Elon Musk on Efficiency Quotes

"If you are not adding things back into the design at least 10% of the time, you are not deleting enough."

"If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it's not."

"If you're co-founder or CEO, you have to do all the tasks you might not want to do... No task is too menial."

"I don't have a social life. I have a mission."

"Your requirements are definitely wrong. No matter who gave them to you. It's especially dangerous if a smart person gave them to you, because you might not question them enough."

"The supply chain stuff is really tricky. It's like a giant game of Tetris but with parts that change shape."

"I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary."

"If the schedule is long, it's wrong. If it's tight, it's right."

"Great companies are built on great products."

"The speed of innovation is the only thing that matters in the long run."

"It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree—make sure you understand the fundamental principles before you get into the leaves."

"The only rules are the ones dictated by the laws of physics. Everything else is a recommendation."

"If you’re trying to create a company, it’s like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion."

"You want to have a future where you're expecting things to be better, not one where you're expecting things to be worse."

"When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor."

"The biggest mistake common to engineers is optimizing a thing that should not exist."

"Everyone is wrong. The only question is how wrong."

"I'd rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right."

"Constantly seek criticism. A well-thought-out critique of what you’re doing is as valuable as gold."

"A common mistake is to simplify the product, but not the factory."

"The factory is the product that builds the product."

"Acceleration of the transition to sustainable energy is what matters."

"My biggest mistake is probably weighing too much on someone's talent and not someone's personality."

"If the rules are such that you can't make progress, then you have to fight the rules."

"It's okay to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket."

"Really pay attention to negative feedback and solicit it, particularly from friends."

"Any product that needs a manual to work is broken."

"The best part is no part. The best process is no process. It weighs nothing. Costs nothing. Can't go wrong."

"Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough."

"I think you should always bear in mind that entropy is not on your side."

"You should take the approach that you’re wrong. Your goal is to be less wrong."

"The path to the CEO's office should not be through the CFO's office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design."

"Work like hell. I mean you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. This improves the odds of success."