"Optimism, pessimism, fuck that; we're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work." I got goose bumps reading Elon's response at the end of the article.
The thing I like most about the startup I work for: if anything goes wrong, everyone just objectively addresses what happened, where we are now, and what to do to move forward - an obsessive focus on the next step to success.
"Because it's there. Everest is the highest mountain in the world, and no man has reached its summit. Its existence is a challenge. The answer is instinctive, a part, I suppose, of man's desire to conquer the universe." - George Mallory
Why do people run marathons? It's a personal challenge. Hundreds of thousands of people do non-record breaking runs which are pain, suffering and followed by elation at success.
That he was the first was a big part of it, but the reality is remove the words "never been climbed" and the sentence still works. Climbing everest, running a marathon, [insert challenging sports thing here] - each person strives within their own measure and tries to exceed their own expectations.