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Elon Musk Says Innovation Is Simple: Just Try

By Elon Musk · Startup Growth · 1 min read

Want to be innovative? Musk asks: have you actually tried thinking of interesting ideas? It sounds obvious. Most people never do it.

Key Points

It is possible to learn to be innovative — start by actually trying
Read about many fields and cross-pollinate ideas from one into another
If you're not failing at least some of the time, you're not trying hard enough

Have you tried just thinking of interesting ideas? A good source of innovation is reading about a whole bunch of fields and cross-pollinating ideas.

Have You Actually Tried?

Musk: I think it is possible to learn to be innovative. Somebody might wonder — can I be innovative? Well, have you tried? Have you tried just thinking of interesting ideas? It may sound obvious, but actually try.

Can you be innovative? Well, have you tried just thinking of interesting ideas?

Cross-Pollinate Between Fields

Musk: A good source of innovation is if you read about a whole bunch of fields, you can cross-pollinate ideas from one field into another.

Take SpaceX and Tesla. The automotive industry is the best at manufacturing complex machines at volume. The space industry is very good at advanced materials and making things very light.

Taking advanced materials and mass optimization concepts from the space industry and applying it to automotive — and taking automotive mass manufacturing techniques and applying it to space — was kind of like a superpower.

Taking automotive manufacturing and applying it to space, and space materials and applying it to cars — that was a superpower.

You Have to Fail Sometimes

Musk: If you're not failing at least some of the time, you're not trying hard enough. You have to fail some of the time. It's more like a batting average. Somebody should have a good batting average, but nobody bats a thousand.

If you're not failing at least some of the time, you're not trying hard enough.