"Dude, no way"

When the company is focused on launching a new car model at Tesla, the atmosphere is definitely intense. It's not for everyone.

In the words of CEO Elon Musk, "“We’re building the cars as fast as we can . . And we’re going to drive this ramp-up as fast as we can.” That's pressure.

A guy who can roll with that kind of pressure is Hokuto Ueda, "a Harvard Business School graduate who was on the team that took the Model S from prototype to delivery and launched Tesla's Gigafactory."

"When I was launch manager there, every goal, every timeline that Elon set for us seemed impossible. When he set it out, it was like, dude, there's no way that’s gonna happen." 

"You're literally in the factory all day and all night ­— we ordered pizza and sandwiches for dinner — and then you go home for a few hours and come back and do it all again, but we had fun doing it," Ueda said. "It was an extremely positive experience."

"I think to be part of something like that is special and it's what keeps people going . . [Elon has] the ability to really get people to feel like they're a part of history — and that brings 110% out of everybody," Ueda said.

image: dreamstime.com