Few entrepreneurs embody the raw intensity of risk-taking and relentless execution as clearly as Elon Musk. Across ventures from Zip2 and PayPal to Tesla, SpaceX, and beyond, Musk has consistently framed entrepreneurship as an act of survival, endurance, and vision. What makes his reflections compelling is that they are not polished soundbites crafted for PR—they come from lived experience of staring down failure, raising impossible capital, and driving teams through uncharted technical frontiers. His words have become a shorthand for founders seeking clarity in the chaos of building something new.
For the Oxford Accelerator community, Musk’s wisdom is worth revisiting not as myth, but as practical counsel. These are not abstract philosophies but tools for founders: ways to think about risk, how to structure work, how to lead, how to grow personally, and how to survive the lonely path of entrepreneurship. In a city that has incubated breakthroughs for centuries—from penicillin to quantum computing—our founders now carry forward the same ambition into global markets. Below, we’ve gathered some of Musk’s most direct, verifiable statements—unfiltered, often raw, but deeply instructive.
On Taking Risk
- “There’s a tremendous bias against taking risks. Everyone is trying to optimize their ass-covering.” inc.com
- “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” inc.com
- “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” cbsnews.co
- “It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.” inc.com
On Hard Work
- “Work like hell. I mean, you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. …If other people are putting in 40-hour work weeks and you’re putting in 100-hour work weeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing… you will achieve in 4 months what it takes them a year to achieve.” ytscribe.co
- “There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.” inc.com
On Leadership
- “People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.” inc.com
- “At Tesla, we lead from the front line, not from some safe and comfortable ivory tower.” electrek.co
- “Managers should always take care of their team before they take care of themselves – the supervisor is there to serve his team, not the other way round.” electrek.co
On Personal Growth
- “I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice — constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.” inc.com
- “Pay attention to negative feedback and solicit it, particularly from friends. Hardly anyone does that, and it’s incredibly helpful.” inc.com
- “I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.” inc.com
On Entrepreneurship
- “Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.” inc.com
- “Being an entrepreneur is like eating glass and staring into the abyss of death.” inc.com
- “If you need inspiring words, don’t do it!” inc.com
- “I don’t create companies for the sake of creating companies, but to get things done.” inc.com
Taken together, Musk’s words remind us that entrepreneurship is not a straight path paved with certainty. It is a process of confronting risk head-on, working at an intensity that few will tolerate, and learning to lead with both vision and humility. For founders, the real lesson is that greatness is not found in abstract strategy decks or investor pitches, but in the daily practice of persistence, feedback, and talent.
At Oxford Accelerator, we see these principles reflected in our own community of builders: founders willing to test bold ideas, embrace discomfort, and build with resilience. Just as Oxford has long been a crucible for ideas that reshape the world, our founders are taking that legacy into the next century of entrepreneurship. Musk’s perspective may be extreme, but it challenges us to ask a simple question of our own journeys: are we putting ourselves in the arena where innovation, however uncertain, becomes possible?