ELON MUSK ON THE $100 MILLION AN HOUR VALUE OF HIS TIME AT TESLA AND SPACEX
Elon Musk broke down the high-stakes math of his decision-making at the helm of Tesla and SpaceX.
“Tesla this year will do over $100 billion in revenue, so that’s $2 billion a week,” Musk said. “If I make slightly better decisions I can affect the outcome by a billion dollars. The marginal value of a better decision can easily be in the course of an hour $100 million.”
He explained the need for balance: “If you look at it in absolute terms, I would never get any sleep. I’d just keep working and work my brain harder, trying to get as much as possible out of this meat computer.”
Musk added: “Slightly better decision could be $100 million impact for Tesla or SpaceX for that matter… the marginal value of time can be 100 million dollars an hour at times or more.”
On avoiding burnout: “If I’m depressed I make worse decisions… If you have zero recreational time then you make worse decisions.”
He revealed his driving force: “My motivation if I’ve got a religion of any kind is a religion of curiosity of trying to understand the universe… set things in motion such that at some point civilization understands the universe far better than we do today.”
For SpaceX: “The goal is to make life multiplanetary.”