Infinite Ambition: The Perpetual Motion Machine That Drives Elon Musk to Start New Business Ventures

In the realm of entrepreneurship, it is hard to find a person more inspiring, influential, or thrilling than Elon Musk. What really makes his life story so exciting is that it was never smooth. Instead, Musk had rough beginnings and dozens of daunting business setbacks, including the near bankruptcy of Tesla and early failures of SpaceX rockets, and yet, every single time, he managed to prove skeptics wrong and find the way out. It is his unique ability to navigate and triumph over adversity that makes Musk an iconic figure for many entrepreneurs.

In 2023, years after turning Tesla and SpaceX into mature and highly profitable businesses, Musk once again expanded his portfolio by launching xAI, an artificial intelligence research company. This shows his drive to continue innovating even after pushing multiple industries to new heights, including manufacturing (Tesla), space (SpaceX), infrastructure (The Boring Company), neurotechnology (Neuralink), and media (X, formerly Twitter).

But what motivates Musk to continuously put both his career and well-being on the line for the sake of building a successful business?

Reason 1 — Musk Focuses on a Vision of the Future

Elon Musk speaks during Milken Institute's Global Conference Held In Beverly Hills
Source: Getty Images

Going from PayPal, I thought, well, what are some of the other problems that are likely to most affect the future of humanity?
— Elon Musk during his Cal Tech commencement address

Elon Musk is a futurist to the core. Each of his business ventures tackles a different, fundamental challenge that humanity faces as a species. In a 2015 interview, Musk revealed that he wants to be involved with 5 essential spheres of innovation that would change the future of humanity. They include internet technology, sustainable energy, multiplanetary expansion, genetics, and artificial intelligence.

Already, Musk is well on his way to achieving his goal, having worked in at least 3 of 5 life-changing industries he initially chose to pursue. Today, SpaceX is building reusable rockets to advance the colonization of Mars, Tesla is making strides to develop sustainable transportation, while Neuralink and xAI are accelerating AI progress with the ultimate goal of merging human consciousness with AI.

PORTFOLIO OF BUSINESSES ELON MUSK IS CURRENTLY INVOLVED WITH

A person with the organizational talent of Elon Musk could have easily settled with less intricate, well-tested business models and made them profitable. Yet, this would have been out of character for Musk — he never backs away from challenges and he never chooses revenue over principle.

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.
— Elon Musk in a 60 Minutes documentary

Reason 2 — Musk Assesses His Capability to Achieve the Change

Elon Musk participates at Tesla’s Official Opening of Gruenheide Gigafactory
Source: Getty Images

I am convinced that managers should work at the forefront, in the same work environment as the entire team. I often moved my workplace to the most challenging area in the factory and slept on the factory floor when there was a real crisis.
— Elon Musk in an email to Tesla employees

If Elon Musk undertakes a new venture, he believes he has the knowledge and strength to transform the organization. His transformational leadership style seeks to inspire followers to exceed their self-interests for the good of the company. Musk is well-known for his hands-on approach and lead-by-example work ethic — in many instances, Musk was practically living in the office to maximize his working hours.

While Musk has not always been responsible for day-to-day business operations within his companies, he certainly was a visionary leader behind the stage. In 2008, when he became the CEO of Tesla and assumed organizational responsibilities, one of his first calls as a CEO was to cut almost 25% of the company's workforce. This allowed the company to stay afloat and become leaner and more innovative, while only keeping the most skilled and motivated employees.

While Musk has received criticism for his management style, in retrospect, the strictness of his approach is one of the reasons Tesla is now the world’s most valuable automaker with around USD 600 billion market cap.

Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.
— Elon Musk

Reason 3 — Musk Hates Boredom

Elon Musk attends the 2024 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Source: Getty Images

The idea of lying on a beach as my main thing just sounds like the worst — it sounds horrible to me. I would go bonkers. I would have to be on serious drugs. I’d be ‘super-duper’ bored. I like high intensity.
— Elon Musk during a conversation at Computer History Museum Revolutionaries

Elon Musk is a strategic thinker, but that doesn't mean that boredom is not a factor in his decision-making. From the very start of his entrepreneurial career, Musk has been renowned for his energy and ability to thrive during crises. But he's not just good at crisis management — Musk detests doldrums. In an authorized biography, Walter Isaacson describes episodes when Musk felt lonely or bored and how he always tried to escape those feelings as soon as possible.

When he was not in survival-or-die mode, he felt unsettled. What should have been the good times were unnerving for him. It prompted him to launch surges, stir up dramas, throw himself into battles he could have bypassed, and bite off new endeavors.
— Walter Isaacson in a biography of Elon Musk

How big of a role boredom played in Musk's creation of The Boring Company is unknown, but he did admit that the idea for a tunnel infrastructure company was initially a joke. Impressively, this “hobby company” is currently valued at more than USD 7 billion.

Somewhat inexplicably, The Boring Company manages to combine seemingly goofy marketing initiatives with multimillion-dollar tunneling projects beneath Las Vegas. Musk once joked on Twitter that if the company sold 50,000 merchandise hats, they would start selling flamethrowers. As a result, The Boring Company sold USD 10 million worth of flamethrowers in just 5 days.

Musk’s company has labeled their product as “Not-a-flamethrower” as it is more akin to a roofing torch
Source: The Boring Company

Reason 4 — Musk Has a Winner’s Mindset

If you need encouragement to start a company, don’t do it.
— Elon Musk in a conversation with Cathie Wood

Often, what separates good athletes from champions is the ability to stay calm when the pressure’s on. Indeed, Elon Musk runs his businesses with the unshakable confidence of a champion athlete. Yet, this confidence doesn't come from blind faith. In fact, Musk has many times mentioned that he knew that failure was a possibility — sometimes, it even seemed like the most likely outcome.

In those times, Musk's mental fortitude carried him through. In a 2018 documentary, Musk recalls the challenges Tesla faced while developing the Model 3 car. The company was weeks away from bankruptcy and the engineering team struggled to solve technical issues. Even though he wasn't sure the company would survive, Musk never lost the will to push forward. It cost him a lot, both physically and mentally, but Tesla's future was too precious for him to give up on.

This thing is important to get done, and we should just keep doing it or die trying […] I don't need a source of strength […] [Quitting] is not in my nature.
— Elon Musk during Lex Fridman's podcast

Perhaps like no other person, Musk knows that ambitious and innovative businesses will encounter challenges. But they don't scare him away from launching new projects — Musk expects adversities and is mentally prepared to deal with them. This mindset is truly invaluable for an entrepreneur and is one of the most important reasons for the success of Elon Musk's ventures.

When you first start a company, there's lots of optimism. Happiness at first is high. And then you encounter all sorts of issues — and happiness will steadily decline. Then, you'll go through a whole world of hurt.
— Elon Musk

Final Thoughts

Elon Musk is one of the most driven individuals in human history. His goal is to accelerate the advance of civilization and build a better future for the generations after us. He has unwavering determination, the skill of a great engineer and organizer, a deep aversion to boredom, and a winner’s mindset. Altogether, this is the indefatigable fuel for Musk's incredible entrepreneurial run, which is, by the way, far from over.