It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Theodoe Roosevelt Elon Musk, the man in the arena.
Jackl1956, nice quote. The first part of the quote does seem to apply, Elon Musk is certainly in the arena and sweating it in so many ways. I just do not see Elon erring, failing or coming short, quite the opposite. This world is a much better place when we have people like Elon around.:smile:
There is a greater strength in creation without the need for an arena or an audience. So the quote while poetic points to theatrical finite game playing within existing paradigms, to win. I see the endeavors of spacex and tesla and so on as non-theatrical creation to explore paradigms, independent of the possibility of failure because it is not a win/loose endeavor
Whilst Tesla is a disruptive business in a huge market, its CEO disrupts some societal norms and that may be unnerving some people. Disruption inherently unsettles some people, as they loose out in the new order. Elon is a CEO that gets paid minimum wage, but takes only $1, and then puts so many hours into the businesses that he leads. He takes huge risks to build the business that is aligned with long term energy and environment sustainability. He is making science and engineering cool again. He beats very very long odds with both Tesla and SpaceX. Beating these long odds makes him archetypal hero.