• One of the earliest people Elon Musk reached out to is Jim Cantrell, who worked for the French Space Agency or CNES from 1990 to 1992 and then came back to the US  where he began consulting for aerospace agencies.
• Musk called him out of the blue in 2001 and asked about the possibility of sending a spacecraft to mars + building the rockets himself.
• Cantrell lent him some of his textbooks about rocket propulsion fundamentals of astrodynamics and the international reference guide to space launch systems.
• After reading them, Musk developed the plans for the rocket that would eventually be used by SpaceX.

Another principle that Elon Musk follows in his quest for self-education is surrounding himself with the best and the brightest people.

He would strike up conversations with people who were the best in their field, acquire their knowledge and expertise through disc...