Elon Musk, known for his CEO roles at Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX and for his recent political engagements, has shared his thoughts on being a CEO many times. Despite his current status, Musk revealed that running companies is not something he ever aspired to. In a 2022 tweet, Musk wrote, "Running companies hurts my heart but I don't see any other way to bring technology and design to fruition."

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Musk explained that he never intended to be a CEO; his main interest was in working on product development and technology.

In the early days of Tesla, Musk attempted to find someone else to take on the CEO role. At first, he believed that Bill Harris, the former CEO of Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU), would be a good fit because of his background. Harris wasn't the right fit, though, as Musk revealed in the Third Row Tesla podcast. To support Tesla's success, Musk eventually assumed the role of CEO.

Throughout Musk's career, this situation has occurred multiple times. Whether with PayPal, Tesla or SpaceX, Musk stepped into leadership roles, often out of necessity rather than personal ambition.

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Musk also tried to become CEO of Zip2, his first significant business effort in the late 1990s, but the attempt failed. He then encountered leadership issues at X.com (which later became PayPal) and was replaced. Still, Musk pursued his goal of creating new technology despite these obstacles.

When Tesla was founded in 2003, Musk was already interested in electric vehicle technology. After test-driving the tZero electric sports car, he decided to get involved in the electric vehicle market. He joined Tesla, which, contrary to popular belief, was founded by Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, Ian Wright and JB Straubel and invested in the company.