SpaceX’s president on Elon Musk: ‘You have to pause and not blurt out ‘well, that’s impossible’ when Elon says something
SpaceX COO and president Gwynne Shotwell has been there since the beginning and she discussed what it’s like to work with Elon Musk
By Ariel Schwartz
Elon Musk has become legendary for coming up with huge, seemingly impossible ideas. At SpaceX, Musk’s rocket company, Gwynne Shotwell is the person tasked with turning the entrepreneur’s wild visions into reality.
Shotwell, the COO and president of SpaceX, has been at the company since its founding in 2002. During an onstage interview at the 2018 TED Conference in Vancouver, she discussed what it’s like to work with Musk.
“I love working for Elon. I’ve been doing it for 16 years this year,” she said. “He’s funny, and fundamentally without him saying anything, he drives you to do your best work.”
In addition to his huge ideas, Musk is also known for wanting to turn those ideas into reality on tight timelines (see: his plan to start colonising Mars in the next decade). Shotwell has learned to roll with it.
“When Elon says something, you have to pause and not blurt out ‘Well, that’s impossible,’” she said. “You zip it, you think about it, and you find ways to get it done. I’ve always felt like my job was to take these ideas and turn them into company goals, to make them achievable.”