亿万富翁企业家埃隆·马斯克说到做到，我本人为这个价值提供担保，并以我的全部资产为这项担保负责。他最大的资本，是能够怀揣这个宏大、宏大的梦想，并让其他人相信它是真的。这位意志坚定的工程师的宏大梦想改变了3个行业。我只是向任何正在聆听的实体祈愿，请观看这次发射。而这是一名来自南非、来到美国拯救，你知道，NASA的移民。航天飞机那整套火箭方案，我有一种更好的方法。他的更好方法意味着拿一切冒险。我们的银行账户里可能只剩大约够用1周的现金，或或者更少。然后我必须作出选择，要么把我通过

将PayPal出售给eBay所获得的全部剩余资本投入Tesla，否则Tesla就会倒闭。其他人不那么愿意冒险押注他或他的公司。你们投入900亿美元，像是50年份的支撑，投进太阳能和风能，投给太阳、Solyndra、Fisker和Tesla进入1。我的意思是，我有个朋友说过，你们不只是挑选赢家和输家，你们挑选的就是输家。Tesla的投资极不可能曾经偿还给纳税人。电动汽车实际上仍不可能以对大多数消费者有效的方式实现。但他的押注获得了回报。我们不仅偿还了本金，实际上还连本带息偿还，而且还有涡轮痛苦。所以最终，美国纳税人实际上从这笔贷款中赚取了超过2000万美元的利润。埃隆·马斯克甚至还有

更宏大的梦想，这些梦想或许会把他带到比任何人都更远的地方。你知道，有人必须更进一步，地球不够大。SpaceX，他真的想去火星，而且失去太多。我真的很想去火星，那就是SpaceX的冲刺角色。[音乐] 我小时候真的很怕那只狗，但后来我，我算是逐渐明白了，好吧，黑暗实际上只是可见波长400到700纳米范围内光子的缺失。很难相信企业家埃隆·马斯克曾经害怕过任何东西。在埃隆发出的黑暗里，仅仅是缺少光。然后我想，嗯，害怕缺少光子真的很傻。此后我在掉落时就不再害怕了。有一次，其中一个孩子对他说，看月亮

它在10亿英里之外，而他说，嗯，不，它实际上不到25万英里远。然后他们说伊朗企业家埃隆·马斯克用一生证明别人是错的。马斯克在南非长大，是3个孩子中的老大，并且提前1年入学。他的父亲是一名工程师，母亲梅是一名模特和营养师。他是最年轻的，大约做了2天，也是最矮的，然后他又是这个聪明绝顶的男孩，所以人们不太喜欢他。所以我是个小书呆子，可能还有点自作聪明，因此这简直是灾难的配方。倒不是说他对我讲过多少这方面的事。他经常被欺负。所以就是读，读很多书，并并尽量在学校里避开别人。所以他的社交

生活比我的另外2个孩子少得多，而那就是典型的书呆子。我读了所有我能买到的漫画，或者书店在把我赶走之前允许我读的漫画。从醒来到入睡，我把能拿到手的一切都读了。有段时间我，我真的没书可读了，反而真的百科全书。而且他有过目不忘的记忆力，所以他能记住一切。每当我有问题时，我的女儿托斯卡都会说，洞，天才男孩。他的弟弟金巴尔·马斯克，在他路易斯10岁时，他接受了IBM的测试，结果显示他在完整计算机编程方面具备他们见过的最高天赋之一。我试着去上了一些计算机课程，但我的进度远远超过老师，所以那其实没有什么帮助。于是我看到她在做太空游戏

名叫 Blastaar。马斯克已经像个企业家一样思考，想出了如何出售他的游戏。我意识到我当时 12 岁，我们决定要在高中附近开一家街机厅。我们非常沉迷电子游戏。我们觉得这会大受欢迎。我们租下了一栋楼，让街机设备供应商交付设备，到最后我们唯一需要做的就是让市政府批准我们正在做的事。但必须由成年人申请市政府许可证，而他们还没有告诉父母自己在做什么。但他们当然告诉我们，我们不能开街机厅。马克斯·查夫金是一名科技和商业记者，曾多次为埃隆·马斯克撰写人物报道。其实，他童年最令人惊叹的事情是他的

从从南非逃离。我记得自己曾想过并说过，美国比世界上任何其他国家都更是一个能成就伟大事业的地方。这话有点老套，但确实如此。美国是机会之地。搬走也能让马斯克避开在南非军队服义务兵役。在实行种族隔离的南非长大相当超现实。我的意思是，我们不支持那个政府，也不认同它，所以真正去服兵役这件事根本不在考虑之列。我告诉父母我要去去加拿大，他们试图说服我不要走，然后他就飞走了，我心想，哇，他太独立了。当然，他一落地就给我打电话。他说，我现在除了水上巴士安全地从蒙特利尔到温哥华，还能做什么

而那让我算是看到了加拿大，至少是从公路上看。他在全国各地打过零工，之后进入多伦多的女王学院。以前上大学时，我很少去上课。我只是读课本，然后去参加考试。大学里更大的药丸是能够和与我同龄的女孩约会。其实我遇到了第一任妻子，他们的马斯从宾夕法尼亚大学取得了工程和商业学位，并获得了前往斯坦福的奖学金。硅谷是应许之地。我真的只想去那些真正令人兴奋的突破正在发生的地方。埃隆有这种能力，能够审视世界，然后说，这是一个真正的问题，它将在20年后。他环顾四周，发现那些改变世界的东西

并没有在斯坦福发生。我甚至没有去上课。我给系主任打电话说，我想试着推销这家互联网公司，它可能不会成功，所以当它失败时，我想确保自己从技术上仍然能回来。我的孩子会做些有趣的事，而我从来不会太担心他们，因为你知道，如果你没人想从大学退学，他随时可以回去。我弟弟当时在加拿大，我说，听着，我觉得我们应该尝试创建一家互联网公司。于是他南下来加入我。他当时，你知道，只有 2,000 美元，没有朋友，钱勉强够租一套公寓。我想他告诉过我，他在健身房洗澡，因为他们住的地方没有淋浴。我们只有一些，有几次那里白天是沙发，而

到了晚上就变成床。史蒂夫·尤尔韦松是硅谷的一名风险投资家。我第一次见到埃兰和他的弟弟金巴尔·马斯克，是在90年代中期，当时他们刚刚踏上加利福尼亚。我想他们到这里大约才一周，当时正在推介一家名为 Zip to 的新公司。90年代中期到90年代末的硅谷是一场淘金热。人们蜂拥到这个地区寻找财富，试图在互联网行业取得成功。马斯特想出了一个让报纸进入数字时代的主意。他拿来一张黄页光盘、一些地图软件，写了一点代码，把它们整合起来，创建了第一个在线城市名录。你知道，更是商业策划高手。我不只是销售人员。我仍然具备我的我的核心编程技能，我能够编写

第一家公司所需的软件。现在，当袁开始创业时，请记住，你知道，互联网才出现几年。大多数本地企业都不在互联网上。寻找本地企业的方式是翻开黄页。他们认为，媒体宣传活动，也就是报纸，将需要帮助来上线，并在网站中构建大量功能。曾有人真的把一本黄页扔向我们，并告诉我们，你们觉得她有一天会取代这个吗？而我们把那个疯了的家伙，因为我们不仅要取代这个，而且事情还不会止步于此，还会从那里继续发展。没过多久，全国各地的媒体公司都开始签约，于是我们得以让以下公司作为投资者，和

客户：《纽约时报》公司、赫斯特、奈特-里德以及其他多家公司。1999 年，康柏的 AltaVista 部门以 3.07 亿美元现金和 3,400 万美元股票期权收购了 Zip2。马斯克当时只有 28 岁。我希望那太疯狂了。为什么有人会为我们这家小公司支付如此巨额的资金？事实上，结果对他们也非常好，所以他们对这方面的了解远远超过我。当孩子解决它——那是最激动人心的一天，我们简直不敢相信，因为在互联网世界里，你不知道自己是会，你知道，赚到 100 万，还是明天就死掉。[音乐] 1999 年 2 月，埃隆·马斯克在 28 岁时卖掉了自己的第一家公司。他加入了硅谷百万富翁的行列，因为它

被康柏以略高于 200 万美元的价格收购，而我因此大概赚了 2,100 万或 2,200 万美元，对我来说这是一笔惊人的巨款。这显然是一笔意外的财富。出去买些玩具非常有趣。他首先做的事情之一，就是出去买了一辆大型跑车。他来自一个非常喜欢驾驶车辆比赛的家庭，而他买了当时用钱能买到的性能最高的汽车之一。那是一辆 McLaren F1，随后他就在湾区一带尽情驾驶。可以说，围绕他的驾驶，有过许多冒险经历和各类新闻。我相信，拥有这么多钱并让人们认可你的成功，感觉一定非常美妙。我想他同时也感到沮丧，因为这家公司并没有

变得像他所希望的那样伟大。它没有，它没有改变世界。它只是略微改变了报业历史的进程，从他的角度来看，我觉得这，你知道，只算是微不足道的成就。所以那时我当然可以选择退休，你知道，在某个地方买座岛，喝着迈泰鸡尾酒，但我对此完全没有兴趣。其实并不存在我们什么也不做这个选择，真正的问题只是我们接下来要做什么。有什么特别的景观吗？它其实只是垫脚石。创办我的第 2 家领域公司时，目标是创造出能产生深远影响的东西。在我看来，金融行业在互联网上并没有出现太多创新，而货币其实

只是数据库中的一条记录，而且，而且它的带宽需求很低，看起来应该是一种适合创新的东西。他非常富有。我的意思是，那笔钱多到超过大多数人的梦想。而在完成那次出售和创办后来成为 PayPal 的公司之间，他几乎没有耽搁任何时间。马斯克的新公司创造了一种我们今天习以为常的东西。它改变了全世界购买商品的方式，改变了资金从一个人转移到另一个人的方式。当时的交易非常缓慢，人们必须相互邮寄支票，所以仅完成一笔交易就可能需要数周。凭借出售 Zip2 所得的意外之财，马斯克很快转而创立了 XCOM，以使电子现金转账成为可能。但他的新公司与一家竞争对手

发生了碰撞，那是一家名叫 Confinity 的移动支付公司，两家公司当时确实在相互竞争，而归根结底，真正的敌人是 eBay。为了有效对抗 eBay 的内置系统，我们合并了双方的力量。他们把新公司称为 PayPal。他看待 PayPal 时，他的目标并不是创建一个可以进行个人对个人付款的平台。他的目标是要改造金融行业。我们得以成为全球领先的支付系统，随后他们终于认输并收购了 PayPal。2002 年初，马斯克和他的合伙人以 1.

50 亿美元的价格卖掉了 PayPal。马斯克是最大股东，带着 1.8 亿美元离开。当时他 30 岁。我大概可以中止一连串岛屿，但但那么大，不，这不是，这根本不是我非常感兴趣的事。他对岛屿不感兴趣，但对外太空有兴趣。相比我们永远被困在地球上的未来，置身那里、探索群星的未来要令人兴奋和鼓舞得多。我当时在想，好吧，我想知道我们什么时候，什么时候会去火星。你知道，什么时候，什么时候 naphthenic 会去火星。我访问了 NASA 的网站，那里没有前往火星的计划，甚至根本没有真正迈出太空探索下一步的计划。这就是，他当时说自己希望前往并使人类文明能够离开地球。我说，这

大约是你所能想象的最最宏大的愿景，而那将需要资金。他有足够的资金去做，所以他会去做。马斯克有一个惊世骇俗的想法：私营企业实际上可以重新激活太空旅行。2002 年 6 月，他创立了太空探索技术公司，也就是 SpaceX。埃隆是公司早期那些年里唯一的出资者。又一个风险高得令人难以置信的举动：地球上没有人认为这个想法能获得融资，我要亲自为它提供全部资金，数额接近 1 亿美元。这在当时占了他净资产的大部分，用于实现一个挑战军工复合体的梦想。现在，一名来自南非的移民来到美国，说，你知道，NASA，你们用

航天飞机做的整套火箭事情，我其实有一种更好的方法。我曾 3 次前往俄罗斯，考虑购买一枚拆除了核弹头的翻新洲际弹道导弹。而 I Kim 的结论是，真正阻碍我们在太空领域取得大幅进步的事情，其实是火箭自 60 年代以来一直没有演进。所以诀窍不是弄清楚如何进入轨道，而是弄清楚如何低成本进入轨道。因此，我必须想出低成本的方法来制造发动机、主体结构和电子设备，以及开展发射操作，同时以极低的管理费用运营公司。正是所有这些领域中的一些发明，使我们的成本相较美国其他火箭改善了大约 3 到 4 倍。SpaceX 非常成功的

地方，是采用基本上现成的技术，也就是 NASA 50 年前开发的东西，并对其进行精简。所以从这个意义上说，他有点像太空领域的亨利·福特，因为亨利·福特没有发明汽车，他只是想出了如何让汽车，你知道，在商业上可行。马斯克不仅仅是一名企业家。如果你问袁是如何自学火箭科学的，他只会非常严肃地看着你，然后非常轻声地说，读了很多书。32 岁的埃隆·马斯克在全家每年参加反主流文化的沙漠活动火人节时，萌生了下一个宏大构想。虽然仍然着迷于火箭和跑车，但他希望找到一种结束地球对化石燃料依赖的方法。我曾是那个把进入

太阳能领域的想法交给林登和彼得的人，他们是我的表兄弟。他基本上把这个想法交给表兄弟们，然后说，如果你们愿意创办它，我会，我会为你们提供资金，它会是你们的公司，但我会担任董事长。他们说好，而事情几乎完美地运转起来。他们发现，如果你在面向房主的太阳能电池安装领域，把大约 100 件事情各自改进 10%，就能大幅整合一个目前由许多夫妻店构成的行业。所以 SolarCity 转而采取的做法是，他们说，零首付怎么样？你想要太阳能电池吗？我们直接给你安装，你一分钱都不用付。对，这就像租车，但甚至更好。SolarCity 从西部 5 个州起步，很快成长为最大的太阳能服务提供商

在美国。太阳能电池继续发展，SolarCity 最终只会上升，至少如此。所以这个商业模式很有吸引力，长期来看，他们可能成为美国最大的能源生产商。所有这些，但可再生能源只是一个宏大得多的目标中的一部分。马斯克对可持续未来有一个更加雄心勃勃的计划。他有这样一个想法：希望制造电动汽车，帮助人类摆脱化石燃料。所以城市关乎可持续能源的创造，而 Tesla 关乎可持续能源的消费。2004 年 4 月，马斯克用自己的 630 万美元帮助创办了 Tesla。这是数十年来第一家汽车行业初创企业，也是唯一一家诞生于硅谷的汽车初创企业。其实它非常简单，就是，你知道，以低产量制造一款高价

汽车，因为那基本上是我们唯一负担得起的做法；然后第 2 步是以中等产量制造一款中等价位的汽车；因为 f3 是一款大批量生产的低价汽车。Tesla 的计划是先推出高端、高性能产品来吸引异类群体，然后再为大众制造一款买得起的汽车。teslascope 创始人兼首任首席执行官马丁·埃伯哈德：我们希望通过这款车改变人们看待电动汽车的方式，并希望这能为我们打开销售其他电动汽车的市场。但我们也知道，如果你一开始就说，让我们先改变人性，让所有人都驾驶蹩脚的小汽车，这是行不通的。所以，我们应该制造一款人们想开的汽车，制造一款火辣、令人向往而且漂亮的汽车

并让人们相信，驾驶，你知道，电动汽车并不是一种妥协。真正着手把它装进高端汽车，并打破电动汽车原来是什么样的固有模式，这个想法令人振奋。这不再会是一辆高尔夫球车，它会是一辆法拉利。有警察在看吗？我们第一次看到 Tesla 时，它对于如何在不必花费巨额资金的情况下进入市场、如何打造品牌以及如何成为消费者心中的渴望之物，有一套很好的解释，而故事的各个部分也衔接起来了。他谈到，硅谷的智慧能够向底特律展示如何做到一件底特律认为不可能的事。就是电池，就是驱动电子设备，就是电动机，这些技能在硅谷和

我们的总统底特律。Tesla 为 Roadster 开发的革命性技术，最初使用计算机电池作为汽车动力来源。Tesla 首席技术官 JB·施特劳贝尔是这套电动动力系统的主要设计者。人们第一次能够行驶超过 200 英里，并获得与汽油车直接相当、足以竞争的性能，而 Tesla 是第一家采用这些原理、把它们付诸实践并加以尝试的公司。加利福尼亚州州长施瓦辛格出席了 Roadster 在 2006 年的公开亮相活动。试试这辆，它很火辣。他买了一辆。莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥和乔治·克鲁尼也买了。但“可以必须”能让普通客户接受他的想法吗？当时，电动汽车在

汽车行业中的活动非常少。我们当时处于大型 SUV 的时代，所以听说加利福尼亚有这样一家公司，计划向市场推出一款高端纯电动跑车，显得有些不同寻常。我们极其热切地想确保这款车能够在技术能做到什么这件事上发出挑战，并真正向全世界证明，电动汽车，你知道，可以快得令人难以置信，也可以拥有长得令人难以置信的续航里程。其中有一种冒险感，你知道，第一次做这些事情，而且是以一种真正因陋就简的方式完成。你知道，在我们真正有能力租下一间正规的办公室之前，一些最早期的电池组就是在我位于门洛帕克的车库里完成的。Tesla 面临的重大问题，与

所有电动汽车一样，一直都是电池，也就是电池的成本和使用寿命。埃里克·诺布尔是汽车咨询公司 Car Lab 的总裁，该公司评估新款汽车和卡车。美国消费者已经非常愿意接受纯电动汽车。不幸的是，纯电动汽车尚未准备好迎接美国消费者。Tesla 最初的结果似乎印证了这一悲观预测。最开始时，我们的想法很简单，而现在回过头来看显然也相当幼稚，那就是使用一些我们自主开发的技术，同时也使用一些从 AC Propulsion 获得授权的技术，把它们组合起来，制造一款有吸引力的电动跑车。那么让我们看看，它在哪里出了问题？当团队告诉马斯克时，事情出了问题

预计成本已从 65,000 美元飙升至 140,000 美元。随着问题不断累积，马斯克在 Tesla 面临一个生死攸关的决定。他必须在投入自己的 PayPal 回报与任由新公司倒闭之间作出选择。埃隆看着这一切说，梦想依然存在，但天哪，我手里有什么？我必须控制住局面。到 2007 年，Tesla 的资金正迅速耗尽。没有人愿意出面挽救这家未经验证的汽车初创企业。埃隆·马斯克必须独自冒险。我们作出了一些相当剧烈的改变，实质上是为企业进行资本重组，并投入大约相当于我们最初预期 2 倍的资金，而我们原本确实认为那基本上已经是上限。Tesla 基本上走到了这样一个地步：银行里的钱只够维持几个

月，而周围没有任何人愿意再投入资金。我拿出了自己的全部储备资本并投资到 Tesla，这非常可怕，因为，你知道，要是我在征服者和 PayPal 的劳动成果最终什么都没换来，实际上会相当令人难过。但在我心里毫无疑问，我会那么做，因为 Tesla 太重要了。直到我死，我都 24/7 待命，只为帮助解决问题，对吧。我给我打电话，3:00 a.

米。

在周日早晨，我不在乎。我们必须介入，并在人事变动方面作出一些极其艰难的决定，甚至确实必须让他把时间投入公司。我要，我要，我要点名。所以，如果有人总是坐在火山口上，而且总是问题的根本原因，那么从长期看，他们不会对组织产生积极影响。身在这家公司却不开心是不可以的，而如果有人无法变得开心，对吧。马斯克及其董事会撤换了经营 Tesla 的联合创始人之一马丁·埃伯哈德。我认为我们确实确实大幅超出了埃弗哈特能够应付的水平，而他们在 2007 年显然吓坏了。我们要么必须关闭公司，要么，你知道，不得不由我接任首席执行官。这实际上是一个

既打造公司又制造汽车的过程。你知道，很多在公司规模极小时非常适合它的人，最终在公司扩大后，你知道，就没那么适合了。埃弗哈德没有安静地离开。他以诽谤、中伤和违反合同为由起诉马斯克。我认为自己成了替罪羊，被迫为那些运营不善的项目承担责任。必须通过调解解决争议，但他的公司陷入了严重的财务困境。2007 年 9 月，马斯克飞往德国，计划通过与戴姆勒梅赛德斯结盟筹集额外现金。它下来是发明内燃机汽车的公司，是梅赛德斯 Smart 的制造商，他们的认可分量很重。所以那是一个非常重要的

时刻。他必须说服这家公司，相信 Tesla 能够为其汽车供应电池组。他们很怀疑。真正关键的事情是展示能够正常工作的硬件。你知道，如果他们摸不到，也开不了，那就不算特别真实。他敦促团队用 Tesla 的电动机改装一辆戴姆勒 Smart 汽车，但他们首先必须找到一辆。把一张 Smart 卡改装为电动的挑战难上加难，因为我们在美国找不到出售的 Smart 卡，也就是那辆小圆锥。我们不得不派人前往墨西哥购买一辆 Smart 汽车，把，把 1/2 带到美国。而且烟雾非常微小，所以我们必须在小队汽车里装进一台电动机、电子设备、充电器以及所有东西。这项挑战极为艰巨，要把

Smart 汽车的汽油发动机替换为 Tesla 的传动系统和电池，把它们装进引擎盖下方的狭小空间，而且这一切要在不到 4 周内完成。我们的时间一点也不多。我们从一开始就知道这一点，而且差不多做好了战斗准备，你知道，在车间里设立了作战室。他们昼夜不停地工作，在工厂地板上偷地图，直至截止期限。戴姆勒的高管到达时，一点也不相信与一家美国汽车公司合作有任何道理，更不用说硅谷的一家小小的美国汽车公司。在等待戴姆勒作出决定期间，必须请来一位世界顶尖汽车设计师，协助打造他的下一个项目：一款现代而性感的家用轿车，也就是她所称的 Model S。最初，对于 Model

S，我当时想，好吧，让我们，让我们请拥有一家设计工作室的凯里·基斯卡来做造型设计。我们付给了他一笔相当可观的费用。奇怪的是，他为我们设计出来的方案糟透了。而他没有告诉我们的是，他实际上正在为一家竞争汽车公司工作。Tesla 官员声称，亨里克也许是为了了解 Tesla 正在做什么而来，而他其实从头到尾都在计划成立自己的公司、制造自己的汽车。我们对他非常不满，因为他基本上拿走了我们当时为 Model S 制定的原始规格，然后拿着一份制造同款汽车的商业计划四处兜售。Tesla 起诉了他，他也起诉了 Tesla，双方发生了各种，你知道，内斗。亨里克·菲斯克不愿

接受彭博的采访，但他告诉我们，我相信市场上有足够的空间，可以容纳数家秉持不同理念、追求新型电气化动力系统的新汽车公司。2008 年 11 月，法院作出了有利于菲斯卡斯的裁决。这对马斯克是一次挫折，而他个人当时也在经历一段艰难时期。经历 8 年婚姻并育有 5 个孩子后，埃隆和贾斯汀·马斯克离婚了。我离婚了，个人生活有些一团糟，此外还受到，你知道，一些媒体和我前妻的攻击，各种你能想象到的坏事。更多坏消息接踵而至：他大胆创办的太空运输公司 SpaceX 再次未能让火箭进入支持。第一位勋爵没走多远，向上走了大约 1 分钟，然后就在那里

发生了发动机起火，然后就结束了。第 2 次飞行其实确实进入了太空，但没有太公开。然后还有第 3 次飞行，我们没能完全进入轨道。他一开始说，我的钱足够尝试 3 次。他投入了自己的 1 亿美元，而且他算是暗示过这样一个想法：如果尝试 3 次后仍未成功，一切就会结束，SpaceX 会，会死掉。必须把他投入 SpaceX 的 1 亿美元烧光了。现在他又要回到起点重新设计。失败 3 天后，他首先宣布自己知道问题出在哪里；他宣布他们已经筹集到资金，可以为第 4 次发射提供资金，而第 4 次发射将在数月内进行，这在火箭行业里是一个疯狂的声明。我们能够出售

手掌，然后就在我们解决了那些问题之际，你却迎头撞上了自大萧条以来最严重的经济衰退。这是华尔街近期记忆中最黑暗的日子之一，股市遭遇自9/11以来最大跌幅，道琼斯指数下跌超过500点。这就是金融末日的样子，红色在尖叫，尖叫着卖出、卖出、卖出。那是震撼华尔街乃至全世界的一周，人们意识到经济可能仍会陷入更深的衰退。随着2008年接近尾声，埃隆·马斯克遭遇了职业生涯中最严重的危机。他的3家公司似乎全都在直线坠落。最糟糕的时刻大概是2008年圣诞节前的那个周末。经济海啸爆发了，让情况变得更加糟糕，如果它

不需要，我们就得把它关掉，然后只管弄清楚是怎么回事，我们要如何熬过这段股票时期而不破产。高盛因销售前景恶化而将这家汽车制造商的评级下调至卖出后，通用汽车股价跌至20多年来的低点。那很艰难。那显然是一个发誓让通用汽车和克莱斯勒破产的经济时期，而我们是一家年轻的公司，销售一种非常非常非必需的汽车。我的意思是，真的，人们不需要一辆100,000美元的跑车，而且他们当然不会想要一辆评价很差的车。2008年12月，广受欢迎的BBC节目《Top Gear》对Tesla Roadster进行了试驾。那么，这辆车确实正逐渐成为某种了不起的东西。[音乐] 虽然Tesla说它能行驶200英里

但我们计算出，在我们的赛道上，它只跑55英里就会耗尽电量，而如果电量真的耗尽，再次充满电也不是一件很快能完成的事。这位好斗的首席执行官指控这起事件是伪造的，并称他有证据证明Roadster并未耗尽电量。他起诉BBC，试图阻止该节目重播。此案后来被驳回，但情况还会变得更加艰难。他的能源公司Solar City创始人，那家为其租赁业务提供支持的银行退出了交易。我当然没有预料到，我们会遭遇自大萧条以来最糟糕的经济环境，而且这种环境对汽车行业的打击尤其严重。我的意思是，通用汽车破产了。我的意思是，通用，通用他妈的汽车，你知道，马斯克正在打一场生死之战。我们大概只剩下约1周的

银行里的现金，甚至更少，而且这一年所剩的时间已经非常少，几乎来不及解决这些，这些事情了。我的意思是，那一年只剩下大概2到3个工作日。我从没想过我很火热，我可能会精神崩溃，但如果我有可能好好崩溃一次，那次大概已经是最接近的一次了。当Eden经历他的悲伤时期时，我非常难过，感觉心里像破了一个洞，而你什么也做不了，你就是痛苦至极，我完全看不到他能从中走出来。他就是那么悲伤，然后接下来我接到这个电话，说，哇，你遇到了一位很棒的女人。唯一的亮点是遇见Talulah Riley，一位从未听说过Tesla、SpaceX或

埃隆·马斯克。他们于2010年结婚。我可能就像某个误打误撞走进伦敦俱乐部的倒霉工程师，而他看起来是那么孤苦无助，他就坐在角落里，拿着他的BlackBerry cific。他真的显得格格不入，而且很悲伤。我当时，你知道，努力对他非常温柔，却没有顺着他的话说，哦，是的，当他是同性恋时，这是我的火箭，这是我的。马斯克的个人生活开始好转，而SpaceX的未来终于开始起飞。第4次发射Falcon 1取得巨大成功，3个月后，NASA奖励SpaceX一份1.

60亿美元的合同，为国际空间站执行补给任务，但马斯克没有时间庆祝。Tesla正处于财务灾难的边缘。当时我必须做出选择，要么拿出我将PayPal卖给eBay后剩余的全部资金，投入Tesla，要么Tesla就会死。这家公司确实在失败的边缘摇摇欲坠，2008年末召开了一次董事会会议，会上他们讨论接下来会发生什么，而埃隆只是说，好吧，我要筹集一轮4,000万美元的资金，让公司继续运营。董事会成员有些疑惑，好吧，他要怎么做到？然后他说，我要自己把全部资金投进去。那种令人难以置信的吹嘘式自信促使人们改变了看法，而我们以及其他所有人

坐在桌旁的人都觉得，哦，我的天哪，我们想参与其中，想尽可能多地获得这笔投资。他凭借一种难以形容的英勇行为，在公司最黑暗的时刻挽救了它。没有什么能真正比得上把你仅剩的最后1美元花在一个你相信的项目上。那是，谢天谢地，他们可以有不错的一周，但从精神压力的角度来看，它确实造成了损耗。残障男子玩耍，只是烧坏了几条电路。就在他紧急注入现金后，他们收到了迫切需要的消息：与Daimler达成了一笔4,000万美元的smart汽车电池交易。Daimler后来又追加5,000万美元，获得公司10%的股份。马斯克决心不再重蹈覆辙，专注于让他的家用汽车成为现实。所以我说，听着，我们真的，我们需要

拥有我们自己的设计工作室，也就是在那时，我从“主机住房”聘请了前线人员来设计 Model S。他的绿色议程对范·霍尔特·千有着不可抗拒的吸引力，后者是汽车设计界的传奇人物，已经彻底改变了 WGM 和马自达的外观。他充满激情，真的想让世界摆脱对化石燃料的这种依赖，而那就是他从我们第一次谈话的第一句话起便谈到的事情。随着新团队就位，马斯克彻底改造了 Model S 的外观。轿车不一定非得是一块砖，不一定非得是一辆又大又方的汽车。我们希望把这种激情和感觉带回这个市场。巨石的架构确实与“逃脱词”很相似，车辆的地板是这个

电池包和后轮之间的电机，而在那上方的一切都是机会的基地。2009年3月，马斯克发布了 Model S 原型车。它可以容纳7名乘客，并装下与旅行车一样多的行李，但他知道，要把它制造出来，他需要从美国政府新的7.

50亿美元的贷款计划，用于支持替代能源汽车。为了让 Model S 真正取得成功，你知道，贷款获批很重要。政府资助引发了争议。《纽约时报》撰稿人兰迪·斯特罗斯称该计划是对投资于 Tesla Motors 行动的极高净值人士的纾困。马斯克反击道：“兰迪的十字架是个超级混蛋和白痴，好吧。”这不是纾困，而是一笔贷款。奥巴马政府同意向 Tesla 出借4.65亿美元，用于大规模生产 Model S，这一举动震惊了业内许多人。Tesla 的投资极不可能偿还给纳税人。电动汽车实际上仍然不可能以有效的方式实现

对大多数消费者而言，这仍然只是电动汽车的宗教，而像琼斯镇一样，那种宗教将走向终结。肯定有一些人希望看到 Tesla 失败，因为这是对主流汽车行业的攻击。当然，Tesla 将产生的最大影响并不是我们自己制造的原因，而是我们证明了你可以制造出人们真正想买的、有吸引力的电动汽车。政府贷款附带了一个具有挑战性的条件：为了拿到钱，他必须先找到一个地方来制造他的电动汽车。自2003年以来，Tesla 已经烧掉了3亿美元。埃隆·马斯克需要尽快让他的 Model S 投产。一向敢于冒险的他又进行了一次豪赌，买下了加利福尼亚州弗里蒙特一座被遗弃的工厂

被丰田遗弃。Tesla 一直所在的梦想工厂地点是“新的我”工厂，那是一座50%的丰田工厂，派遣了通用汽车工厂。它是世界上最大的汽车工厂之一。它的位置很好，靠近 Tesla 总部。现实是，丰田只花了很少的钱就从账面上甩掉了一个阿尔巴特劳兹。从行业角度看，这在丰田一方显得极其精明，在 Tesla 一方则显得极其天真。汽车工厂是大块的沉没资本。改造一座工厂需要巨额的增量投资。这笔收购释放了政府资金，从而开始生产。尽管 Tesla 自成立以来只实现过1次盈利，马斯克还是在2010年6月让公司上市。世界上最聪明的资金正在下注

押注 Tesla。并非所有人都同样看好公司的未来。Tesla 股票被华尔街票选为最不可能成功的股票。你不会想要在这只股票上，你不会想要，你甚至不应该写这该死的东西。自亨利·福特以来，美国还没有汽车公司进行过 IPO，而这引起了人们的注意。投资者无视怀疑者。Tesla 在 IPO 中筹集了2.26亿美元。马斯克现在有了让 Model S 启动所需的资本。你刚刚从他的脸上看到了这种仅仅是关系，以及这种感觉，仿佛所有这些痛苦都是值得的，而且这是愤怒，而且现在它是真的。2010年，在赢得1.

6十亿美元的 NASA 合同后，SpaceX 成为第一家成功将航天器发射入轨并使其返回的私营公司。所以 SpaceX 是第一个完全商业化、从零开始开发并进入轨道的项目。SpaceX 的第一次成功发射是：“我只是通过任何正在聆听的实体祈愿，请保佑这次发射。”2年后的2012年5月，它创造了历史，成为第一家把货运载荷送往国际空间站的私营公司。回到地球，Tesla 期待已久的新轿车发布也正在起飞。它的时间交付 Model S。Model S 开始驶下生产线。尽管关于续航里程和服务的问题依然存在，但并非所有人都在欢呼。在2012年的一场总统辩论中，共和党候选人

米特·罗姆尼猛烈抨击奥巴马总统向 Tesla 提供政府贷款，并把 Tesla 与其他陷入财务困境的绿色企业归为一类。“你投入了900亿美元，像是价值50年的优惠，投进太阳能和风能，去吸它，Solyndra、Fisker、Tesla，还有‘进入一个’。我的意思是，我有个朋友说，你不只是挑选赢家和输家；他挑中了输家。”但在汽车行业眼中，Tesla 并不是输家。Model S 是第一款赢得《Motor Trend》年度汽车奖的电动轿车。马斯克没有太多时间庆祝。几个月后，《纽约时报》发表了一篇对 Model S 极具破坏性的评测。报道称，在从华盛顿到波士顿的试驾中，电池没电了，并刊登了一张任何 CEO 都不想看到的图片。有一个悲伤的镜头

是关于平板拖车上的一位车主，仿佛那就是这样一次驾驶唯一可能的结果，而那就是，那就是不真实的。马斯克发起了反击，除非人们说，哦，你知道，无论你是对是错都不重要，你不能和《纽约时报》交战，而这就像，去他的吧。记者与这位离经叛道的首席执行官之间的战斗，在《纽约时报》公共编辑得出结论时结束了：报道不够精确，但并非出于恶意。不过这篇报道没有影响他的利润。还记得一位总统候选人对那笔4.65亿美元政府贷款所作的“失败者”评论吗？偿还美国纳税人的钱，感觉真的很好，那才是，那才是这里真正重要的，而且而且我们不，我们不只是偿还了

本金，我们实际上还连本带息偿还了，而且还额外支付了一笔钱，所以最终，美国纳税人实际上从中赚取了超过2,000万美元的利润。Tesla提前9年偿还了贷款。马斯克从不缺少乐观或自信，他对这辆售价近70,000美元的汽车作出了一个惊人的承诺：我们保证，3年后Model S的价值不会低于一辆梅赛德斯S级。我个人为该价值提供保证，并以我的全部资产为这项保证负责，不只是用Tesla的资产。他保证在车辆的整个使用寿命期间免费充电，并已将充电系统扩展至全国各地。你将能够从洛杉矶一路行驶到纽约，只使用Tesla超级充电网络，而且超级充电

系统是免费的，所以它不只是现在免费，而是永远免费，那就是Tesla的承诺。他对客户的承诺获得了回报，自首次公开募股以来，Tesla股价上涨了5倍以上。SpaceX和Solar City也开始盈利，而这是一个最大且最重要的客户，但我们的客户中几乎3/4是商业客户。SpaceX表示，它拥有超过40亿美元的已签约收入。但在他的所有公司中，也许最成功的是那家应对世界能源需求的公司。Solar City现在是美国最大的太阳能服务提供商，自2012年12月首次公开募股以来，其价值已增长到4倍以上。Solar City一直非常非常令人印象深刻，我是说，有，你知道，数千人的

屋顶上装有面板，还有还有许多大型办公楼。我相信eBay装有Solar City的面板，所以它正在对世界产生非常巨大、非常显著的影响。他真的想改变世界，而在我对未来的设想中，你将拥有清洁且可再生的能源为电网供能，而我们所有的车辆都将靠它运行。这确实是未来。这是关于伊朗的一些精彩故事，他拥有一种自信，简直，令人叹为观止，而当你想到他所确信的那些事情时，这种自信尤其令人叹为观止：人类将会抵达火星的想法；不仅是人类将会抵达火星，而且在他有生之年，埃隆·马斯克将抵达火星。斗士还是精明商人，被《时代》杂志评为最具影响力的

世界人物之一，这位勇于冒险、同时处理多项事务的首席执行官，在2013年6月的估计净资产为60亿美元。第2次离婚后，马斯克把时间分配给他的5个儿子、他的公司以及思考未来。只是，它重要吗，它真的重要，问题是，我正在做的所有事情，它们真的会有意义吗，或者它们是否有真正产生意义的潜力？[音乐]

billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk puts his money where his mouth is I am personally guaranteeing that value standing behind that guarantee with all of my assets his greatest asset is his ability to take this big big dream and make other people believe that it's true the determined engineers big dreams transformed three industries I'm just wishing through any entities that are listening please watch this launch and here's an immigrant from South Africa coming to America to save you know NASA that whole rocket thing you do with the space shuttle I got a better way his better way meant risking everything we have maybe about a week's worth of cash in the bank or or less I have to make a choice then that either took all of the capital that I had left from

the sale of PayPal to eBay and invest that in Tesla or Tesla would die others weren't so willing to take a chance on him or his companies you put 90 billion dollars like 50 years worth a brace into into solar and wind to Sun its Solyndra and Fisker and Tesla enter one I mean I had a friend who said you don't just pick the winners and losers you pick the losers it's very unlikely that the Tesla investment has ever repaid to the taxpayers electric vehicles are really not possible in ways that would be effective for most consumers still but his bets paid off we didn't just repay the principal we actually repaid it with interest and an turbos pain so ultimately the US taxpayer actually made a profit of over 20 million dollars on this loan Elon Musk has even

bigger dreams that might just take him farther than anyone else you know one must goes a step further earth not big enough the SpaceX he literally wants to go to Mars and lost too much I'd really love to go to Mars and that's the rushing role of SpaceX [Music] when I was a little kid I was really scared of the dog but then I I sort of came to understand okay well dark just means really the absence of photons in the visible wavelength 400 to 700 nanometers it's hard to believe that entrepreneur Elon Musk was ever afraid of anything in Elon sent darkness is merely the absence of light then I thought well it's really silly to be afraid of a lack of photons then I wasn't afraid at the drop anymore after that once one of the kids said to him look at the moon

it's a billion miles away and he said well no it's actually under two hundred and fifty thousand miles away and they said Iran entrepreneur Elon Musk has spent his life proving people wrong growing up in South Africa musk was the oldest of three children and started school a year early his father was an engineer his mother Mae was a model and nutritionist he was the youngest made about two days and the shortest and then he was this brilliant boy and so people didn't really like him so I was this little bookworm a kid and probably a bit of a smart aleck so this is a recipe for disaster not that he told me much about it he was picked on quite a bit so just like read a read a lot of books and and tries to out of people's way during school and so his social

life was much less than my other two kids and that's a typical nerd I read all the comics I could buy or that they let me read the bookstore before chasing me away I read everything I could get my hands on from when I woke up to when I went to sleep at one point I got I really ran out of books instead really encyclopedia and he has a photographic memory so he could remember everything anytime I had a question my daughter Tosca would say hole genius boy his brother Kimball musk when he Louis was ten years old he got tested by IBM and he was found to have one of the highest aptitudes they'd ever seen a full computer programming I tried to take some computer classes but I was way ahead of the teacher so it didn't really help so I saw her doing space game

called blastaar musk already thinking like an entrepreneur figured out how to sell his game I realized I was 12 we decided we were gonna open an arcade outcome here near our high school we were in big into video games we figured that it was gonna be a huge hit we got a lease on a building we got the arcade provider to deliver the equipment and the only thing we needed to do by the end of it was get the city to approve what we were doing but an adult had to apply for a city permit and they hadn't told their parents what they were up to but of course they told us we were not gonna be opening up an arcade max chaff Caen is a technology and business journalist who has profiled Elon Musk several times really the most amazing thing about his childhood is his

escape from from South Africa I remember thinking and saying that America is where we're great things are possible more than any other country in the world it's a little cliche but it's true america is the land of opportunity by moving musk would also avoid mandatory service in South Africa's army growing up in apartheid South Africa was pretty surreal I mean we didn't support that government we didn't believe in it and so the idea of actually going to the military service was really part of the question I told my parents I was going to to Canada and they tried convince me not to leave and off he flew and I thought wow he's so independent of course as soon as he lands he calls me he says what do I do now except water bus safe from Montreal to Vancouver

and that allowed me kind of see Canada at least from the highway he worked at odd jobs across the country before settling at Queens College in Toronto back when I went to college I rarely went to class I just read the textbook and then show up for exams the bigger pills the University was being able to date girls my own age actually met my first wife their mas got an engineering and business degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a scholarship to go to Stanford Silicon Valley was the promised land I really wanted to just kind of go where where the really exciting breakthroughs were occurring Elon had this ability to to look at the world go this is a real problem that's going to in 20 years he looked around and he saw that the world changing stuff

was not happening at Stanford I didn't even go to class I called the chair of the department and said I'd like to try selling this Internet company if probably won't succeed and so when it fails I want to make sure that technics still come back my kids do funny things and I'm never too concerned about them because you know if you no one wanted to drop out of college he could always go back my brother was in Canada at the time and I said look I think we should try to create an Internet company so he came down and joined me he had you know $2,000 no friends barely enough money for an apartment I think he told me he was showering at the gym because they didn't have a shower he was living we just got some few times that there were couches during the day and

then turned into beds at night Steve Jurvetson is a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley I first met Elan and Kimball musk his brother back in the mid 90s when they first set foot in California I think they'd been here for about a week and they were pitching a new company called zip to Silicon Valley in the mid 90s in late 90s was a gold rush people were flocking to the region to find riches to make it in the internet business must came up with an idea to bring newspapers into the digital age he took a cd-rom yellow pages some mapping software wrote a little code and put it all together to create the first online city listings you know was more the business mastermind I was more than sales guy I still had my my core programming skills I was able to write

the was the software needed for for the first company now when yuan was starting to keep in mind you know the internet was just a couple of years old most local businesses were not on the internet the way you found a local business was you open up the Yellow Pages they thought it was the media campaigns the newspapers are gonna need help coming online and building lots of functionality into their websites we had someone literally throw a Yellow Pages book at us and tell us do you think she will ever replace this and we put the guy who's crazy because not only were we gonna replace this but that's not where it ended keep going from there it wasn't long before media companies across the country were signing up and so we were able to get as investors with

customers the new york times company Hearst knight-ridder and a number of other companies in 1999 the AltaVista division of Compaq bought zip2 for 307 million dollars in cash and 34 million in stock options musk was just 28 years old I hope that's crazy well I would somebody pay such a huge amount of money for this little company that we have it actually also turned out very well for them to actually so stuff there were a lot more about it than I did when the kid solves it - it was the most exciting day we couldn't believe it because you don't know in the internet world if you're going to you know make a million or die tomorrow [Music] in February 1999 Elon Musk sold his first company at 28 he joined the ranks of Silicon Valley millionaires since it was

acquired by Compaq for a little over two million dollars and I made a play about 21 or 22 million dollars as a result of that which was a phenomenal amount of money for me it was obviously a financial windfall it was super fun to go out buy some toys one of his first things to do is go out and get a big sports car he's comes from a family that really enjoys racing in vehicles and he got one of the highest performance cars money could buy at the time it was a McLaren f1 and proceeded to enjoy that around the Bay Area let's say there's a number of adventures and respecting news with with his driving well I'm sure it felt you know wonderful to have all this money and and have people recognizing success I think he was also frustrated that this company hadn't

become as great as he wanted to be it hadn't it hadn't changed the world it had just slightly altered the course of newspaper history which I think from his point of view is you know kind of piddling accomplishment so I certainly have a choice at that point of retiring and you know buying an island somewhere and sipping mai-tais but there was not of interest to me at all there really wasn't a choice of we weren't gonna do anything it was just really what we were gonna do next any landscapes in particular it was really just stepping stones the goal with in doing my second area company was to create something that would have a profound effect and it seems to me that the financial sector had not seen a lot of innovation on the Internet and money is really

just an entry in a database and and it's so it's low bandwidth it seems like something I should lend itself to innovation he was very rich I mean just more money than most people could dream and he took almost no time in-between that sale and starting the company that became PayPal Musk's new company created something we take for granted today it changed the way the world buys things the way money is transferred from one person to another at the time transactions were very slow people would have to mail checks to each other so it could take weeks just to complete a single transaction with his windfall from the sale of zip to must quickly turned around and founded XCOM to make electronic cash transfer as possible but his new company collided with a rival

mobile payment company called con Finity and they were really competing against each other and the real enemy at the end of the day was eBay we combined our efforts in order to compete effectively against eBay's built-in system they called the new company PayPal when he looked at PayPal that his goal was not to create a place you could do person-to-person payments his goal was good to transform the financial industry were able to become the the leading payment system in the world and then they finally threw in the towel and acquired PayPal in early 2002 musk and his partners sold PayPal for 1.

5 billion dollars musk was the largest shareholder and walked away with 180 million he was 30 years old I could abort probably a chain of islands but but that big a no it's not it's just not a lot of interest to me Islands weren't of interest but outer space was it's just a much more exciting inspiring future for out that are exploring the Stars as opposed to the future where we are forever confined to earth I was thinking well I wonder when when we're going to Mars you know when is when is naphthenic go to Mars and I went to the NASA website and there was no plan to go to Mars and no plan to really even take the next step in space exploration this is he was saying he wants to go and enable the human civilization to leave the planet Earth I said it's

about a big as big a vision as you could possibly imagine and that's gonna require funds and he has enough funds to go do it so he's gonna go do it musk had the outrageous idea that private enterprise could actually reenergize space travel and in June 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies or SpaceX Elon was the only funder of the company for this early years another incredibly risky move to say nobody on the planet thinks this idea is financeable I'm gonna fund all of it myself to the tune of almost a hundred million dollars which was the majority of his net worth at the time into a dream to take on the military-industrial complex now here's an immigrant from South Africa coming to America to say you know NASA that whole rocket thing you do with

the space shuttle I got a better way actually travelled to Russia three times look at buying a refurbished ICBM without the nuke and I Kim's conclusion that the real thing that was really holding us back from making much more progress in space it was really that Rockets had not evolved since the 60s so the trick isn't figuring out how to get to orbit it's figuring out how to get to orbit cheaply so I had to come up with low-cost ways to produce engines the primary structure the electronics to the launch operation as well as run the company with very little overhead and to some of inventions in all those areas is what has led us to a roughly three to fourfold improvement over the cost of of other rockets in the United States what SpaceX has been very successful

at is taking basically off-the-shelf technology stuff that was developed by NASA 50 years ago and streamlining it so in that way he's kind of the Henry Ford of of space because Henry Ford didn't invent the automobile he just figured out how to make the automobile you know commercially viable musk was more than just an entrepreneur if you ask yuan how he managed to teach himself rocket science he'll just look at you very seriously and just say very quietly read a lot of books thirty two-year-old Elon Musk had his next big idea at his family's annual visit to Burning Man the counterculture desert happening although still fascinated by rockets and fast cars he wanted to find a way to end Earth's addiction to fossil fuels I was one that the idea of going

into the solar power arena to Lyndon and Peter I of my cousins he's basically hands this idea to his cousins and says if you want to start this I will I will fund you and it'll be your company but I'll be the Chairman and they say okay and it works almost perfectly what they've figured out is that if you sort of do a hundred things ten percent better in the area of solar cell installation for homeowners you can dramatically consolidate an industry that's currently a bunch of mom-and-pop shops so it Solar City instead was they say how about no money done you want solar cells we'll just put it in you don't pay a cent right it's like leasing a car but even better Solar City started in five western states and soon grew into the largest solar service provider

in the US the solar cells keep going solar city that only goes up at the end at least so the fascinating business model were in the long run they may become the largest energy generator in America all of these but renewable energy was just one part of a much bigger goal musk had a more ambitious plan for a sustainable future he had this idea that he wanted to make electric cars help humanity get off fossil fuels and so cities about sustainable energy creation whereas Tesla's but sustainable energy consumption in April 2004 musk helped launch Tesla with six point three million dollars of his own money it was the first auto industry start-up in decades and the only one born in Silicon Valley and it's really pretty simple it's you know make a high-priced

car at low volume because that's essentially the only thing we could afford to do and then step 2 is a medium priced car at medium volume since f3 is a low priced car at high volumes Tesla's plan to introduce a high-end high-performance product to first attract outliers then make an affordable car for the masses teslascope founder and first CEO Martin Eberhard we expect to to change the way people think about electric cars with this car and that we hope to open the market for us to sell other electric cars but we also know that if you start off by saying let's first change human nature and make everybody Drive crummy little cars that doesn't work so instead let's build a car that people want to drive let's build a car this is hot and desirable and beautiful

and convince people that driving you know electric car is not a compromise its idea of actually going in and putting it in a high-end car and breaking the mold of what an electric car wars was exciting this is no longer gonna be a golf cart this is gonna be a Ferrari any cops watching when we first saw Tesla it had a good explanation for how they get to market without having to spend exorbitant amount of money how they would create a brand and the object of desire and consumers and it's part of the story clicked together he talked about Silicon Valley smarts being able to show Detroit how to do something that Detroit didn't think was possible its batteries its Drive electronics it's electric motors those are skills that are present in Silicon Valley and

our president Detroit Tesla's revolutionary technology for the Roadster started with a computer battery as the power source for the automobile JB Straubel Tesla's chief technology officer was the main designer of the electric powertrain for the first time it was possible to drive over 200 miles and have performance that was directly comparable competitive with what a gasoline car could do and Tesla was the first company to to take those principles and put that into practice and try it California Governor Schwarzenegger showed up for the roadsters 2006 coming-out party a test of this one it's hot he bought one so did Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney but could must sell regular customers on his idea at that time there was very little activity in the

auto industry in electric vehicles we were in the age of the large SUV so it was a little unusual to hear about this company in California that was planning to come to market with a high-end all-electric sports car we were very passionate about trying to make sure that this car was going to just throw down the gauntlet on what the technology could do and really prove to the world that electric vehicles you know could be incredibly fast and could have incredibly long range there was kind of a sense of adventure you know doing these things for the first time and doing it in a really scrappy way you know we did some of the very first battery packs in my garage in Menlo Park before we actually were able to rent a real office the big issue for Tesla as with

all electric cars has been the batteries their cost and how long they last Eric Noble is president of car lab an automotive consulting firm that evaluates new cars and trucks American consumers are very ready for battery electric vehicles unfortunately battery electric vehicles aren't ready for American consumers the first results at Tesla seemed to support this gloomy forecast when we first started out the thought was simple and really obviously in retrospect quite naive which was to make use of some technology that we developed ourselves but also some technology that would license from AC propulsion put that together and create an electric sports car that would be compelling so let's see where did that fall apart it fell apart when the teen told musk

that the projected cost had skyrocketed from $65,000 to 140,000 as the problems mounted musk faced a do-or-die decision at Tesla he would have to choose between investing his paypal pay off or let his new company collapse and Elon was looking at this and saying the dream is still there but oh my gosh what do I got I got to get this under control by 2007 Tesla was running out of money fast no one wanted to step up to save the unproven automobile startup Elon Musk had to take the leap alone with make some pretty dramatic changes essentially recapitalized the business and invest about twice what we originally expected what we really expected as the outer limit basically Tesla got to this point where they only had enough money in the bank for a couple of

months and there's nobody around who are willing to put more money in I take all of my reserve capital and invested in Tesla which was very scary because you know it would actually be quite sad to have the fruits of my labor with subduer and PayPal not amount to anything but there was no question that I would do that in my mind because tells it was too important to till I die I'm available 24/7 just to help solve issues right I call me 3:00 a.

m.

in of Sunday morning I don't care we had to go in and make some really hard decisions on on personnel changes and even really had to dedicate his time to the company I want I want I want names named so if someone's always on the hot seat and it's always the root cause for problems they will not be positive organization long term it's not okay to be unhappy and part of this company and if somebody can't get happy right musk and his board replaced Martin Eberhard one of the co-founders who had been running Tesla and I think we kind of really really exceeded the level that Everhart could handle and they're freaking apparent in 2007 we either were gonna have to shut the company down or you know wasn't have to take over as CEO it was actually a process of

building a company as well as building a car you know a lot of people that fit in very well with a company when it was extremely small you didn't end up you know fitting in as well when it was larger Everhard didn't go quietly he sued musk for libel slander and breach of contract I believe that I was scapegoated to take the blame for the programs that were not run well must resolve the disputes through mediation but his company was in serious financial trouble in September 2007 musk flew to Germany with a scheme to raise extra cash by forging an alliance with Daimler Mercedes it down is the company that invented the internal combustion engine car the maker of Mercedes smart and their endorsement carries great deal of weight so that was a just a very important

moment he had to convince the company that Tesla could supply battery packs for its cars they were skeptical really the key thing was to demonstrate a hardware that worked you know if they can't touch it they can't drive it it's not particularly real he pushed his team to retrofit a Daimler smart car with Tesla's electric motor but first they had to find one the Challenger converting a smart card to electric was doubly difficult because we couldn't find a smart card the small cone for sale in the United States we had to send somebody down to Mexico to buy a smart car bring-bring 1/2 to the US and then the smoke is really tiny so we had to fit up a motor how electronics of charger and everything in the squad car the challenge was daunting to replace the

smart cars gas engine with a Tesla drivetrain and battery fitted in the tiny space under the hood and do it all in less than 4 weeks we didn't have much time at all we knew that from the beginning and we kind of prepared for almost battle and you know setup war room in the shop they worked around the clock stealing maps on the factory floor right up to the deadline the Daimler executives arrived and nut it all convinced that it made any sense to work with an American car company let alone a little tiny American car company in Silicon Valley while waiting for Daimler's decision must brought in one of the world's leading automobile designers to help create his next project a modern and sexy family sedan what she called the Model S originally with Model

S I thought well let's let's have Kerry Kiska who was had a design studio do the styling we paid him up pretty good sum of money to do that curiously enough the designs that he worked on that he came up with for us were terrible and what he didn't tell us was that he was actually working on a competing car company Tesla officials claimed that perhaps Henrik had come in to learn what Tesla was doing well all along he was planning to form his own company do his own vehicle we were pretty upset with him for basically taking what we're at the time the original specifications for the Model S and then going and shopping a business plan to create that same car Tesla sued him he sued Tesla and there was all kinds of you know infighting Henrik Fisker wouldn't

grant Bloomberg an interview but he told us that I believe there is enough space in the market for several new car companies that pursue a new type of electrified powertrain with different philosophies in November 2008 the court ruled in Fiskars favor it was a setback for musk who was also going through a tough time personally after eight years of marriage and five children Elon and Justine musk divorced I got divorced personal life in somewhat of a shambles and in addition getting you know attacked by some in the media my ex-wife every bad thing you could imagine there was more bad news when his bold space transport company SpaceX again failed to get a rocket in support the First Lord didn't get very far got about a minute up and then it was that there

was an engine fire and that was it the second flight actually did make it to space but not too overt and then also flight 3 we didn't get all the way to orbit he started saying I've got enough money for three cracks at it he put a hundred million dollars of his own money and he sort of hinted that the idea that after three he didn't make it it would be over SpaceX would would die must burn through the 100 million he had sunk into SpaceX now he was on his way back to the drawing board three days after the failure he announced like first that he knew what was wrong he announced that they raised money to finance a fourth and the fourth launch was gonna happen in a matter of months which in the rocket industry was a crazy announcement we were able to sell

the palms and then just as we'd solve those problems where you ran smack into the the worst economic recession since the Great Depression it's been one of the darkest days on Wall Street and recent memory stock markets falling the most since 9/11 the Dow off more than 500 points this is what financial Armageddon looks like red screams that scream sell sell sell it was a week that shook Wall Street and indeed the world and a realization that the economy may still head into a deeper downturn as 2008 drew to a close Elon Musk faced the worst crisis of his career all three of his companies appear to be in freefall the worst point was probably just the weekend before Christmas in 2008 we had the economic tsunami take place and made things even worse if it

wasn't needed we had to shut it down and and just figure out what's how do we get through this the stock period and not go bankrupt General Motors shares falling to more than a 20-year low after Goldman cut the automakers rating to sell on a worsening sales outlook that was tough it was obviously an economic period that swore the bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler and there we were a young company selling a very very optional car I mean it was really you'd people don't need $100,000 sports car and they certainly wouldn't want one getting poor reviews the popular BBC programme Top Gear took the Tesla Roadster on a test drive in December 2008 this car then really was shaping up to be something wonderful [Music] although Tesla say it'll do 200 miles

we worked out that on our track it would run out after just 55 miles and if it does run out it's not a quick job to charge it up again the combative CEO charged the incident was faked and said he had proof that the Roadster had not run out of power he sued the BBC to block reruns of the show the case was later dismissed but things would get even tougher his energy company Solar City founder the bank that had backed their leases pulled out of the deal I certainly did not anticipate that we would have the worst economic climate since the Great Depression and and one which was disproportionately bad for cars I mean General Motors went bankrupt I mean general general effing motors you know musk was in the fight of his life we had maybe about a week's worth

of cash in the bank all or less and there was just very little time left in the year to resolve these these things I mean they were like two or three business days left in the year I never thought I was hot it was possible for me to have a nervous breakdown but if it was possible for me to have a nice break down there that was about as good as that's going to come when Eden was going through his sad period I was so sad I felt like I had a hole in my heart and there's nothing you can do you just hurt so much and I just didn't see him getting out of it he was just so sad and then the next thing I get this call saying wow you have made a wonderful woman the one bright spot was meeting Talulah Riley a British actress who had never heard of Tesla SpaceX or

Elon Musk they married in 2010 I could be some sort of hapless engineer that had wandered into a London club and he just looked so forlorn he was just sat in the corner on his Blackberry cific he was really out of place and sad I was you know trying to be very sweet to him and instead of humoring him going oh yes when he was gay this is my rocket and this is my Musk's personal life was looking up and the future of SpaceX was finally taking off the fourth attempt to launch the Falcon 1 was a huge success and three months later NASA rewarded SpaceX with a 1.

6 billion dollar contract to resupply the International Space Station but musk had no time to celebrate Tesla was on the verge of financial disaster I had to make a choice then that either took all of the capital that I had left from the sale of PayPal to eBay and invest that in Tesla or Tesla would die the company is really teetering on the brink of failure and there's this board meeting late in 2008 where they're discussing what's gonna happen and Elon just says well I'm gonna raise a 40 million dollar round to keep the company going and the board members are kind of wondering well how is he gonna do that and he says I'm gonna put it all in myself and that incredible braggadocio confidence catalyzed a change in people's opinion and we and everyone else

around the table is like oh my gosh we want to be part of this want to get as much of this investment as we can he saved the company in its darkest hour with an act of heroism that is hard to describe there's nothing quite like spending your last remaining dollar on a project you believe in it was thankfully they could a good week but it definitely took its toll from the mental strain standpoint handicapped man play just burned out a few circuits just after his emergency cash infusion came the news they desperately needed a 40 million dollar deal with Daimler for smart car batteries Daimler later added 50 million for 10% of the company determined not to repeat past mistakes musk focused on bringing his family car to life so I said look we really we need

to have our own design studio and that's when I hired fronts from the host housing to design the Model S his green agenda was irresistible to van Holt thousand a legendary figure in car design who had already revolutionized the looks of the wgm and Mazda he's completely passionate to really rid the world of this addiction to fossil fuel and that that was something that he talked about from the very first sentence first conversation that we had with a new team in place must completely revamp the look of the Model S a sedan doesn't have to be a brick doesn't have to be a big blocky car we wanted to bring this kind of passion and feeling back to this marketplace the architecture of monoliths is really similar to escape word the floor of the vehicle is the

battery pack and the motors between the rear wheels and everything above that is the opportunity's base in March 2009 musk unveiled the prototype for the Model S it could hold seven passengers and as much luggage as a station wagon but to build it he knew he needed a piece of the US government's new 7.

5 billion dollar loan program to support alternative energy vehicles in order for Model S to truly be successful you know it was important that the the loan come through the government funding was controversial the New York Times writer Randy Stross called the program the bailout of very very high net worth individuals who invested in Tesla Motors act musk struck back Randy's cross is a huge douche bag and an idiot okay it wasn't a bailout but alone the Obama administration agreed to lend Tesla four hundred and sixty five million dollars to mass-produced the Model S a move that astounded many in the industry it's very unlikely that the Tesla investment has ever repaid to the taxpayers electric vehicles are really not possible in ways that would be effective

for most consumers still this is just the religion of electric vehicles and like Jonestown that religion will come to an end there are most certain people who want to see Tesla fail because it is an attack on the mainstream car industry of course the biggest impact that test will have is not the cause that we make ourselves but the fact that we show that you can make compelling electric cars that people really want to buy the government loan came with a challenging condition to get the money he had to first find a place to build his electric car Tesla burned through 300 million dollars since 2003 Elon Musk needed to get his model s into production fast ever the risk-taker he took another giant gamble purchasing a plant in Fremont California abandoned

by Toyota The Dream Factory location where Tesla was always the new me factory which was a 50-percent Toyota factory sent General Motors factory it's one of the biggest car plants in the world it's a great location close to Tesla headquarters the reality is for very little money Toyota got an albatraoz off its books from an industry perspective it looked incredibly savvy on Toyotas part and incredibly naive on Tesla's part car factories are big pieces of sunk capital to retool a factory it takes a tremendous incremental investment the acquisition released the government funds to begin production despite the fact that Tesla had posted a profit just once since its founding musk took his company public in June 2010 the smartest money in the world is is betting

on Tesla not everyone was as upbeat about the company's future Tesla stock voted by Wall Street as the least likely to succeed you don't want on this stock you don't want you shouldn't even write the darn thing there hasn't been an IPO of a car company in America since Henry Ford and that caught people's attention investors ignored the skeptics Tesla raised 226 million dollars in its IPO must now had the capital to get rolling on the Model S you just saw on his face this sort of just relation and this feeling like all of this suffering is worth it and it's anger and it's real now in 2010 after winning the 1.

6 billion dollar contract from NASA SpaceX became the first private company to successfully launch and return a spacecraft from orbit so SpaceX was the first purely commercial ground-up development to reach orbit the first successful launch at SpaceX was I'm just wishing through any entities that are listening please bless this launch and two years later in May 2012 it made history as the first privately held company to send a cargo payload to the International Space Station back on earth the long-awaited launch of Tesla's new sedan was also taking off its time delivery model s the Model S started rolling off the production line although questions about range and service remained not everyone was cheering in a 2012 presidential debate Republican candidate

Mitt Romney blasted President Obama for the government loan to Tesla lumping Tesla in with other financially troubled green companies you put 90 billion dollars like 50 years worth of breaks into into solar and wind to suck it Solyndra and Fisker and Tesla and enter one I mean I add a friend who said you don't just pick the winners and losers he picked the losers but Tesla was no loser in the eyes of the automotive industry the Model S was the first electric sedan to win motor trends Car of the Year musk didn't have much time to celebrate a few months later the New York Times delivered a devastating review of the Model S it reported the battery died on its test drive from Washington to Boston and published an image no CEO would want there was a sad shot

of about car owner on a flatbed as though that was the only outcome possible for for such a drive and that's just that's just not true musk went on the offensive unless people said oh you know should it doesn't matter if you're right or wrong you don't battle the New York Times and it's like the hell with that the battle between the reporter and the renegade CEO ended when the New York Times public editor concluded the reporting was imprecise but not done in bad faith but the story didn't affect his bottom line remember that loser comment from a presidential candidate about the 465 million dollar government loan it really feels good to have have repaid the US taxpayer that's that's really what's important here and and we're not we didn't just repay the

principal we actually repaid it with interest and and a bonus pay and so ultimately the the US taxpayer actually made a profit of over 20 million dollars on this Tesla repaid the loan nine years ahead of schedule never short on optimism or confidence musk made a stunning promise for the nearly $70,000 car we're guaranteeing that the value of the Model S will be no less than that of a Mercedes s-class after three years I am personally guaranteeing that value and standing behind that guarantee with all of my assets not just with with Tesla he has guaranteed free charging for the life of the car and has expanded the charging system across the country you'll be able to travel all the way from LA to New York just using the Tesla supercharger network and supercharger

system is free so it's not just free now it's get free forever that's the Tesla commitment his commitment to customers has paid off since its IPO Tesla shares were up more than fivefold SpaceX and Solar City were also turning profits and this is a biggest and most important customer but almost three quarters of our customers are commercial SpaceX says it has more than four billion dollars in revenue under contract but of all his companies perhaps the greatest success was the one addressing the world's energy need Solar City is now the largest solar service provider in the US and has more than quadrupled in value since its initial public offering in December 2012 Solar City has been very very impressive I mean there are you know thousands of people with

panels on their roofs and and lots of big offices I believe eBay has solar city panels so it's it's having a very big very visible impact on the world he really wants to change the world and in my vision of the future that you'll have clean and renewable sources of energy feeding the grid and our all of our vehicles will run off that this is really the future it's something wonderful stories about Iran has a self-confidence that is just it's breathtaking and it's especially breathtaking when you think about the things he's confident about the idea that Humanity is gonna get to Mars that not just humanity is gonna get to Mars that but that he in his lifetime Elon Musk will get to Mars Crusader or canny businessman named one of Time Magazine's most influential

people in the world the risk-taking multitasking CEOs estimated net worth was six billion dollars in June 2013 divorced for the second time musk splits his time between his five sons his companies and thinking about the future just is it significant it really is question is all things I'm working on are they really gonna matter or do they have the potential for really matter [Music]