Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.

I'm personally a moderate and a registered independent, so I'm not strongly Democratic or strongly Republican.

We have a strict 'no a-hole policy' at SpaceX. And we fire people they are. I mean, we give them a little bit of warning. But if they continue to be an a-hole, then they're fired.

Don't be afraid of new arenas.

In order to have your voice be heard in Washington, you have to make some little contribution.

I think that's an important thing to do, to really pay attention to negative feedback, and solicit it, particularly from friends. This may sound like simple advice, but hardly anyone does that, and it's incredibly helpful.

It is a mistake to hire huge numbers of people to get a complicated job done. Numbers will never compensate for talent in getting the right answer (two people who don't know something are no better than one), will tend to slow down progress, and will make the task incredibly expensive.