The days when Elon Musk was cool

SpaceX continues to impress

Author

George Pillari
October 03, 2024

Read time 1m55s

Let’s go back to the Elon Musk who existed before his acquisition of Twitter and before he was one of Donald Trump’s guys.

Back in 1999, Musk merged his fledgling payments company with a similar business and PayPal was born. It was acquired a few years later by eBay and Musk made his first big financial score.

What did he do?

Musk did not build a portfolio of businesses and spread his bets across industries and geographies to diversify and preserve his wealth.  He followed his passion and started Space Exploration Technologies, or as it more commonly known, SpaceX. Today, more than 20 years after its founding, Musk still owns a controlling interest in the company and SpaceX is the most valuable privately owned company in the world with a valuation approaching $200 billion.

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If you want to stay wealthy, diversify your assets. If you want to get wealthy, concentrate your bets.

Richard Rainwater, famous investor

I know readers do not love clicking through the newsletter, but finish reading this post and then please watch this clip of Musk as a young man talking about the business of outer space.

Everything he said then still holds up today. Musk was successful with SpaceX for a number of reasons:

  • As the founder, he invested his own money in the earliest and riskiest phases in the lifespan of SpaceX. Musk personally interviewed the first 200+ hires at the company. The guy was hands-on and deeply involved. (And still is.)

  • As the company grew and delivered results, he raised funds from outside investors at higher and higher valuations meaning he sold smaller pieces of the company for more money. This minimized the dilution of his ownership.

  • SpaceX was not a project for Musk, it was a burning passion. The distinction between a project and a passion cannot be overstated and, in my opinion, is the reason SpaceX has had 300+ launches and plans to land on Mars in the next five years. In 2024, the company is averaging 10+ launches per month — seriously. The founder, primary investor, and chief motivator was and still is all-in.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket

Key Takeaways

  • If you want to get involved in a start-up or a moonshot, make sure there is a crazy person running it. What do I mean by crazy? Somebody who is passionate to the point of obsession and willing to make the personal sacrifices required for success.

  • Avoid getting involved with spreadsheet jockeys who have never worked on the factory floor. Building a business is about making adjustments, not sticking to a six-month old forecast in a financial model.

  • Decide if you are the type of person who can go “all-in.” Most of us are not, and the high-risk, high-reward world of moonshots is better left to others.

Going for the Moonshot is one of the Seven Deadly Stupidities

Going for the Moonshot, Introduction

Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. -- Thomas Edison

www.stupid.blog/p/going-for-the-moonshot-introduction

Google X, the Moonshot Factory

If Google can't create Moonshots, who can?

www.stupid.blog/p/google-x-the-moonshot-factory

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