Elon Musk: Building a Profitable Business Is Shockingly Hard—and Deeply Worthwhile

Elon Musk: If found it shockingly hard to make the output of your business more valuable than the cost of your input.

“I have a lot of admiration for anyone who just does an honest day's work making products or producing services for their fellow human beings. That's what a company is. But it is hard.

It's generally very difficult to make the value of the output exceed the cost of the input. And that's really what defines a successful business.

Profit is really the difference between the value of the output and the cost of the input. But it's shockingly hard to make the output more valuable than the input. That's what I found.”

Town Hall in Green Bay, Wisconsin, March 30, 2025