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Who really said it

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor

Spoken by Elon Musk b. 1971 · Founder and CEO of SpaceX
Verified In copyright

Musk said it on CBS’s 60 Minutes, in the segment “SpaceX” with correspondent Scott Pelley, which aired March 18, 2012. CBS News’s own transcript confirms the exact wording, given in reply to Pelley’s question “Why even begin?”

Last verified 3 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Verified quote & credit

“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor” Elon Musk, interviewed by Scott Pelley, 60 Minutes ("SpaceX"), CBS, aired March 18, 2012

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by CBS News (60 Minutes broadcast and published transcript)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Elon Musk — Founder and CEO of SpaceX; CEO of Tesla. Theme: "When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The broadcast

Program
60 Minutes — “SpaceX”
Aired
March 18, 2012 (CBS); rebroadcast June 3, 2012
Interviewer
Scott Pelley, correspondent; Harry Radliffe, producer
Transcript
CBS News, “SpaceX: Entrepreneur’s race to space,” June 20, 2012

Elon Musk: The odds of me coming into the rocket business, not knowing anything about rockets, not having ever built anything, I mean, I would have to be insane if I thought the odds are in my favor. Scott Pelley: Why even begin? Elon Musk: When something is important enough you do it even if the odds are not in your favor. Scott Pelley: How much of your personal fortune have you poured into this? Elon Musk: $100 million. From the CBS transcript

CBS’s transcript has no comma after “enough.” The comma in the popular version is the only difference.

CBS News: SpaceX: Entrepreneur's race to space (60 Minutes transcript)

How we traced it

In copyright

The line was first published in a 2012 CBS television broadcast and CBS’s transcript of it, so it is well after the 1931 cutoff and still in copyright. Quoting a single sentence with attribution is ordinary practice, but the broadcast and transcript belong to CBS.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Genuine, but often passed around without context

This one is not misattributed. It usually circulates on quote sites and in listicles with no date or source, though, and it gets confused with the remark Musk made just before it.

Listicles and quote aggregators No context

The line is widely shared with no broadcast or date. Wikiquote’s Talk:Elon Musk ↗ page still includes it in a list of “further unsourced quotes” whose only citation is an Inc.com listicle. The main Wikiquote article ↗ now cites the 2012 60 Minutes broadcast for it.

“I would have to be insane if I thought the odds were in my favor” Different sentence

This is a separate sentence that Musk said just before, in the same exchange. CBS’s own 2020 article ↗ uses it, with “were,” as its headline. The 2012 transcript ↗ has “the odds are in my favor.”

Musk really did say it, in the March 18, 2012 60 Minutes segment “SpaceX,” as recorded in CBS News’s transcript ↗.

Context

Why he said it

Scott Pelley had just heard Musk admit he would “have to be insane” to think the odds favored a newcomer who knew nothing about rockets. So Pelley asked, “Why even begin?” Musk’s answer was this line, and he then said he had put $100 million of his own fortune into SpaceX.

The same segment tells how the first three flights of SpaceX’s Falcon 1 rocket failed to reach orbit. Musk told Pelley that if the fourth launch hadn’t worked, “that would have been it,” because the company lacked the resources to mount a fifth.

Why even begin?

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

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Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

60 Minutes transcript: SpaceXcbsnews.com

CBS News’s full script of the segment that aired March 18, 2012, including the exchange with this line.
Elon Musk on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Sourced quotations by year. This line is listed under 2012 and cited to 60 Minutes.
CBS revisits the 2012 interviewcbsnews.com

CBS’s 2020 look back at Musk’s 2012 60 Minutes interview about SpaceX’s odds.
Space.com preview of the interviewnbcnews.com

Report from March 16, 2012 on Musk’s upcoming 60 Minutes interview with Scott Pelley, set to air March 18.
Quote Investigator: Elon Musk tagquoteinvestigator.com

QI’s Musk investigations. None covers this line, which needs none because the broadcast transcript settles it.

The author

About Elon Musk

Elon Musk

b. 1971 · Founder and CEO of SpaceX; CEO of Tesla

Elon Musk is the founder and chief executive of SpaceX and the chief executive of Tesla. In 2012 60 Minutes described him as the Internet entrepreneur “of PayPal and Tesla Motors fame” for whom SpaceX was a first venture in aerospace. He told Scott Pelley he had put $100 million of his own fortune into the company.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Musk, Elon. Interview by Scott Pelley. “SpaceX.” 60 Minutes. CBS, March 18, 2012. Transcript, “SpaceX: Entrepreneur’s Race to Space,” CBS News, June 20, 2012. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spacex-entrepreneurs-race-to-space/.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor’?” Last verified 3 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/when-something-is-important-enough-you-do-it-even-if-the/

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