This genius behind multi-million dollar companies like Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and PayPal has much to teach us about innovation, creativity, and efforts. This is his story.

We never know when the next child who changes history and breaks paradigms will be born. For our generation, that date was June 28, 1971, and that child was Elon Musk, the South African physicist, investor and entrepreneur who is today working on taking the human race to live on another planet.

Musk is credited not only with creating the first economically viable electric car, the Tesla Roadster, but also with creating SpaceX, the world’s largest private space exploration company.

And if you can talk about a visionary, you’re probably talking about him. His desire to change the world and humanity drastically is imminent in each of his speeches. Some of its goals are to slow down the process of global warming by abandoning fossil fuels for renewable energies, especially solar energy.

Also reduce the risk of a possible extinction of the human race by evolving into a “multi-ethnic civilization” through the creation of a permanent human colony on Mars of about one million people.

He is president of the Musk Foundation, which focuses its philanthropic efforts on science education and pediatric health, and is a trustee of the X Prize Foundation, which promotes the use of clean energy.

And all his achievements would not be possible without his tremendous commitment to everything he does. Musk has described himself as a workaholic who usually spends between 80 and 100 hours a week working at Tesla and SpaceX. On average, he sleeps between 6 to 6.5 hours a day, and on the rare occasions when he has free time, spends it playing with children.

These are 10 famous phrases by Elon Musk that every entrepreneur should read:

1. Things are not done differently so that they are not the same, but so that they are better.
2. Something can happen if you have first determined that it is possible.
3. A human being’s biggest mistake is selling his own startup.
4. I like to create things related to new technologies and that break with conventions, so that they say to me: ‘Unbelievable! How did you do this? How did you do it?’.
5. The fact of achieving a great innovation and breaking with the established is not the result of a person, or of an advance, but of a whole collective that has allowed it to happen.
6. I don’t believe in tricks for an innovative mindset. I think it’s a way of thinking along with the daring to make decisions.
7. Failure is an option here. If things don’t go wrong, you’re not innovating enough.
8. Persistence is very important, you must not give up unless you are forced.
9. Work hard every hour while you’re awake, it’s what it takes to be successful if you’re starting a new business.
10. The biggest mistake I’ve made (and still make) is to focus more on talent than on the character of my team. It’s important to surround yourself with people who are kind and have hearts.