Ceo Quotes

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

“It's not as though we can keep burning coal in our power plants. Coal is a finite resource, too. We must find alternatives, and it's a better idea to find alternatives sooner then wait until we run out of coal, and in the meantime, put God knows how many trillions of tons of CO2 that used to be buried underground into the atmosphere.”

“Great companies are built on great products.”

“I had so many people try to talk me out of starting a rocket company, it was crazy.”

“I've been to Disneyland, like, 10 times. I'm getting really tired of Disneyland.”

“We're running the most dangerous experiment in history right now, which is to see how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere can handle before there is an environmental catastrophe.”

“I think it's important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it's like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there.”

“Facebook is quite entrenched and has a network effect. It's hard to break into a network once it's formed.”

“I read books and talked to people. I mean that's kind of how one learns anything. There's lots of great books out there & lots of smart people.”

“I do think there is a lot of potential if you have a compelling product and people are willing to pay a premium for that. I think that is what Apple has shown. You can buy a much cheaper cell phone or laptop, but Apple's product is so much better than the alternative, and people are willing to pay that premium.”

“My mentality is that of a samurai. I would rather commit seppuku than fail.”

“There's a real opportunity to have a vertical takeoff and landing electric supersonic jet.”

“You want to do things you’re passionate about but also are useful to other people.”

“It's just mind-blowingly awesome. I apologize, and I wish I was more articulate, but it's hard to be articulate when your mind's blown-but in a very good way.”

“Starting and growing a business is as much about the innovation, drive and determination of the people who do it as it is about the product they sell.”

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

“Weighing too much on someone's talent and not someone's personality. I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.”

“When you struggle with a problem, that's when you understand it.”

“The lessons of history would suggest that civilisations move in cycles. You can track that back quite far - the Babylonians, the Sumerians, followed by the Egyptians, the Romans, China. We're obviously in a very upward cycle right now and hopefully that remains the case. But it may not.”

“Patience is a virtue, and I'm learning patience. It's a tough lesson.”

“You have to be pretty driven to make it happen. Otherwise, you will just make yourself miserable.”

“In order to have your voice be heard in Washington, you have to make some little contribution.”

“I’m nauseatingly pro-American. I would have come here from any country. The U.S. is where great things are possible.”

“Many things are improbable, only a few are impossible.”

“Work like hell. I mean you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. [This] improves the odds of success. If other people are putting in 40 hour work weeks and you’re putting in 100 hour work weeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing you know that you will achieve in 4 months what it takes them a year to achieve.”