I Don’t Need These Russians 123
PayPal became a public company in February 2002.
After the first day, the stock had increased by almost 55
percent. Elon, who was one of the largest shareholders,
had now more financial resources, so Space Exploration
Technologies [SpaceX] could be founded in June 2002. The
idea behind SpaceX was to manufacture cheap rockets with
the ultimate goal to colonize Mars. While the Concorde
commercial said, “The world is now a smaller place;” the
SpaceX commercial will say, “The universe is now a smaller
place.”
There’s a saying in the rocket industry that the easiest
way to become a millionaire is to start with a billion. “I was
trying to find the fastest way to turn a large fortune into
a small one,” Elon said. “I thought the rocket business was
perfect.”^415
To discourage Elon to found SpaceX, one of his friends
compiled a video tape with failed rocket launches he made
Elon watch. “Elon, you cannot start a launch company. This
is stupid,” everyone told him. “I’m going to do it. Thanks,”
Elon replied. SpaceX had a controversial business idea, thus
it’s not strange his friends were negative. History is filled
with similar examples.^29
“This telephone has too many shortcomings to
be seriously considered as a means of commu-
nication.”
“The wireless music box [radio] has no imag-
inable commercial value. Who would pay for
a message sent to nobody in particular?”