Elon Musk on Hard Work and Starting His First Company

You need to work super hard. So what, what does super hard mean?

Um, well, when my brother and I were starting our first company,

uh, in- instead of getting an apartment, we just rented a s- a small office, and

we slept on the couch. Um, and we, we showered at the, the

YMCA, and, uh, we're s- we're so hard up, we had just one

computer. So the c- the s- the, the website was up during the day,

uh, and I was coding at night,

seven days a week, all the time.

Um, and I, I, uh,

sort of briefly had a girlfriend in that period, and in order to be with me,

she

had to sleep in the office. So,

uh,

w- work hard, like,

it, it... I mean, e- every waking hour.

That's, that's the, the thing I would, I would say if, if you...

particularly if you're starting a company.

Um,

and I mean, if you do simple math to say like, okay,

if somebody else is working

fifty hours, and you're working a hundred, uh, you'll get twice as done, as much

done in the course of a year as the, as, uh, the other company.