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"What are the main things to advance the future of humanity?"

From moving from South Africa to escape the draft to living off a dollar a day as a nerdy programmer, Elon Musk is now living the American Dream.

He knows how to inspire not just in a glitzy way but at a deep intellectual level, that has enabled him to recruit some of the finest minds to join him.

Elon Musk is gifted to see ways of reducing problems to a basic level, that he then has the discipline to use his love of Physics and his Entrepreneurial flare, to make refinements at every stage from the ground up that in totality make significant improvements in all areas.

He also acknowledges the power of listening to constructive criticism from his friends.

His ability to contend with many different and complex details is becoming legendary, With so many projects all at once, Cash flow has always been a pressure point, Having a brinkmanship knack to know when to push all his chips in and trust the people he has built around him.

with Amazing success attracting international partnership deals particularly with Tesla electric cars,

Elon knows how to take tough decisions with people. He also knows how to stand his ground against local and National governments.

But the impression is that litigation and committees that he has to deal with; take their toll, and detracts at what he does and enjoys best.

He is a workaholic as he see his role as vital to the future of mankind, He believes this with a sincerity and even a level of modesty.

but this has cost him a lot personally, he admits he was on the brink of a breakdown in his difficult year of 2008 between working night and day over both SpaceX and Tesla, not seeing much of his family, His business' and the resulting brinkmanship ultimately led to the breakdown of his first marriage and maybe his second. His friend Richard Branson a UK billionaire had explained the importance of having a good family life.

SpaceX is "Rocket Science" after all and timelines slip, Elon is putting increasing pressure on himself as his ambition to be able to go to Mars slips, To keep all his aspirations alive the lure of Military space launches is now playing a significant part in his plans. After his dealings in the early years trying to buy an ICBM and now with current issues in the Ukraine he has openly shown his disdain for Russian leadership, this may help get leverage over his rivals and has certainly brought into focus some of the US governmental inconsistency's and issues with the old boy network. It looks like SpaceX will gain fair access to military launch contacts but time will only show the ultimate wisdom in this or not.

Elon to my mind has always been a progressive visionary idealist and a profound technological thinker, there have been other before him and undoubtedly after, but Elon is riding the crest of the wave right now, I am very supportive of his visions and that he and others make it safely to Mars.

One hope is that SpaceX support will not lead to the militarisation of space.