“Don’t Bet Against Musk“ - Musk's BIGGEST Believer Turned $1M Into A $150B FORTUNE

Added: 2026-05-29

[00:00:00]Entrepreneur magazine comes out with a story of a friend, don't pull it up yet, Rob, but I think you have it ready, where one of Elon's friends gave him a million dollars to invest in Tesla early on and eventually got into SpaceX as well. And that million dollars, Rob, if you want to pull it up, this is this is the kind of stuff that it didn't 10x, it didn't 100x, watch this. He loaned Elon a million dollars and that million dollars now is worth over a hundred billion dollars.

[00:00:31]Look at this. Elon Musk's best friend, Antonio Gracias, bet early on Musk his 7.3% SpaceX stake could soon make him one of the 50 wealthiest people in the world. They're saying it's going to be worth $150 billion. By the way, if you do some math, you know what a 100x is?

[00:00:55]You know what a 100x return on an investment is on a million dollar? You have $100 million. A billion is a,000x.

[00:01:01]10 billion is 10,000x. A h 100red billion is a 100,000x.

[00:01:06]This guy 150,000xed the loan he gave to Elon Musk for 7.3 billion. Tom, your thoughts on this story?

[00:01:15]>> Well, it just goes to show you you can be at the right place at the right time and you can be around the right people.

[00:01:20]And it also proves that um I'm going to make an adjustment. There used to be an old adage that said, you know, your position in life and even your net worth will be influenced by the the top five people you choose to have in your orbit as your close associations or friends.

[00:01:37]>> So you take all the 20 people you know, who are the five that were really in their close? What are they all about?

[00:01:42]Are they racist? Are they cool people?

[00:01:44]Are they trying to grow out of their youth? Are they working hard? Are they successful? Wherever those top five are, it'll influence where you go. You know, people have said that a lot, right, Pat?

[00:01:55]Okay. This shows you that it only takes one. It only takes one. That you have one guy who is was at the time was a genius micro doing EV founder who was worried that he's going to lose it and he really needed a bridge loan. And you say, "Okay, I'll do it. I'll do it for this." And who knows what he got. He got something some percent because over time you know if you own a percent of something Humbberto and over time they raise 50% in capital in round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round round no you're 1% now as a half a percent but it's diluted as a percent but the total value of the company is skyrocketed >> so wherever this guy went it went and um it goes on the heels of the story that you know how every now and then I mean and this guy god god bless Antonio gracias you know he he scored But you know what also is your your friend Elon Musk is just tough and he's brash. He went to the federal government to to be deposed and to go through things because he sent out a tweet and he says, "I've got money for Tesla. Funding has been secured." Remember that the famous tweet? Y >> well yesterday, you know what he was musing yesterday. and he says, "Well, maybe by 2027 I'll just merge Tesla and SpaceX because we have the battery technology. We've got the satellite communications to the cars. Maybe I'll just move both of them." And now everybody today was like, "Oh my gosh, could that be a $4 trillion company?

[00:03:23]Suddenly, we're not talking about a $ 1.7 trillion SpaceX. We're suddenly talking about a$4 trillion dollar company." Which just goes to show you Musk being Musk and it's very good to be a friend of Musk.

[00:03:35]Snider >> risk-taking. I mean, that's what really well lot successful, you guys know this.

[00:03:41]I mean, successful people take risk. Um, yeah, I mean, loaning mill Elon Musk a million dollars is not necessarily a huge risk, but I mean, that's >> people people will make a line to that, >> but I mean, that's the point is risk-taking and and making good bets is what really uh separates people out.

[00:03:56]It's it's about taking calculated risks that um you you look at a guy like Elon Musk and say he's going to make it. So a million dollars, yeah, may be painful in the short run, but this is a bet worth taking. That's I think that's the ultimate lesson.

[00:04:07]>> Well, I think identifying and betting on talent is it is so I love that you said that.

[00:04:13]>> You just you look at people and you're like, "Okay, this guy is going places.

[00:04:16]He's he gets it earlier. He uh works harder. He stays longer. He innovates.

[00:04:22]He's coming up with ideas." And you were like, "All right, I'm willing to lose a million dollar on this guy." Yep.

[00:04:27]>> And you know, like I don't know. I've been betting on talent for the last, you know, few months and it's been paying off massively.

[00:04:34]>> Yeah. I And by the way, you're you're a pretty good developer. You're a pretty good manager as well. You you you pick him, you develop him, you teach him. You have that ability. I think a part of this I did a video, Rob, if you can pull it up in a creator studio. See if you can find it. Is about Musk and I said, what's more important, the the horse or the jockey? Right. The horse or the jockey? Because so many times you'll you'll you'll sit there and you're like, "You know what? I think I'm going to bet on the jockey. I'm going to bet on the horse. I'm going to bet on this." Here's the reality of it. Never bet against a guy like Elon Musk. Never do. So, you know who learned the hard way? A lot of short sellers. You know who learned the hard way? A lot of his competitors. this this if you've ever read his book by Walter Isacson which if you haven't I highly if you really want to understand this guy go read that book and you'll see where this guy was and what he did many many years ago people were saying the debate was what's better to uh invest in is it is it better to invest in Tesla or Elon long-term I said listen I'm betting on Elon whatever he's operating I'm betting in Elon on what he can operate and drive so you get judged you said something about risk you and I get judged based on our instinct and intuition and investing in certain things. I know a lot of guys that are very, very smart, Humbberto, but my god, they choose the wrong investments. I know a lot of guys that are so smart, brilliant, have read all the books, have all the fancy degrees, but when it comes down to investing and picking the right jockeyies, they're horrible at it. They they can't see they can't see the the BS factor of the individual. They can't see that this guy's not a serious guy. They can't see through it. They're easily naive and they kind of will be like, "Yeah, that's a guy to that guy that guy to do this."

[00:06:20]And and by the way, none of us are 100%.

[00:06:22]Everybody's going to fall for the trap.

[00:06:24]It's not like anybody's going to make the right investments or not. It's not like, you know, everyone's going to go out there and get it 100% of the time.

[00:06:29]There's never been a person that's 100% of the time. Rob, were you able to find that clip or not? I can't even find it myself. Yeah, I can't find it either.

[00:06:35]It's a It's a clip I did 10 years ago, nine years ago.

[00:06:38]>> If you're 60% of the time, you're you're above average.

[00:06:41]>> You are. You are. You have to have a you have to make a decision early on on your relationship with risk like Jeff said and then at the same time like it one very easy exercise to do is the following. One very easy exercise to do is the following. Take a sheet of paper and write down the list of people in your life that went well and didn't go well. Okay? investments you made, people you went to business with, people you befriended, decisions you made, investments you made, and then score yourself on that. What happened there with that relationship? And that's a failure. 3.2 man, that's a this. And then right next to it, you know what I do? Hberto, did I have any early signs that this wasn't going to work out? And then if I took the risk, guess what? At least I took the risk knowing there was still early signs. But then if I knew the early signs and it was a horrible sign, why did I still go with it? Why why did I make that decision for it?

[00:07:43]Why' I do that? It wasn't worth doing that. Why did I do it? And then what can I do differently for the next time this comes around to see the pattern and things like there was a kid that came to our house with one of my kids and from the beginning I just didn't like the way this guy handled himself. I didn't like the way he talked to my wife. I didn't like the way he talked to my kids. and he was one of one of the new guys that had come in town. And I'm like, "Hey, I told one of my kids, this is not a guy that's going to come to our house." And all of a sudden, the kid a couple years later gets into massive trouble with the school he's in. What happened? There's a gut feeling. You know, women typically have this gift. You know how, you know, women can your mother can kind of tell somebody. My dad had a very good instinct with some of the friends as well. But that instinct, intuition, you cannot teach it. Some people get this thing very very wrong with their instinct and intuition. If there's a muscle in life that you want to have your kids and yourself get better at.

[00:08:38]It's instinct intuition. If you don't measure yourself and sit down and go through it, you will make a lot of wrong hires. There's this book right here that you know I've written now. This the third time I'm going through this book 5X and I've listened to the audio and I'm I'm going through it for a third time. It talks about the hires you made that were good and bad. Why did you make those bad hires? Why is it reoccurring?

[00:08:58]Why why do why does this continue happening to you? This book right here, not a lot of reviews. If you're an entrepreneur, do yourself a favor and go buy this book. I don't know the author.

[00:09:07]I know there uh uh two private equity guys that um talk about CEOs that on average got 5x plus on investments. So, private equity invest $10 million in the company, the company exits, that 10 million becomes $50 million. The average CEO that did five plus X. It shows you patterns. And you know what the whole pattern is? decision- making, intuition, instinct, focus, being able to say no, bringing the right person in, firing the right person, firing the right person, not lagging on a fire, all of that stuff. So, it goes down to instinct and intuition. And this guy that gave a million dollars to Elon, I just looked him up to see what else he did. He also invested in Tesla, SpaceX, Neurolink, Boring Company, and he made his money early on because early on he was hired to scale a plant uh plating manufacturing company, metal plating and manufacturing company that he grew from 10 million to $125 million. So, it's not like this is a schle.

[00:09:58]>> So, he's already good.

[00:09:59]>> Yeah, he was already good. He founded a company called Valor Equity Partners in 1995. He's also a winner and now you know him as a multi-billionaire.

[00:10:06]>> Yeah.

[00:10:06]>> Patiently, long-term eventually added it. So more >> one of the hardest things for people to do is just what you just did, honest self-evaluation. It's very difficult for people to do that for themselves. And I think that's one of the skills that a lot of people are lacking. Can you sit down? It is because you should be your own worst critic.

[00:10:22]>> It's tough. And when we did the survey and the audience reacted to the podcast and saying this and that, it's tough to kind of go through it and get it. But every once in a while you have to do the more often you can do it, you'll have an edge over your peers and the competition. Anyways, folks, if you're running a business and you're hiring people, there is nothing more annoying than when you hire people and it doesn't go your way. And often it ends up costing you a ton of money. Rob, go ahead and play this clip. So, the average bad hire small business owner makes cost the company $17,000. The worst hires could cost you $240,000.

[00:10:56]Why? It's not just losing the employee.

[00:10:58]Many times you lose them, they're sitting next to somebody, they've already infected the negativity on them.

[00:11:03]They draw that person out. Imagine that person was with you for two years. And many times you knew this was not a good fit. You knew this wasn't going to be somebody that was going to work with you culturally, but you looked the other way. You didn't have a system on who to hire. You didn't have a system on what questions to ask. Your calibration wasn't in place. So, one of the best things we're going to do this year at the Vault Conference live in front of 12,000 people. We're going to bring a few of our employees up there and show you how we calibrate quarterly on how we score people on five different metrics and why this has helped our company's retention go higher as well as grow exponentially in ways we've never experienced before. And this will only happen at the vault conference that we host once a year. 12,000 people from 60 plus countries will be attending the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas August 31st through September 3rd going through this 296 page manual together. And if you haven't yet registered, click on a link above or below. Get registered. You may want to bring your team with you. It'll be a very special event this year.

[00:12:00]Looking forward to seeing you there.

[00:12:01]There you go. Go to vault2026.com.

[00:12:03]Again, vault2026.com.

[00:12:06]Speaker Steven Bartlett from the diary CEO. He'll be there. Logan Paul will be there to talk about how to create a brand. Then we'll have Joe Montana and Jerry Rice simultaneously interview on how to find a running mate. When you get a running mate, what happens to you? And last but not least, Dan Martell, author of uh Buy Back Your Time, who has exited multiple companies. We'll discuss how to leverage AI today. Go to vault2026.com, get registered. Cannot wait to see all of you guys there. If you enjoy this video, you want to watch more videos like this, click here. And if you want to watch the entire podcast, click here.