# McNeill left Tesla when the job became unhealthy

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/mcneill-left-tesla-when-the-job-became-unhealthy/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Jon McNeill](https://realalpha.app/people/jon-mcneill/) · Jon McNeill is a former president of Tesla and cofounder and CEO of DVx Ventures. · Founded and scaled six companies, then grew Tesla revenue from $2B to $20B as president.
- Host: [Shane Parrish](https://realalpha.app/people/shane-parrish/) · Founder, Farnam Street · Former intelligence agency employee; wrote the bestseller Clear Thinking.
- Show: The Knowledge Project
- Episode: [The Impossible Speed of Elon Musk - Ex-Tesla President](https://realalpha.app/v/pRXMqm5bMFk/), Nov 10, 2026
- Moment: 1:06:58 to 1:09:51 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/mcneill-left-tesla-when-the-job-became-unhealthy/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/pRXMqm5bMFk/?t=4018

## Quote

> “i was becoming **more and more stressed out** because i wasn't able to help my friend”
> — [Jon McNeill](https://realalpha.app/people/jon-mcneill/) at [1:07:42](https://realalpha.app/v/pRXMqm5bMFk/?t=4062) · The Knowledge Project

## Takeaways

1. His family pointed out that his stress was affecting how he treated them.
2. He felt unequipped to help with Musk’s mental health struggles.
3. He left a job and company he loved to protect his own well-being.

## About this segment

Jon McNeill describes how trying to support Elon through a difficult period took a toll that his family noticed. He eventually told Musk he could not help with those problems and needed to leave.

From “The Impossible Speed of Elon Musk -  Ex-Tesla President”, Nov 10, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/pRXMqm5bMFk/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[1:07:07](https://realalpha.app/v/pRXMqm5bMFk/?t=4027) how did you know it was time to leave tesla my family uh they had a bit of an intervention with me to his credit elon gave walter permission to write about his mental health struggles in Isaacson's book on Elon, and I was right in the thick of that, and I'm okay in terms of my skill set of handling technical problems and handling manufacturing problems and distribution problems and brand problems, but I'm super ill-equipped to help somebody with mental health issues. Like, I just don't have the skill set. And so, in trying to help him through that period, which is pretty rough i was becoming more and more stressed out because i wasn't able to help my friend uh and it wasn't effective i felt like at all and um in my family i didn't realize how that was manifesting itself so my family sat me down uh over the christmas holidays and said hey

[1:08:07](https://realalpha.app/v/pRXMqm5bMFk/?t=4087) look we don't we want to hold a mirror up to you we don't like you you're becoming oh like you're moody you're i'm moody i'm mean i'm i i'm grumpy uh and i thought i was like masking all that stuff i was compartmentalizing it and containing it turned out i wasn't and it was leaking out and so that's when i knew it was time to go because i literally sat down with elon a few weeks later and said look i can't help you with these problems like you need somebody who can and i can't but But like this, it's having an impact on me and it's time for me to go.

[1:08:44](https://realalpha.app/v/pRXMqm5bMFk/?t=4124) And it was tough. conversation to have. But he really did need a catalyst to get help. And I needed to get myself out of an unhealthy, pretty unhealthy situation. Kind of the only situation I'd been like that in the work or professional, in my professional life. Was that hard for you? Did it feel like a failure for you? It didn't feel like a failure. It felt like I was giving up something. I literally loved that company. I loved that job. And that was the hardest part for me was I loved the people, I loved the job, but the situation was kind of killing me and I couldn't, that's what caused me to have to make the hard decision to leave, as hard as it was. It didn't feel like failure, it felt like I was leaving something that really meant a lot to me and it turned out it did. Because I loved being in that environment, I loved working with people who

[1:09:33](https://realalpha.app/v/pRXMqm5bMFk/?t=4173) were, we would say were doing the best work of our lives together. And luckily a lot of those same teammates I get to work with today. So those relationships continued, which was great.