Elon Musk made history for successfully launching the first crewed commercial mission to the ISS from American soil. While he’s known for Tesla, his electric vehicle company, Elon’s first “true love” is space exploration. And with SpaceX’s recent launch, he just got one step closer to fulfilling his dream of putting people on Mars.

I worked with Elon in 2002 when no one knew his name and SpaceX was just founded. It was one of the many startups in California with bold and unrealistic (to some) ambitions.

We met at an industry event and chatted, and it wasn’t long before he made me an offer to join his venture. He was determined to attract talent that matched his same drive, ambition, and belief in his goals, which is why he preferred to personally recruit many of his staff back then. I didn’t have to send in a resume, and I didn’t have to go through more rounds of interviews. He made the offer and that was that.