Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX

by Eric Berger

Musk laughed when told about Jeff Bezos’s timeline for engine development. “Bezos is not great at engineering, to be frank,” he said. “So the thing is, my ability to tell if someone is a good engineer or not is very good. And then I am very good at optimizing the engineering efficiency of a team. I’m generally supergood at engineering, personally. Most of the design decisions are mine, good or bad.” Boastful? Maybe. But SpaceX built and tested its first rocket engine in less than three years with Musk leading the way.

Anger and frustration, he knew, would not serve any purpose. It could cloud one’s mind during intense moments, whereas creativity or quick thinking could sometimes spark a solution.