It's not. It's it. There's no need even to have a college degree

at all or even high schools the

I mean if somebody graduated from a great university that maybe an

you know if you look at

Say people like Bill Gates for Larry Ellison Steve Jobs

These guys didn't graduate from college, but if you had a chance to hire them of course. That would be a good idea

so you know just really looking just for evidence of

exceptional ability, and if there's a track record of exceptional achievement

Then it's likely that that will continue into the future how I describe myself

Well I mean I seem to have a high innate drive

And that's been true even since I was a little kid you know really?

Had a very strong Drive did all sorts of risky things for his kid that I like why did I do those things are crazy?

I care a lot about the truth of things and trying to understand the truth of things I think so I think

that's

important

If you're going to come up with some solution then the truth is really really important, I think I

Try to think of I mean, it's it's difficult obviously come up with like things that are praise for oneself

You know or like it. There's and there's bad and good here, but?

I

think like sometimes they're just like the things that seem quite clear and obvious to me and I I

I don't understand why they aren't so obvious to everyone

So how would you educate your five boys?

Actually, I created a little school

hahaha

Yeah, what kind of school could you describe sure it's I mean it's small

It's only got 14 kids now, and it'll have 20 kids and in September

It's called ad astra which means to the stars. That's maybe a bit different from

From most of the schools is that there aren't any grades?

There's no there's no like look grade 1 grade 2 grade 3 type of thing

I'm making all the children go and that in the same grade at the same time like an assembly line

I know you know cuz some people love English or languages some people love math some people love music and

And different abilities different times it makes more sense to to cater the education to match their aptitudes and abilities

It's like that's one principle

Another is that it's important to teach?

Teach problem solving or teach to the problem not to the tools so this would be like

Let's say

You're trying to teach people about

How engines work before you know you could start by the more traditional approach would be to say we're going to teach you all about

screwdrivers and wrenches and and you even have a course on screwdrivers a course on wrenches and all these things and it's

This is a very difficult way to do it a much better way would be like here's the engine now

Let's take it apart. How are we going to take it apart? Oh you need a screwdriver?

That's what the screwdrivers for you need a wrench. That's what the wrench is for

And then a very important thing happens

Which is that the relevance of the tools becomes apparent so all five boys are in that school? Yes until when this is from?

When you're old, haha

They like it they like it yeah, and you want to keep them away from regular schools

No, I just didn't see that the regular schools

Just they weren't doing the things that I thought should be done like you know those two principals. They weren't

adhering to those principles, so I thought well, let's see what we can do maybe creating a school will be better and

Actually hired a teacher from the school

they were at

You also agreed with me that there was a better way to do it have they surprised you in a way of their innovative

thinking

Yeah, it seems to be going pretty. Well. I mean I the kids really love going to school

I think that's a good sign. You know I mean I hated going to school when I was a kid it was torture

So the fact that they like they actually think occasions are too long, mmm. They want to go back to school

Yeah, exactly I know

What is it?

Well I mean those are pretty different personalities in it between gates and jobs and Alison's at success

Well, I think you know all

All three of those were technologists, but with different types of skills

and their jobs was obviously very good with aesthetics and

You know

against the technology of course

and you really insert where people wanted even when they didn't know themselves and

He was not afraid to break boundaries, but say like gates would probably be better at

You know sort of raw engineering and technology than jobs, but not as good on aesthetics

But I mean for these guys of the obviously very driven and they're very talented and

Yeah, and they're able to attract great people to hold a company

But I needed that like the

the ability to attract and motivate great people is

critical to the success of a company because the company is just that's a group of people that are assembled to create a product or

service

That's the purpose of a company

if you all some of us forget this elementary truth and so if

You know if you're able to get great people to join the company and work together towards a common goal and

and you sort of have a

relentless sense of perfection about that goal, then you will end up with a great product and

Have a great product. Let's if you will buy it and then we kind of know we'll be successful. Yeah really

It's pretty straightforward really yeah, I mean yeah, that's the reason for it

I wouldn't say I'm fearless in fact. I I think I fear I feel fear quite strongly

but I am

if the if what we're doing isn't

you know what I'm doing is I think it's important enough then I just

override the fear

So, but it's not as that I don't feel I feel a little like more stronger than I would like

Well it really depends on the stakes if the stakes are high if it's really important

then one should then I you know will overcome the fear and just do it anyway I

Essentially I mean I just

Drive over rights fear, but I feel the fear. It's kind of annoying. I wish isn't oh, Sh. I felt it less

So

Yeah these all these introspective questions are interesting. I don't get the ask these very often

And then like I try to think like what is like an evident an accurate reply

And somebody said it's like I know it's hard to evaluate yourself on these things yeah

Well probably SpaceX I thought it had the lowest chance of success

I

Mean I thought both Tesla and SpaceX would fail at the beginning

You saw it yeah really of course, but nevertheless you put all your money in that

Expected to lose it well technically what I thought was well

I'll take half the money from PayPal, and if I lose half of it. That's okay

But then of course the companies encounter difficulties and then have a choice of that you like let the company die

Or put you know you know

all the money into the companies and so I

Really didn't want the companies to die so I put all the money in the companies

Yeah, and then I had to borrow money for friends should pay living expenses yes

What was your best idea ever my best idea ever yeah?

This is tricky I suppose

coming to

North America was my best idea okay, because I think these things would not have been accomplished

Anyway, you know almost anywhere else. It's really hard to start a company

but

You know in particularly?

California Silicon Valley is very conducive to startup companies and

Yeah, and so yeah

You know whenever I read books in South Africa it would seem like the cutting edge of technology was

In Silicon Valley and so that that's what I wanted to come and I wanted to move move to this mythical place

Well there's there's lots of things, but you know when life is short, and there's lots of things that

Could be done that one can't necessarily do

And these really are introspective questions

I think it no I mean

I'm overall I think I'm pretty pretty happy with what wait you know where things are it's hard not to be honestly

I'd be

Yeah

If things are in a good place right now

and I

Mean I'd like to at looking ahead I'd like to see

Humanity go beyond Earth and have

People on Mars that would be really great

and to see widespread adoption of electric vehicles and

renewable energy

these were great things and

Yeah, thought I thought would be really really cool