Business Quotes

Great companies are built on great products.

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

Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time.

Starting and growing a business is as much about the innovation, drive, and determination of the people behind it as the product they sell.

As much as possible, avoid hiring MBAs. MBA programs don't teach people how to create companies.

Starting a business is not for everyone. Starting a business - I'd say, number one is have a high pain threshold.

I always invest my own money in the companies that I create. I don't believe in the whole thing of just using other people's money. I don't think that's right. I'm not going to ask other people to invest in something if I'm not prepared to do so myself.

The odds of me coming into the rocket business, not knowing anything about rockets, not having ever built anything, I mean, I would have to be insane if I thought the odds were in my favor.

In the case of Apple, they did originally do production internally, but then along came unbelievably good outsourced manufacturing from companies like Foxconn. We don't have that in the rocket business. There's no Foxconn in the rocket business.

A company is a group organized to create a product or service, and it is only as good as its people and how excited they are about creating. I do want to recognize a ton of super-talented people. I just happen to be the face of the companies.

Nobody wants to buy a $60,000 electric Civic. But people will pay $90,000 for an electric sports car.

Invention is not enough. Tesla invented the electric power we use, but he struggled to get it out to people. You have to combine both things: invention and innovation focus, plus the company that can commercialize things and get them to people.

Lots of companies don't succeed over time. What do they fundamentally do wrong? They usually miss the future.

Many leaders of big organizations, I think, don't believe that change is possible. But if you look at history, things do change, and if your business is static, you're likely to have issues.

Most people think companies are basically evil. They get a bad rap. And I think that's somewhat correct.

We have a mantra: don't be evil, which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone. So I think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing.

There are basically no companies that have good slow decisions. There are only companies that have good fast decisions.

If we are not trusted, we have no business.

We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served - as shareholders and in all other ways - by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains. This is an important aspect of our culture and is broadly shared within the company.

For a lot of companies, it's useful for them to feel like they have an obvious competitor and to rally around that. I personally believe it's better to shoot higher. You don't want to be looking at your competitors. You want to be looking at what's possible and how to make the world better.