Lesson #3: Make Your Mission Your Holy Grail

“The long term ultimate objective – the holy grail – is we would like to help make life multi-planetary,” says Musk.

Musk first dreamed up his third company after a night of space talk with a friend. They realized that while the world has come to expect improvements in almost every technological sector, the space industry seems to be exempt from that expectation. Indeed, Musk says, there has been relatively little progress at all since the first man landed on the moon.

“We got to the moon, but have never done anything better since,” he says. “I'm disappointed that we have not made more progress since Apollo. I don't even see a plan that says we're going to do better than Apollo to exceed that goal.”

Musk wants to be the one to exceed that goal. But the new goal Musk is setting for himself is not just to create a successful company this time around. Musk wants to be a part of something that is bigger than himself, something that will have a lasting impact on the world.

“I like to be involved in things that change the world,” he says. “The Internet did, and space will probably be more responsible for changing the world than anything else. If humanity can expand beyond the Earth, obviously that's where the future is.”

Musk wants his company to lead the way to that future. “If we can be one of the companies that makes it possible for humans to become a multi-planetary species, that would be the Holy Grail,” he says. “It sounds a bit crazy but it's going to happen, and only if people build the means to do so. We're making progress toward a greater philosophical goal while building a sound business.”

Whether it was capitalizing on the early days of the Internet and building a platform to allow for easy online money transactions, or building rockets that will eventually help colonize space, Musk has always had a bigger picture on his agenda. It is precisely that vision that many observers believe will allow Musk to succeed where others before him have failed. To those who do not believe in him, Musk says this: “When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars people said, 'Nah, what's wrong with a horse?' That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.”

A number of entrepreneurs also wanting to fulfill their space dreams have come before Musk, most notably Mark Shuttleworth, who paid $20 million and spent six months in Russia training to be able to become the second self-funded tourist in space. But Musk’s dreams are loftier than that.

“It doesn’t do a great deal to advance the goal of humanity,” says Musk. “I would pay $20 million not to spend six months in Russia. And besides this, my interest is how do we enable many other people to go to space, not necessarily me, personally.”

Musk’s goal has never been to go into space. Eventually, that is something he would love to do. But for right now, he is happy focusing his efforts on a larger dream, the dream of building a company that will change the world.

“If we can build something that is capable of taking people and equipment to Mars,” says Musk, “such that it can service a transportation infrastructure for humanity becoming a multi- planet species - which I think is a very, very important objective - then I would consider the mission of SpaceX successful, at that point.”



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