"It would take Armageddon": Elon Musk reveals how he’d start over with just $1,000

President Trump Participates In U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum At The Kennedy Center - Source: Getty
President Trump Participates In U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum At The Kennedy Center - Source: Getty

Elon Musk has reset the bar for what it means to be a successful entrepreneur. Through the establishment of Tesla and Space X, the South African born business maven has not only changed the landscape of consumer behavior, but re-imagined stagnant industries that were due for change. His business acumen and bold decision-making has cemented him as the world’s wealthiest person, with an estimated net worth of $475 billion as per Celebrity Net Worth.

In the latest news about the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk made an appearance on the The Katie Miller Podcast in an episode that was released on December 9. While their conversation was full of interesting moments, perhaps the most interesting revelation came when Miller posed the business magnate a tantalizing question, "what would you do if you started over with $1,000?"

Elon Musk took a beat then provided his interviewer with his genuine thoughts on her hypothetical experiment:

"It's somewhat of an impossible dichotomy, because civilization would have had to have been destroyed or something, in which case $1,000 is not going to solve your problems. And if civilization hasn't melted, then I could probably just tell people to give me money, which I've done before. A lot of things would have to go wrong for that to be the case. It's like, am I just emerging from prison, perhaps, with a stipend? All my companies have been confiscated."

Musk went on to add:

"I mean, it would take armageddon, which hopefully that doesn't happen, like Ragnarok next level, and I lost. I mean, it's impossible for someone to have this amount of knowledge, all the knowledge that I have, and then be dropped down to a low resource amount. Because the reality is that either something truly catastrophic has happened, like civilization has melted, or I will be able to ask people to just give me money, and with the promise that I will have a high return, which is what I'm able to do right now. Like if you give me a dollar, you will get back much more than a dollar."

There were many other interesting sections of his latest podcast appearance which is currently available to stream on YouTube and X.


Elon Musk’s recent podcast appearance

Aside from his musings on re-starting his career with limited funds, Elon Musk went on to share several takes in his hour with Katie Miller. To add some levity to the interview, Miller asked Musk an assortment of more rapid-fire questions and his responses were noteworthy.

When Miller asked Musk to name an invention we’d be better off without, the Tesla Chief replied:

β€œMaybe short-form video. It seems to be rotting people’s brains.”

Miller then asked Musk what was his go-to motivational song and the entrepreneur claimed it to be:

β€œThe final countdown by Europa”

In other news, Elon Musk's Starlink is currently expanding to India, though tariff glitches have caused minor setbacks in it's rollout.

Edited by Sarah Nazamuddin Harniswala