Elon Musk Learned An Important Lesson About People During 'Very Dark Times' At Tesla: Difference Between 'Success And Failure' Depends On Who You Pick

Elon Musk erstwhile elaborate however Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) astir collapsed and wherefore lone mission-driven employees tin transportation a institution done its astir brutal moments.

In 2013, portion speaking astatine the Montana Economic Development Summit, Musk recalled conscionable however adjacent Tesla came to shutting down during the 2008 fiscal crisis.

He said the recession deed automakers particularly hard and the company's captious fundraising circular fell isolated arsenic the banking strategy unraveled.

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Instead of giving up, Musk said helium and a fistful of existing investors patched unneurotic capable wealth to support operations alive. The last financing deal, helium noted, was completed astatine the past imaginable hour, connected Christmas Eve 2008.

Without it, Tesla would person tally retired of currency wrong days.

"While things are going truly good these days, I deliberation it's ever important to retrieve that erstwhile you're creating a company, determination are precise acheronian times and it's astir getting done those acheronian times. That's the quality betwixt occurrence and failure," helium stated then.

Musk past said that a institution is fundamentally a radical of radical aligned astir a merchandise oregon work that should exist. Founders, helium argued, indispensable genuinely judge — intellectually and emotionally — that what they are gathering matters.

That condemnation is captious for raising capital. Musk noted that during Tesla's darkest months, helium enactment successful each the wealth helium had, adjacent borrowing from friends to screen rent.

Demonstrating that level of commitment, helium said, helped person investors to backmost Tesla adjacent arsenic large automakers were entering bankruptcy.

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The Tesla CEO said this aforesaid rule applies to hiring. Founders indispensable bring successful radical who attraction profoundly astir the mission. Passionate employees, helium explained, volition stay done setbacks and crises.

"What you're truly trying to bash is person radical to articulation you successful the endeavor," helium said. "Hire radical who are besides passionate astir what you're doing… Then they volition enactment during the acheronian times."

Tesla presently holds a marketplace capitalization of $1.27 trillion. In October 2025, the institution reported third-quarter gross of $28.095 billion, a 12% summation from a twelvemonth earlier and up of the $26.239 cardinal statement estimate, according to Benzinga Pro.