Elon Musk: “I Tried Hard Not to Be Tesla’s CEO” — Why He Took the Job Anyway

Elon Musk: I tried hard to not be Tesla's CEO, but I wasn't able to find the right person.

“When we created Tesla, my plan was to allocate maybe 20 or 30% of my time to it, and for SolarCity, I figured 5% or 10% of my time. SolarCity turned out to be true. Tesla, however, ended up being much more.

Unfortunately, the first CEO didn’t work out. I really tried pretty hard not to be the CEO. I could have been the CEO from day one—people maybe sometimes don’t realize that. I just wasn’t able to find the right person.

It’s really hard to find someone who can grow a company. Running a company in steady state is much easier than growing a company.

With Tesla, as people joined the team and investors would ask me how long I was going to be CEO, I said I’m committed to be CEO through the high-volume production vehicle, so probably three or four years. But at that point, I would have to consider what makes sense. I will never leave Tesla, ever, but I may not be CEO forever. Nobody should be CEO forever.”

Interview with Auto Bild TV, November 5, 2014