Kimbal Musk Quotes

Risk is the price you pay for opportunity.

Some of the most interesting research that I did was about risk assessment and how ordinary citizens like me handle risk assessment and how irregular our risk assessments are.

There is no elimination of all risks.

We respond to the unknown by trying to retreat from it, or trying to comprehend it, or trying to control it. The first approach is evident in longings for return to a simpler "risk-free" life that never was. The second is reflected in the fantasy of synoptic risk assessment: Measure the requisite probabilities and trade-offs, calculate the social risk-benefit function, and the common good will have been defined. The third approach is in the tradition of professional engineering. It serves us well but, as engineers have been among the first to point out, has met its match and more in the complex social problems it increasingly is called upon to address.

Everything involves a risk. No risk, no reward.

By definition, risk-takers often fail. So do morons. In practice it's difficult to sort them out.

You can measure opportunity with the same yardstick that measures the risk involved. They go together.

Every business and every product has risks. You can't get around it.

If you have something at risk, you think differently.

I like to control the risk I take. And when risk is taken out of my hands, it frustrates me.

You have to take risks.

I forced myself to think what is the new concept and it became clear to me that it was risk, not only in technology and ecology, but in life and employment, too.

People need to learn to live with more risk.

I think we need to think beyond the issue of absolute risk.

People are used to dealing with risk.

In any endeavor, you have to understand your tolerance for risk. What's a failure you can afford?

I think people overestimate the risk of high-risk projects.

Everyone has a different definition of risk. Sometimes that creates opportunities as well.

The risks are 'How country can you go?' rather than 'How rock can you take it?'

The definition of 'safe' is not strictly an engineering term; it's a societal term. Does it mean absolutely no loss of life? Does it mean absolutely no contamination with radiation? What exactly does 'safe' mean?

You can never protect yourself 100%. What you do is protect yourself as much as possible and mitigate risk to an acceptable degree. You can never remove all risk.

Neither science, nor the politics in power, nor the mass media, nor business, nor the law nor even the military are in a position to define or control risks rationally.

There has to be an element of risk-taking for me in my work.

We live in a world where there are many risks, and it's high time we start taking seriously which ones we should be worried about.

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.