Early Tesla Engineer: With Elon, We Cut Through Red Tape Like a Machete

Early Tesla employee on working with Elon: “We broke through any red tape with a machete.”

“Elon's one of the most driven individuals I've ever met. He's got incredibly high bandwidth. But he's got zero tolerance for any hint of bureaucracy.

He often asked us to take special forces methods to get our jobs accomplished. Basically, try is not good enough. You need to do. Results matter.

And [you should] not let things get in the way that most people would be stumbled by or snagged by. We broke through any red tape with a machete, and we had a great deal of incentive to make sure we were accomplishing what we were set out to do and what his vision was.”

Dave Lyons on CNBC, August 16, 2018