people are paralyzed by fear and suffer from analysis paralysis.

    Without an element of risk a great reward is rarely found.

    There is risk of company decay and death when no action is taken at all.

    Safe is risky and risky is safe.

    Innovation is how you win and innovation requires a degree of action taking risk.

    But avoiding innovation is a bigger risk.  Innovation requires a focus on what could be rather than what already is.

    Elon has said “What matters is the rate of innovation.”

    “What exactly is innovation?” you might be wondering.  

    At Tesla AI day Elon explained: “In general innovation is how many iterations and what is the average progress between each iteration.  And so if you can reduce the time between iterations the rate of improvement is much better.”

    Innovating more effectively and rapidly than your competition gives your business the best chance of success…

    So always be “risk taking” and innovating!

    The faster your rate of innovation the faster your business will rise in power and capture market share.

    Tesla has been innovating faster than other car companies and the compounding effect of all of these innovations are an essential part of the reason why Tesla is now the most valuable car company with no signs of slowing down.

    Amazon has been innovating more than Wal-Mart and this makes it clear how Amazon has been gaining market share from Wal-Mart.

    Innovation is future focused and being future focused is key if you want a more fantastic future.

    Elon certainly is and says:

    “I think within the next five years we will see the electrification of aircrafts.  First propeller, then turboprop, then jet engines.”

    “What is important is that we establish a self-sustaining city on Mars so the future of consciousness and life as we know it can survive.”

    Elon goes on about innovation in an interview with Offshore Northern Seas.

    “Establish an expectation of innovation, and the compensation structure must reflect that…there must also be an allowance for failure because if you are trying something new, necessarily there is some chance it will not work.  If you punish people too much for failure they will respond accordingly and the innovation you get will not be very incrementalist.”

    So keep thinking ahead because the future is where we’ll be spending the rest of our lives.

  • Elon’s Edge: The Power of Radical Obsession

    Elon’s Edge: The Power of Radical Obsession

    The Musk Mindset: Why Average Is Not an Option

    Elon has been known to spend so much time working he will actually sleep in the Tesla and SpaceX factories.

    And it’s not as if he has a plush bedroom in a factory loft or something.  In one Interview Elon showed the plain couch in a Tesla conference room he slept on, and said it was so uncomfortable he ended up sleeping on the floor.

    Sleeping in his factories and at his business locations is something Elon does to this day, even as one of the richest humans alive.

    In a recent interview (Dec 2020) when Elon was accepting the Axel Springer award in Germany the interviewer asked Elon where he was spending the night.

    Elon replied: In the German Tesla factory.  The interviewer asked where in the factory?  Elon replied in the conference room.

    That’s right, the world’s second wealthiest man chooses to spend the night in the conference room of a factory rather than a fancy hotel.

    When asked about this on a Clubhouse audio chat he admitted that not only has he slept in the conference room, he has also slept outside of it, in a sleeping bag on the concrete factory floor.

    That’s the level of obsession that is required for Elon’s kind of success.