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What do I love about: Elon Musk?
Ashley Vance did a fantastic job helping the readers understand the visionary behind PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla. Without a doubt Elon is not only brilliant but also full of incredible grit. A famous man once said “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve”. Elon’s Raison d’etre is to make humankind better. By this he was never interested in ideas or fads that only make a marginal difference. He is Tony Stark amongst men reaching out to solve problems similar to the ones we read in comic books. The controversial Elon is known for his extreme intelligence and emotions. His extreme emotions were reflective in his eros and philia like relationships.
Personally, besides Abraham Lincoln I think he wins the award for the man with the most grit. He shouldered so much failures, disbelieve and betrayal but continuously kept his eyes on the price. He is a chief multi-tasker who simultaneously ran and championed 3 companies across different complex industries- SpaceX, Tesla and Solar city. Despite his successes, he continually faces doubt from the public with his new ground-breaking initiatives such as sustaining life on Mars, the Boring tunnel based transportation and Neuralink. Like Steve jobs, Elon has successfully leveraged reality distortion field to convince people into achieving what ordinary minds deem impossible. Watch out for this guy.
What do I not love about: Elon Musk?
Zilch
Who should read: Elon Musk?
I recommend this for any Elon fan as well as individuals passionate about the future of mankind. This book will give you a deeper understanding into the man called Elon. I also encourage critics alike to read this book and maybe you will become a convert.
Who should not read: Elon Musk?
Honestly I think everyone should read this book.
Notes from Elon Musk
- Musk has his version of the truth, and it is not always the version of the truth that the rest of the world shares. He is prone to verbose answers to even the simplest questions as well.
- Musk founded a company called Zip2- a primitive google maps meet yelp. That first venture ended up a big, quick hit. Compaq bought Zip2 in 1999 for $307million. Musk made $22million from the deal and poured almost all of it into his next venture, a startup that would morph into Paypal
- History has demonstrated that while Musk’s goals can sound absurd in the moment, he certainly believes in them and when given enough time tends to achieve them.
- Two months after their wedding, Justine signed a postnuptial financial agreement that would come back to hunt her and entered into an enduring power struggle. She said- He was constantly reminding me on the ways he found me lacking. ‘I am your wife,’I told him repeatedly, ‘not your employee’. If you were my employee,’ he said often, ‘I would have fire you.’
- The sales people were not compensated on commission and did not have to try to talk you into buying a suite of extras. Whether you ultimately bought the car in the store or online, it was delivered in a concierge fashion. Tesla would bring it to your home, office or anywhere else you wanted it.
- The fairing opened up around the 3-minutes mark and fell back toward Earth. And, finally, around nine minutes into its journey, the Falcon 1 shut down just as planned and reached orbit, making it the first privately built machine to accomplish such a feat. It took six years-about four and half more than Musk had once planned-and 500 people to make this miracle of modern science and business happen.
- To the extent that the world doubts Elon, I think it’s a reflection on the insanity of the world and not supposed insanity of Elon.