This time, staking 10 years, Musk said: Nothing is impossible.

On September 5th, the Tesla board of directors signed a "boldest bet in the history of human business" with Elon Musk: If Musk can increase Tesla's market value from about $1 trillion today to $8.5 trillion in the next 10 years and achieve a series of operational goals, he will receive a compensation of about $1 trillion.

If he fails, he will hardly receive any cash compensation during this period.

What does $8.5 trillion mean? It has exceeded the combined market value of NVIDIA ($4.2 trillion) and Microsoft ($3.7 trillion), the top two companies in the world by market value as of today (September 17, 2025).

As soon as the news came out, it shocked the world.

Many people said that the board of directors was crazy and that this was a "bluffing capital game." Some even questioned, "This is not an incentive at all, but a marketing farce to attract attention."

But if you understand Musk's way of thinking over the past 20 years, you will understand that behind this seemingly absurd bet lies an extremely rational logic.

From PayPal, Tesla to SpaceX, Musk has repeatedly proven that he is best at turning what others think is "impossible" into "possible." What others think is an unreachable "moon" is just his next destination in his eyes.

In *The Biography of Elon Musk*, his core belief was mentioned several times: "If you set your goals high, even if you only achieve half of them in the end, you have already changed the world."

And "setting high" doesn't mean a 10% or 20% improvement, but a ten - fold increase: ten - fold growth, ten - fold efficiency, and ten - fold breakthrough in experience. This is not just a kind of idealism, but also a methodology.

What really deserves our thinking behind this trillion - dollar bet is:

While others are still discussing "how to improve better," Musk is already asking "why must it be like this?"

While most people are still struggling within the resource circle, he uses his vision to force the acquisition of resources;

When the world says "it's impossible," he says, "Then I'll give it a try."

Today, we won't discuss who will win or lose in this bet, but analyze Musk's mindset and strategies for "ten - fold growth."

We hope today's content can inspire you and bring you the power of innovation.

I. Dare to Think: "Impossible" is Just Imagined

1. Driven by Mission, Inspiring the Mind

In 2001, at a party, Musk was sitting in a small cabin by the pool, holding a tattered Russian rocket engine instruction manual.

A friend asked him what he was doing. He replied, "I'm going to colonize Mars. My life mission is to enable humanity to establish an inter - planetary civilization."

His friends' first reaction was that he was crazy.

Later, they finally understood that Musk was actually acting in accordance with his sense of mission.

Musk later said: "We must have hope for this world and something that can inspire us. That thing worth pursuing is what can make us wake up from sleep to embrace a brand - new day."

So, what's the first step to send humans to Mars? Of course, it's to have a rocket first. So Musk thought of buying a rocket in Russia.

On his first trip, he drank a lot of wine and didn't accomplish anything. Moreover, Russia left a very bad impression on Musk.

The second trip was even more absurd. The more Musk negotiated, the higher the price the Russians asked for, and he was even mocked by them.

Musk said, "I was extremely angry at that time, but when I was angry, I started to re - plan the solution to this problem."

On the plane back from Russia, Musk took out his computer and started making a list in a spreadsheet, detailing all the materials and costs for manufacturing a medium - sized rocket.

He said to his fellow travelers, "I think we can build our own rocket."

Thus, SpaceX was founded.

2. Why Don't Most People Dare to Think? Because We are Kidnapped by the "Resource View"

Most of us have received "resource - oriented" thinking in our education and workplace training, such as:

"How much budget does my company have?"

"Who do I know?"

"How has this industry been doing things in the past?"

This kind of thinking is not wrong and is even very practical. But its biggest problem is that: It uses existing resources to lock up your imagination about the future.

There is a story about Tesla's early financing in *The Biography of Elon Musk*.

In 2004, he tried to persuade investors to invest in Tesla. At that time, electric vehicles were generally regarded as "golf course cars" or "short - distance commuting toys."

Almost all investors asked him the same question: "With the current poor battery technology and short battery life, how can you make it work?"

Musk's answer was: "If the battery technology is not good, we'll improve it. If there are no suitable batteries on the market, we'll assemble them ourselves. If we can't even assemble them, we'll re - define the battery."

He wasn't avoiding the problem but re - defining it.

Ordinary people see that "the current battery technology can only support a 200 - kilometer range" and think, "Then we'll make cars with a range of less than 200 kilometers." But Musk thought, "How can we make it run 600 kilometers?"

So, instead of using the ready - made batteries commonly used in the industry at that time, Tesla chose thousands of 18650 lithium - ion batteries used in laptops and integrated them into a power battery pack through software and a battery management system. This approach seemed like crazy behavior at that time.

But what was the result? It laid the absolute advantage for Tesla in the field of battery range.

3. Aim for the Moon

There is a very inspiring motto: "Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may land among the stars."

This motto was adopted by Musk as his guiding principle.

Its essence is to have the courage to pursue grand goals - "do great things, do amazing things" and pursue ten - fold results: ten - fold growth, ten - fold speed, and ten - fold superiority.

Many people misunderstand it as a kind of "as long as you try hard" chicken soup for the soul, but in fact, there is a deeper strategic wisdom behind it: A high goal itself is a screening mechanism.

It helps you screen out those who are truly brave enough to challenge and believe in miracles;

It forces you to abandon piecemeal improvements and turn to innovation;

Even if you only achieve 70% of the goal in the end, you have far surpassed those who only pursued a 10% improvement from the beginning.

After SpaceX's first few launches failed, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Musk said to the team: "We must succeed, otherwise, humanity will lose the best chance to become a multi - planetary species."

Today, many breakthrough technologies, including self - driving cars, originate from this "moon - landing project" spirit.

To have the courage to set lofty goals, the key is to break through self - imposed thinking limitations and not be restricted by existing resources and afraid to set grand goals. Resources can be gradually acquired in the process of moving forward.

Actually, the more successful entrepreneurs are, the more seemingly unreliable ideas they have.

Many people's thinking is restricted by resources. They only do things according to how much money and resources they have. But those who can achieve great things think about doing first and then attracting resources in the process of doing.

This is the power of vision - oriented thinking: It forces you to jump out of the original competitive dimension and re - establish the rules of the game.

There were also people who once said that "electric vehicles can never be popularized," "rockets can never be recovered," and "humans can never build reusable spacecraft."

Now, these "impossibilities" have all become realities.

You see, the so - called "impossible" is often just a thinking inertia. And daring to think is the first step to break this inertia.

II. Dare to Do: How to Put "Nothing is Impossible" into Practice

1. Set a "Moon - Landing Project": Pursue a Ten - Fold Improvement, Not a 10% One

In 2013, Musk said in an internal meeting: "If we only pursue a 10% efficiency improvement, we can at most optimize the process. But if we want to achieve a ten - fold speed increase, we must completely change the way."

This is the "moon - landing thinking" mentioned earlier.

A classic example comes from Tesla's Model 3 production hell.

In 2017, Tesla set a goal to produce 5,000 Model 3s per week by the end of the year. Almost all media and analysts said it was "absolutely impossible." Even *The Economist* predicted on its cover that Tesla was bound to fail.

The thinking of ordinary car companies is: "We can produce 1,000 cars per week now, so let's gradually increase it to 1,500, 2,000..."

But Musk's approach was to completely restructure.

He directly moved into the Fremont factory, slept in a sleeping bag on the floor, and personally supervised the production line. He recalled in *The Biography of Elon Musk*: "Every link was going wrong, especially the battery module assembly. But we couldn't accept 'gradual improvement.'"

Finally, Tesla didn't "gradually improve" - they shut down the entire production line, redesigned the automation process, and even self - developed a new battery assembly robot.

By late May 2018, the Fremont factory could produce 3,500 Model 3s per week. This result was eye - catching, but it was still far below Musk's goal of producing 5,000 cars per week.

So, those who didn't believe in Tesla and Musk began to gloat and say, "Haha, look, Tesla is going to go bankrupt."

But reality quickly slapped them in the face.

At 1:35 am on July 1, 2018, a black Model 3 rolled off the production line, with a paper banner hanging on the windshield that read "The 5,000th car."

A ten - fold goal forces not "improvement" but reconstruction. Improvement can't make you an outstanding innovator, but reconstruction definitely can.

2. Act Quickly: If You Want to Go Far, You Must Start Running First

Musk has a famous saying: "If you can only use one word to summarize the way I do things, it's'speed'."

He hates endless discussions and PPT culture. At SpaceX, the early engineers had a consensus: "It's better to quickly make a prototype, even if it's wrong, than to argue for six months."

In 2006, SpaceX's first rocket, the "Falcon 1," failed on its first launch.

According to the practice of traditional aerospace companies, at least a six - month failure analysis meeting, re - simulation, and expert review would be needed next...

But what about SpaceX?

The second launch was scheduled one year later.

Failed again? The third launch was eight months later.

Failed again? Four months later, the fourth launch was successful.

Musk said: "Fail fast, learn fast. In the aerospace field, no one dares to use such a short iteration cycle like us."

He also applied this concept of acting quickly to Tesla.

For example, while traditional car manufacturers take 5 - 7 years to develop a new car, Tesla launched the Model 3 in 2 years; while others are still testing prototype cars, Tesla has already fixed bugs and added functions through OTA online updates.

He doesn't ignore quality, but firmly believes in one thing:

Action itself brings information, waiting doesn't.

3. Embrace Failure: Treat Negative Feedback as the Best Coach

In April 2023, the Starship, which attracted worldwide attention and carried Musk's dream of Mars, turned into an expensive firework a few minutes after a successful launch.

But judging from the cheers at the SpaceX site and the fact that some employees even opened champagne to celebrate, the Starship's successful take - off from the launch pad was already a great success.

Musk, who was sitting at the front - line to watch the launch, was very calm.

Maybe you'll ask, why?

Because he believes that if the rocket can be successfully ignited, reach a sufficient height, and explode out of people's sight, leaving a large amount of valuable new information and data for SpaceX, he considers this experimental launch a success.

Musk stood up, raised his hands above his head, and said to the people in the room, "Well done, guys! This was a success! There will definitely be many problems on the first attempt to enter the planned orbit, but today is still an amazing day!"