Biography

He cofounded PayPal in 1998.

CEO & Product Architect of Tesla Motors and CEO & CTO SpaceX.

Inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 2014.

8 books that he credits to his success are: 1.Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down" by J.E. Gordon, 2. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life" by Walter Isaacson, 3. Einstein: His Life and Universe" by Walter Isaacson, 4. Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies" by Nick Bostrom, 5. Merchants of Doubt" by Erik M. Conway and Naomi Oreskes, 6. Lord of the Flies" by William Golding, 7. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future" by Peter Thiel, 8. Foundation" trilogy by Isaac Asimov.

Read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica at age nine.

The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You're encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren't that smart, who aren't that creative.

I do love email. Wherever possible I try to communicate asynchronously. I'm really good at email.

Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product.

I think that's the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

I think it's very important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better.