"Optimism, pessimism, fuck that; we're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work." I got goose bumps reading Elon's response at the end of the article.
"Because it's there. Everest is the highest mountain in the world, and no man has reached its summit. Its existence is a challenge. The answer is instinctive, a part, I suppose, of man's desire to conquer the universe." - George Mallory
That he was the first was a big part of it, but the reality is remove the words "never been climbed" and the sentence still works. Climbing everest, running a marathon, [insert challenging sports thing here] - each person strives within their own measure and tries to exceed their own expectations.