I Don’t Need These Russians 128
attitude combined with the fact that he knew what he was
talking about and was happy to be corrected if he didn’t.
You couldn’t say no to it,” an expert said.^49
But Cantrell, the expert who had helped Elon from the
very beginning, wasn’t convinced. “What separated us, I
believe, was his lack of even being able to conceive failure,”
he said. “I know this because this is where we parted ways
at SpaceX. We got to a point where I could not see it
succeeding and walked away. I have 25 years experience
building space hardware and he had none at the time. So
much for experience.”^457
Employee number seven was Gwynne Shotwell, who
joined SpaceX in 2002 and is now working as the com-
pany’s President and COO. Since the day she asked her
mother how an engine worked, she has been interested in
technology. “So my mom bought me a book on engines,”
she said. “I read it and became really interested in car
engines, and gears and differentials.”^309 As one of the few
women in a primarily male industry, she hasn’t experi-
enced any disadvantages of being a woman. “I did have a
little problem during an interview process – but I didn’t get
that job because I was a girl – but they were clearly losers,
so it is best that I didn’t work for them,” she said. “What
counts is how effective you are, not what body parts you
happen to possess.”^310
SpaceX needed not only experts with years of ex-
perience – they also needed young people who didn’t
have any limits. If you have years of experience from a
company, you may have learned it’s impossible to build