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Startup Archive
Startup Archive

Elon Musk: “Failure is irrelevant unless it’s catastrophic”

Feb 9, 2026
AI Summary
  • Elon Musk frames failure as irrelevant unless catastrophic, using baseball analogy: maximize net useful output by accepting that some attempts will fail while others succeed
  • He advocates for the highest batting average over time rather than waiting for perfect conditions; the goal is optimizing aggregate results within a given timeframe
  • This perspective justifies taking calculated risks where expected value is positive even if individual attempts may fail

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