牛人马斯克与他的私人太空发射公司SpaceX！他是如何做到可以创建一个私人太空发射公司的呢？

　　之前看新闻的时候注意到了私人航空公司Space X一直没有仔细了解过。今天又偶然在网页上见到一篇写Space X所有者埃隆·马斯克(Elon Musk)的报道于是乎决定停下手头工作对这个人仔细了解一下。单是“私人”这两个字就已经证明了马斯克有多牛气。而且马斯克71年生人，44岁就已经拥有了自己的私人太空发射公司!年轻，有钱，有才!那么这样一个伟大的工程马斯克是如何创建的呢?下面是马斯克朋友同事对他一手创建私人太空发射公司过程的评价。

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

　　问：Elon Musk 究竟怎么学了那么多火箭知识来运营SpaceX这家公司的?

　　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?

　　我知道他本科读物理，但是这远远不够。他究竟怎么学会那么多东西的?

　　Answered by Erik Nordeus

　　Erik Nordeus的回答

　　(译注：Erik Nordeus为Elon Musk传记的作者)

　　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.

　　从书里学。

　　Elon Musk 创办SpaceX之前，他和朋友Adeo Ressi 希望把植物或者啮齿动物发送到火星去。他们找了航天咨询师Jim Cantrell帮忙。他们仨满世界跑去找能满足需求的火箭。在旅途中，Elon Musk问Jim Cantrell借了火箭技术相关的书。

　　"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."

　　“他一直从我这里借大学的火箭和推进教科书。你知道，不论什么时候别人问起Elon他究竟怎么学习制造火箭的，他都会说从书上学的啊，没错，真的是这样。”

　　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."

　　从学校里学。

　　“我(即Elon Musk本人)虽然没有在波音或者洛克希德干过一天活，但是我了解物理和工程学里的东西。”

　　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."

　　从他的雇员那儿学。

　　“我从没见过这种人”，一位雇员说。“他是我见过学东西最快的人。这家伙可以从商业角度理解所有的事情，但同时又完全能够从技术角度来理解——他从一张白纸从无到有开始创造。”

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

　　Elon Musk总共花了两年时间来学习所需的火箭知识。

　　"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) 对我自己的火箭里里外外彻头彻尾都很了解。我可以告诉你表面材料的热处理温度是多少，何处开始改变，还有我们为啥要选这个材料，或那个焊接工艺......等等各种细枝末节。

　　Answered by Jim Cantrell

　　Jim Cantrell的回答

　　(译注：Jim Cantrell是SpaceX的联合创始人，就是上一篇回答中借书给Elon Musk的航天咨询师)

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

　　Elon创办公司时我出过力，这些答案都完全正确。我那些火箭推进的书还在他那儿......

　　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.

　　据我跟Elon共事中对他的了解，他一开始就会设立目标，会花大力气想明白究竟该设立什么为目标，为什么这个目标美好并且能够成立。以我看，他的目标从他2001年8月第一次给我打电话起至今都没有变过，在他的演讲中我依然能听到——让人类成为跨行星的生物，而为了达到这一步，他必须先解决运输问题。

　　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.

　　一旦他的目标设立好了，他紧接着就是尽一切可能从各种来源渠道学习这个领域的相关知识。至今为止他是我共事过的最聪明的人，没有之一。我没法估测他的IQ，但是他真的非常，非常聪明。他也不是那种通常意义上的书呆子式的聪明，他的思维极其实用。毫不夸张的说，他从周边的人那里榨取知识和经验。从2001年我们开始一起工作起，他就从我这里借走了所有和火箭推进相关的大学课本。我们也尽力从我的火箭和飞船行业的同事里找人给他做咨询，这感觉就像一个巨型的太空主题狂欢派对。那时候我们还没有谈过要自己制造火箭，只是想成立一个飞往火星的私人项目。后来我发现他和一些人聊火箭设计，并且在一些细节层面开始合作发射台的系统设计。我们和俄罗斯的合作崩了那刻起，他就决定制造自己的火箭，这也就是SpaceX的开端。

　　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.

　　所以我想说的是，Elon有一个宏大的梦想，他聪明过人，他工作极其勤奋，但这些都不是他成功的关键因素。他的一个重要特征，就是字典里没有失败这俩字。他想都不会去想失败的事情。他不能想象失败这点真的是太惊人了。不论是他创办PayPal和银行体系对着干，创办SpaceX和整个宇航工业对着干，还是创办特斯拉和美国汽车工业对着干，他就是不!能!想象自己居然有可能不成功!这是致使他最终成功的非常关键的特质。我和他成长环境差不多，兴趣相像，早年经历也类似;他比较孤僻，我也是;他13岁时决定成立一家软件公司，我13岁时决定设计制造自己的立体声播放系统，都干成了。我们俩的父亲都是工程师，自身也都是极其上进的孩子。但是我相信他和我的不同之处就在于：他甚至不能想象失败这回事。我能意识到这一区别，正是因为这就是我和他在SpaceX分道扬镳的原因。那个时候我不认为这件事有可能成功，所以选择离开。但是他不放弃，因而做成了。我在航天制造业有25年的经验，他则是个门外汉，所以经验能起到的作用也就这些。

　　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.

　　我最近在航天新闻上写了一篇专栏文章，文中我也提出Elon Musk冷血高效的资源配置能力是他成功的另一大原因。他几乎可以从问题当中嗅到正确的方向，然后强力驱使他的团队和组织去达成目标，结果不言而喻。文章请见 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，我认为，这个世界对人类所面对的重大挑战的应对方法正在发生非常根本性的变化，Elon之法(我起的名)将会是冰山一角。向他致敬。