牛人馬斯克與他的私人太空發(fā)射公司SpaceX！他是如何做到可以創(chuàng)建一個私人太空發(fā)射公司的呢？

　　之前看新聞的時候注意到了私人航空公司Space X一直沒有仔細了解過。今天又偶然在網(wǎng)頁上見到一篇寫Space X所有者埃隆·馬斯克(Elon Musk)的報道于是乎決定停下手頭工作對這個人仔細了解一下。單是“私人”這兩個字就已經(jīng)證明了馬斯克有多牛氣。而且馬斯克71年生人，44歲就已經(jīng)擁有了自己的私人太空發(fā)射公司!年輕，有錢，有才!那么這樣一個偉大的工程馬斯克是如何創(chuàng)建的呢?下面是馬斯克朋友同事對他一手創(chuàng)建私人太空發(fā)射公司過程的評價。

　　Q: How did Elon Musk learn enough about rockets to run SpaceX?

　　問：Elon Musk 究竟怎么學了那么多火箭知識來運營SpaceX這家公司的?

　　I know he has a Bachelor's in Physics, but there's a LOT more to it than that. How did he learn it all?

　　我知道他本科讀物理，但是這遠遠不夠。他究竟怎么學會那么多東西的?

　　Answered by Erik Nordeus

　　Erik Nordeus的回答

　　(譯注：Erik Nordeus為Elon Musk傳記的作者)

　　From books

　　Before Elon Musk founded SpaceX, he and his friend Adeo Ressi wanted to send plants or rodents to Mars. To help them they contacted the aerospace consultant Jim Cantrell. The three of them traveled around the world to find the rockets needed. While they traveled around, Elon Musk borrowed Jim Cantrell's books on rocket technology.

　　從書里學。

　　Elon Musk 創(chuàng)辦SpaceX之前，他和朋友Adeo Ressi 希望把植物或者嚙齒動物發(fā)送到火星去。他們找了航天咨詢師Jim Cantrell幫忙。他們仨滿世界跑去找能滿足需求的火箭。在旅途中，Elon Musk問Jim Cantrell借了火箭技術(shù)相關(guān)的書。

　　"He'd been borrowing all my college textbooks on rocketry and propulsion. You know, whenever anybody asks Elon how he learned to build rockets, he says, 'I read books.' Well, it's true."

　　“他一直從我這里借大學的火箭和推進教科書。你知道，不論什么時候別人問起Elon他究竟怎么學習制造火箭的，他都會說從書上學的啊，沒錯，真的是這樣。”

　　From school

　　"It is not like I [Elon Musk] ever worked for Boeing or Lockheed. But I do have an understanding of how things work in physics and engineering."

　　從學校里學。

　　“我(即Elon Musk本人)雖然沒有在波音或者洛克希德干過一天活，但是我了解物理和工程學里的東西。”

　　From his employees

　　"I'd never seen anything like it," an employee said. "He was the quickest learner I've ever come across. You had this guy who knew everything from a business point of view, but who was also clearly capable of knowing everything from a technical point of view – and the place he was creating was a blank sheet of paper."

　　從他的雇員那兒學。

　　“我從沒見過這種人”，一位雇員說。“他是我見過學東西最快的人。這家伙可以從商業(yè)角度理解所有的事情，但同時又完全能夠從技術(shù)角度來理解——他從一張白紙從無到有開始創(chuàng)造。”

　　In total, it took Elon Musk two years to learn what he needed to know about rockets.

　　Elon Musk總共花了兩年時間來學習所需的火箭知識。

　　"I [Elon Musk] know my rocket inside out and backward. I can tell you the heat treating temper of the skin material, where it changes, why we chose that material, the welding technique ... down to the gnat's ass."

　　“我(Elon Musk) 對我自己的火箭里里外外徹頭徹尾都很了解。我可以告訴你表面材料的熱處理溫度是多少，何處開始改變，還有我們?yōu)樯兑x這個材料，或那個焊接工藝......等等各種細枝末節(jié)。

　　Answered by Jim Cantrell

　　Jim Cantrell的回答

　　(譯注：Jim Cantrell是SpaceX的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人，就是上一篇回答中借書給Elon Musk的航天咨詢師)

　　I helped Elon start the company and all of these answers are spot on. He still has my book on rocket propulsion.....

　　Elon創(chuàng)辦公司時我出過力，這些答案都完全正確。我那些火箭推進的書還在他那兒......

　　What I found from working with Elon is that he starts by defining a goal and he puts a lot of effort into understanding what that goal is and why it is a good and valid goal. His goal, as I see it, has not changed form the day he first called me in August of 2001. I still hear it in his speeches. His goal was to make mankind a multi planetary species and to do that he had to first solve the transportation problem.

　　據(jù)我跟Elon共事中對他的了解，他一開始就會設(shè)立目標，會花大力氣想明白究竟該設(shè)立什么為目標，為什么這個目標美好并且能夠成立。以我看，他的目標從他2001年8月第一次給我打電話起至今都沒有變過，在他的演講中我依然能聽到——讓人類成為跨行星的生物，而為了達到這一步，他必須先解決運輸問題。

　　Once he has a goal, his next step is to learn as much about the topic at hand as possible from as many sources as possible. He is by far the single smartest person that I have ever worked with ... period. I can't estimate his IQ but he is very very intelligent. And not the typical egg head kind of smart. He has a real applied mind. He literally sucks the knowledge and experience out of people that he is around. He borrowed all of my college texts on rocket propulsion when we first started working together in 2001. We also hired as many of my colleagues in the rocket and spacecraft business that were willing to consult with him. It was like a gigantic spaceapalooza. At that point we were not talking about building a rocket ourselves, only launching a privately funded mission to Mars. I found out later that he was talking to a bunch of other people about rocket designs and collaborating on some spreadsheet level systems designs for launchers. Once our dealings with the Russians fell apart, he decided to build his own rocket and this was the genesis of SpaceX.

　　一旦他的目標設(shè)立好了，他緊接著就是盡一切可能從各種來源渠道學習這個領(lǐng)域的相關(guān)知識。至今為止他是我共事過的最聰明的人，沒有之一。我沒法估測他的IQ，但是他真的非常，非常聰明。他也不是那種通常意義上的書呆子式的聰明，他的思維極其實用。毫不夸張的說，他從周邊的人那里榨取知識和經(jīng)驗。從2001年我們開始一起工作起，他就從我這里借走了所有和火箭推進相關(guān)的大學課本。我們也盡力從我的火箭和飛船行業(yè)的同事里找人給他做咨詢，這感覺就像一個巨型的太空主題狂歡派對。那時候我們還沒有談過要自己制造火箭，只是想成立一個飛往火星的私人項目。后來我發(fā)現(xiàn)他和一些人聊火箭設(shè)計，并且在一些細節(jié)層面開始合作發(fā)射臺的系統(tǒng)設(shè)計。我們和俄羅斯的合作崩了那刻起，他就決定制造自己的火箭，這也就是SpaceX的開端。

　　So I am going to suggest that he is successful not because his visions are grand, not because he is extraordinarily smart and not because he works incredibly hard. All of those things are true. The one major important distinction that sets him apart is his inability to consider failure. It simply is not even in his thought process. He cannot conceive of failure and that is truly remarkable. It doesn't matter if its going up against the banking system (Paypal), going up against the entire aerospace industry (SpaceX) or going up against the US auto industry (Tesla). He can't imagine NOT succeeding and that is a very critical trait that leads him ultimately to success. He and I had very similar upbringings, very similar interests and very similar early histories. He was a bit of a loner and so was I. He decided to start a software company at age 13. I decided to design and build my own stereo amplifier system at age 13. Both of us succeeded at it. We both had engineers for fathers and were extremely driven kids. What separated us, I believe, was his lack of even being able to conceive failure. I know this because this is where we parted ways at SpaceX. We got to a point where I could not see it succeeding and walked away. He didn't and succeeded. I have 25 years experience building space hardware and he had none at the time. So much for experience.

　　所以我想說的是，Elon有一個宏大的夢想，他聰明過人，他工作極其勤奮，但這些都不是他成功的關(guān)鍵因素。他的一個重要特征，就是字典里沒有失敗這倆字。他想都不會去想失敗的事情。他不能想象失敗這點真的是太驚人了。不論是他創(chuàng)辦PayPal和銀行體系對著干，創(chuàng)辦SpaceX和整個宇航工業(yè)對著干，還是創(chuàng)辦特斯拉和美國汽車工業(yè)對著干，他就是不!能!想象自己居然有可能不成功!這是致使他最終成功的非常關(guān)鍵的特質(zhì)。我和他成長環(huán)境差不多，興趣相像，早年經(jīng)歷也類似;他比較孤僻，我也是;他13歲時決定成立一家軟件公司，我13歲時決定設(shè)計制造自己的立體聲播放系統(tǒng)，都干成了。我們倆的父親都是工程師，自身也都是極其上進的孩子。但是我相信他和我的不同之處就在于：他甚至不能想象失敗這回事。我能意識到這一區(qū)別，正是因為這就是我和他在SpaceX分道揚鑣的原因。那個時候我不認為這件事有可能成功，所以選擇離開。但是他不放棄，因而做成了。我在航天制造業(yè)有25年的經(jīng)驗，他則是個門外漢，所以經(jīng)驗能起到的作用也就這些。

　　I recently wrote an op-ed piece for Space News where I also suggest that his ruthlessly efficient way to deploy capital is another great reason for his success. He can almost smell the right way through a problem and he drives his staff and his organization hard to achieve it. The results speak for themselves. The article is here End of WWII Model Shakes Up Aerospace Industry.

　　我最近在航天新聞上寫了一篇專欄文章，文中我也提出Elon Musk冷血高效的資源配置能力是他成功的另一大原因。他幾乎可以從問題當中嗅到正確的方向，然后強力驅(qū)使他的團隊和組織去達成目標，結(jié)果不言而喻。文章請見 End of WWII Model Shakes Up Aerospace Industry.

　　In the end I think that we are seeing a very fundamental shift in the way our world takes on the big challenges facing humanity and Elon's Way as I call it will be considered the tip of the spear. My hat's off to the man.

　　最后，我認為，這個世界對人類所面對的重大挑戰(zhàn)的應對方法正在發(fā)生非常根本性的變化，Elon之法(我起的名)將會是冰山一角。向他致敬。