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Elon Musk: I Feel Fear Quite Strongly. I Just Do It Anyway.

By Elon Musk · AI & Technology · 1 min read

Musk says he's not fearless. He gave SpaceX less than a 10% chance of success. He accepted he'd probably lose everything. He did it anyway.

Key Points

I feel fear quite strongly — it's not the absence of fear
When something is important enough, you do it in spite of fear
Fatalism helps — if you accept the probabilities, that diminishes fear

There are times when something is important enough, you believe in it enough, that you do it in spite of the fear.

Not Fearless

Musk: I actually think I feel fear quite strongly. It's not as though I just have the absence of fear. I feel it quite strongly.

But there are times when something is important enough, you believe in it enough, that you do it in spite of the fear. It's normal to feel fear. There'd be something mentally wrong if you didn't. You just feel it and let the importance of it drive you to do it anyway.

I feel fear quite strongly. But when something is important enough, you do it in spite of the fear.

Fatalism Helps

Musk: Something that can be helpful is fatalism to some degree. If you just accept the probabilities, that diminishes fear.

In starting SpaceX, I thought the odds of success were less than 10%. I just accepted that I would probably lose everything. But maybe we would make some progress. If we could just move the ball forward, even if we died, maybe some other company could pick up the baton and keep moving it forward. So that we'd still do some good.

I thought the odds of success were less than 10%. I just accepted that I would probably lose everything.

Tesla Was the Same

Musk: Same with Tesla. I thought the odds of a car company succeeding were extremely low.