Elon Musk's Ultimate Advice for Students & College Grads - HOW TO SUCCEED IN LIFE

So what advice do I have for college graduates? Certainly, I'd invite you to apply for a job at SolarCity or Tesla or SpaceX. And if not, then, if that doesn't work for whatever reason, then apply to jobs at other companies in that arena or try starting a company. If you study engineering and you figure out how to design new things, then it's relatively easy to start a company. You just need to get a few like-minded people with you. I have to say that the space business is quite hard to start a company in the space business because it's such a capital-intensive business. So it may be better to do something in solar power or, if you're going to do it in cars, do it as kind of a component supplier for cars or something like that. Musk has college degrees in business and physics, but SpaceX is his first venture in aerospace. How did you get the expertise to be the chief technology officer of a rocket ship company? Well, I do have a physics background. That's helpful as a foundation. And then I read a lot of books and talked to a lot of smart people. Don't just follow the trend. You may have heard me say that it's good to think in terms of the physics approach, which is, rather than reasoning by analogy, you boil things down to the most fundamental truths you can imagine and you reason up from there. And this is a good way to figure out if something really makes sense or if it's just what everybody else is doing. It's hard to think that way. You can't think that way about everything. It takes a lot of effort. But if you're trying to do something new, it's the best way to think. And that framework was developed by physicists to figure out counterintuitive things like quantum mechanics. So it's really a powerful method. And I want to know, what is the one thing that has surprised you about your life? Well, I'm surprised about the whole thing, honestly. I certainly didn't expect for any of these things to happen, honestly. I knew I wanted to be involved in technology. In fact, the only reason I started a company back in 1995, an internet company, was because there were only a few internet companies and I couldn't get a job at any of them. I tried to get a job at Netscape and sent my resume in. I tried hanging out in the lobby, but I was too shy to talk to anyone. And I was like, OK, well, I guess I'll have to start a company, because I can't get a job anywhere. Thank you. I wouldn't say I'm fearless. In fact, I think I feel fear quite strongly. If what I'm doing is important enough, then I just override the fear. But it's not as though I feel more strongly than I would like. I think also people tend to overweight risk on a personal level. It's one thing if you've got a mortgage to pay and kids to support, and that if you were to deviate from your job, well, how are you going to feed your family and pay the rent? OK, that's understandable. But let's say you're young and you're just coming out of college or coming out of high school or whatever, what do you risk? You know, you're not going to starve. I mean, it's really certainly not in any kind of modern economy. It's so easy to earn enough money just to live somewhere and eat food. I don't know what they're only afraid of. They're mostly afraid of failure, I think. People should be less risk-averse when there's not much at risk. What is education? You're basically downloading data and algorithms into your brain. And it's actually amazingly bad in conventional education, because it shouldn't be this huge chore. The more you can gamify the process of learning, the better. I always had sort of a slight existential crisis, because I was trying to figure out what does it all mean? What's the purpose of things? And I came to the conclusion that if we can advance the knowledge of the world, if we can do things that expand the scope and scale of consciousness, then we're better able to ask the right questions and become more enlightened. And that's really the only way forward. What drives you? What is it that when you wake up in the morning, do you see a problem and you want to solve it? The thing that drives me is that I want to be able to think about the future and feel good about that. We're doing what we can to have the future be as good as possible, to be inspired by what is likely to happen, and to look forward to the next day. That's what really drives me, is trying to figure out how to make sure that things are great, and are going to be so. That's the underlying principle behind Tesla and SpaceX. I think it's pretty important that we accelerate the transition to sustainable generation and consumption of energy. It's inevitable, but it matters if it happens sooner or later. And then SpaceX is about helping make life multi-planetary, and doing what we can to continue the dream of Apollo, and ultimately make a contribution to life becoming multi-planetary. Let's talk a little more about that. I think everyone is very interested in that, when you say making life multi-planetary. That's exciting. It is exciting. So what's your vision there? I think particularly for Americans, America is a nation of explorers. People came here from other parts of the world, they chose to give up the known in favor of the unknown. I think the United States is a distillation of the human spirit of exploration. That's why it appeals to Americans so much. You can see this when there was a shuttle tragedy, and seven people died. That's terrible, but a lot of people die all the time. But why do we care so much? Because it was the dream of exploration that was dying, along with those people. That's why. I thought both Tesla and SpaceX would fail at the beginning. You thought? Yeah, sure. Really? Of course. But nevertheless, you put all your money in that. I expected to lose it. Well, technically, what I thought was, well, I'll take half the money from PayPal, and if I lose half of it, that's okay. But then, of course, the companies encounter difficulties, and then have a choice of either let the company die, or put all the money into the companies. I really didn't want the companies to die, so I put all the money in the companies. And then I had to borrow money from friends to pay living expenses. Looking just for evidence of exceptional ability, and if there's a track record of exceptional achievement, then it's likely that that will continue into the future. Well, it really depends on the stakes. If the stakes are high, if it's really important, then I will overcome the fear and just do it anyway. But essentially, I mean, drive overrides fear. But I feel the fear. It's kind of annoying. I wish I felt it less.