Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future – A Bestselling Biography of a Technology Entrepreneur

For those of us familiar with the work of Ashlee Vance, it will come as no surprise that this is one incredibly well-written book. His pieces for Bloomberg Businessweek and the New York Times were always well thought out and thoroughly researched - and, like Elon, Ashlee was born in South Africa so it came as no surprise that his biography of Musk is very engaging and provides an in-depth view into his business methodologies and companies. Vance writes about Musk in an objective way that is straightforward and educational. I was hooked from the first page through the last - I could not put the book down! The book begins by covering the early years of Musk’s life. He does not spend too much time delving into his childhood but just enough for the reader to understand how these first critical years shaped Musk to become the driven man he is today. He discusses his upbringing in South Africa (which I assume he can somewhat relate to), followed by his time in Canada ultimately how he made it to the United States. A majority of the book covers his time in the United States because the book mostly discusses the creation of his companies. That said, one of the main reasons I enjoyed this book so much is because Vance writes as much about Elon Musk as a person as he does Musk the inventor and entrepreneur. While most things that I have read about Elon Musk focus on his businesses acumen, very few sources shine a light on him as a human being, which I think is important. The parts about his relationships past and present were discussed with open honesty and make him somewhat relatable - a difficult feat in this age of "celebrity" idolization. When I have discussed people like Elon with my son, I remind him that we are all human beings, and humans being, and it is important to focus on the hard work and dedication instead of the celebrity. I feel like this book helps manage peoples' expectations around what it actually takes to be successful. Vance does an excellent job of covering the beginning of Musk’s career including his companies Zip2 and Paypal. Vance then covers the history of Tesla and SpaceX and the hard work and determination (and dare I say some luck?) that it took for those companies to reach success. The book discusses the complexities of Musk’s companies and his unique thought process that helped make these companies the powerhouses they are today. Vance delves into the inventive mind of Musk and writes about it in a way that is inspiring for those looking to pursue their own dreams and aspirations. Before I bought this book, I read a review that stated that the reviewer was disappointed that Vance didn’t discuss in-depth details of the technology behind Musk’s companies. I believe that is actually a good thing. It makes the book easy to read for those who aren’t technologically savvy and helps protect what I assume are trade secrets. This book is for anyone who is interested in learning more about Elon Musk or anyone who is interested in learning about what it takes to run a very successful company or in Musk’s case, numerous successful companies. This is not a puff piece but more an honest, nonbiased biography about one of the world’s most interesting people. I have already recommended it to a few friends who are both fans of Elon's and those who are focused on business as a career. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Elon Musk is an incredible guy. Elon, if you are reading this, you should hire me to help build your digital infrastructure but I doubt you need me, you can probably ask one of your thousands of staff to get that done for you. But really, this book was balanced in its presentation, fair about how Elon was presented and presents a unique person framed in the light of an extraordinary man. I WILL one day own a Tesla, not today but soon. It will change driving and I believe Elon is here to change the world. Yes, he's compared to Steve Jobs but Steve was "just" a visionary and an eccentric leader. Elon is a visionary, yes. Elon is an eccentric leader, of course. But he's a technical powerhouse and a walking sponge when it comes to the information he is interested in. Would I like to work for him? Maybe but I won't hold up to his work ethic, I don't do 16 hours a day anymore. But his ability to inspire his work force while shielding them from the financial problems and issues over the years, is admirable. Wait a minute, this is a review of the book. So let's get back to that. The book is short enough and interesting enough to read quickly. It explores his flaws as a human being while the author clearly admires his business prowess. Yet the book falls short in really explaining the psyche of the man. Yes, there are hints, there are a few of his actions which demonstrate his inability to bond with his loyal, long time employees but I was hoping to find out more about what drives this man. What are his demons? Is he autistic as it's been hinted, based on the way he seems to treat long time, loyal people? Can he bond with anyone long term? His wives will attest to that ability or lack thereof, so WHY is this the case. I was left wanting more, wanting to know more about the person. The technology was covered, his work history was pretty much covered, his flaws were pretty much revealed (hey! We all have flaws) so what makes this guy tick? More importantly, where are the clues that we are not-Elon can use to be more like him, raise our kids with more of his better qualities and overall what are the lessons? That's where, in my opinion, the book could have done a better job. I am sure the author, Ashlee Vance tried his best, mostly limited to peripheral interviews and somewhat 3rd hand knowledge but I hoped for more of the real Elon. More of the driving forces, not the obvious ones - i.e. change the world, bla, bla, bla. The real fears that drive him, the personality of this incredible guy. I know it's hard when your subject dodges your request for interviews and I realize you finally had the time with him and that shows. I would have loved more of him. Not his stuff or his deeds. Make sense? Just one note; We don't get much insight from the press into Elon other than those minor (and sometimes major) issues with a car recall or a rocket exploding. This book does provide the best insight I've had yet into Elon. For that and for the background, it really is a great read. Also, Ashee Vance writes well, writes with clarity and with focus. Never was I distracted (as I am sometimes with other authors) by odd language or grammatical forms. The best job an author can do when writing an autobiography is to disappear and leave only his subject as the center of attention. Thank you Ashlee for that, very appreciated and very professional. I highly recommend you buy and read this book because Elon Musk is going to change this world we live in. Wouldn't you like a little more insight into him other than the PR that's out there?

Elon Musk is probably the new Steve Jobs. He might be much more even. His early life, his private life has not been simple and easy. He is probably as tough with a similar distorted perception of reality as the Apple hero. But as an entrepreneur, he may have a broader vision and ambition. He began small and simple with Zip2, an early Internet yellow pages start-up, which he still sold for $307M, followed by X.com which had the ambition to change the banking system before it merged with Confinity to become Paypal. Both were just experiments! He learnt and developed his “grandes oeuvres”: Tesla and SpaceX. Ashlee Vance has just written a remarkable and fascinating book Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for A Fantastic Future about his life and achievements. Zip2 – 1995 – 3 co-founders (Elon and Kimbal Musk, Greg Kouri) $3M with MDV – sold to Compaq / AltaVista for $307M on April 1, 1999 after more than $50M additional funding. Elon made $22M, Kimbal $15M, MDV 22x its money. X.com – 1999 – 4 co-founders (Ed Ho, Harris Fricker, Christopher Payne, Elon Musk) and early employee, Scott Anderson. Bill Harris, CEO in Dec. 99. Merges with Confinity in March 2000. Musk netted $250M from the sale to eBay or $180M after taxes. All told, Musk invested $12M into X.com, leaving him, after taxes, with $4M or so for personal use. “That’s part of what separates Elon from mere mortals,” said Ed Ho, the former Zip2 executive, who went to cofound X.com. “He’s willing to take an insane amount of personal risk. When you do a deal like that, it either pays off or you end up in a bus shelter somewhere.” [Page 80] Musk was replaced as CEO while on honeymoon. But when it became clear that the company had already moved on, Musk relented. “I talked to Moritz [from Sequoia] and a few others,” Musk said. “It wasn’t so much that I wanted to be CEO but more like ‘Hey, I think there are some pretty important things that need to happen, and if I’m not CEO, I’m not sure they are going to happen.’ But then I talked to Max [Levchin] and Peter [Thiel], and it seemed they would make these things happen. So then, I mean, it’s not the end of the world. […] Throughout this ordeal, however, he showed incredible restraint. He embraced the role of being an advisor to the company and kept investing in it, increasing his take as PayPal’s largest shareholder. “You would expect someone in Elon’s position to be bitter and vindictive, but he wasn’t”, said Botha [from Sequoia], “He supported Peter. He was a prince.” [Pages 88-89] Musk is direct and tough but “He comes from the school of thought in the public relations world that you let no inaccuracy go uncorrected” [page 91]. An example of toughness in his private life: “He was constantly remarking 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 just as often, ‘I would fire you.’” [Page 94]. He married and divorced 3 times, first with Justine Wilson, with whom Musk had 1 baby who died after 10 weeks, then 2 twins, then 3 triplets, then twice with Talulah Riley. Chapters 6 and 7 are a MUST READ. They show the drive, craziness, vision, obsession that Musk put into building rockets and electric cars, combining the chaos of start-ups and the structure needed for manufacturing. SpaceX – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. – 2002 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX. The [PayPal] deal gave Musk some liquidity and supplied him with more than $100M to throw at SpaceX. Tesla Motors – founded on July 1st 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning who had sold a previous start-ups for $187M in 2000. In parallel Musk helped J. B. Straubel, a passionate Stanford student, who had seen batteries had reached efficiency possibly useful to electric cars. Musk invested $6.5M in Tesla and Straubel joined in May 2004. On January 27, 2005, the 18 Tesla employees had built the first prototype. Musk invested another $9M in a $13M round. In May 2006 Tesla had 100 employees. Musk invested another $12M together with DFJ, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and others for a new $40M round. In the middle of 2007, tesla had grown to 260 employees. [page 165] There is an interesting section about Detroit and how different its culture is from Silicon Valley [Page 164¡: Every time Tesla interacted with Detroit it received a reminder of how the once-great city had been separated from its own can-do culture. Tesla tried to lease a small office in Detroit. The costs were incredibly low compared with Space in Silicon Valley, but the city’s bureaucracy made getting just a basic office an ordeal. The building’s owner wanted to see seven years of audited financial from Tesla, which was still a private company. Then the building owner wanted two years’ worth of advanced rent. Tesla had about $50 million in the bank and could have bought the building outright. “In Silicon Valley, you say you’re backed by a venture capitalist, and that’s the end of the negotiation.” Tarpenning said. “But everything was like that in Detroit. We’d get FedEx boxes, and they couldn’t even decide who should sign for the packages”. Then fights began between Musk and Eberhard: The engineers credited Eberhard with making quick, crisp decisions. […] Musk wanted changes that started to delay the Roadster, Musk kept pushing the car to be more comfortable. […] Eberhard groused that these features were slowing the company down. […] The company as a whole was sympathetic to Martin [Page 165]. Many issues began to appear, technical problems such as the transmission, overall costs issues and finally delays in delivering the Roadster to customers who had prepaid for it. In August 2007, Tesla’s board demoted Eberhard to president of technology. Most of the employees were tired; Tesla was running out of money after $140M spent. In the meantime, SpaceX failed with its first two rocked launches. And musk filed for divorce. When the 2008 crisis burst out, Musk was in personal and business troubles with his two companies. PS – a short reminder about previous posts about Elon Musk: – June 3, 2010: What makes a good technology company? A mastery of fear and envy. – March 8, 2010: Tesla Motors and Paypal, a tale of two founders After reading chapters 8 & 9 of Elon Musk and after my recent post about the Tesla and SpaceX leader, I am now fully convinced Elon Musk is much more than Steve Jobs. He has brought back optimism to Silicon Valley, to the USA and maybe to the world. He has also brought back hardware and engineering in a world that was thinking everything was virtual and online. Mea culpa, I felt the same; I felt that software and intelligence was what was driving the world. Elon Musk has shown that tinkering, experimenting coupled with an ambitious vision could change the world. “When the launch was successful [SpaceX 4th launch but the 1st to be successful], everyone burst into tears”, Kimbal said. “It was one of the most emotional experiences I’ve had.” Musk left the control room and walked out of the factory floor, where he received a rock’s star welcome. “Well, that was freaking awesome,“ he said. “There are a lot of people who thought we couldn’t do it – a lot actually – but as the saying goes, ‘the fourth time is the charm’, right? There are only a handful of countries on Earth that have done this. It’s normally a country thing, not a company thing…. [Page 203] But the reader should not forget the tough reality: For Gracias, the Tesla and SpaceX investor and Musk’s friend, the 2008 period told him everything he would ever need to know about Musk’s character. He saw a man who arrived in the United States with nothing, who had lost a child, who was being pilloried in the press by reporters and his ex-wife and who verged on having his life’s work destroyed. “He has the ability to work harder and endure more stress than anyone I’ve met”, Gracias said. “What he went through in 2008 would have broken anyone else. He didn’t just survive. He kept working and stayed focused.” That ability to stay focused in the midst of a crisis stands as one of Musk’s main advantages over other executives and competitors. “Most people who are under that sort of pressure fray,” Gracias said. “their decisions go bad. Elon gets hyperrational. He’s still able to make very clear, long-term decisions. The harder it gets, the better he gets. Anyone who saw what he went through firsthand came away with more respect for the guy. I’ve just never seen anything like his ability to take pain”. [Page 211] Again, Musk is not afraid of risk-taking. As 2008 came to an end, Musk had run out of money […] The couple had to start borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Musk’s friend Skoll and Riley’s parents offered to remortgage their house. Musk no longer flew his jet back and forth between Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. He took Southwest. [Pages 206-207] He manage to save Tesla, The deal ended up closing on Christmas Eve, hours before Tesla would have gone bankrupt. Musk had just a few hundred thousand dollars left and could not have made payroll the next day. […] On December 23, 2008, however, SpaceX received a shock. People inside NASA had backed SpaceX to become a supplier for the ISS. The company received $1.6 billion as payment for twelve flights to the Space Station. [Page 210] It is also interesting to mention Musk’s hiring methods! The SpaceX hiring model places some emphasis on getting top marks at top schools. But most of the attention goes toward spotting engineers who have exhibited type A personality traits over the course of their lives. The company’s recruiters look for people who might excel at robot-building competitions or who are car-racing hobbyists who have built unusual vehicles. The object is to find individuals who ooze passion, can work well as part of a team, and have real-world experience bending metal. “Even if you’re someone who writes code for your job you need to understand how mechanical things work. We were looking for people that had been building things since they were little.” [Page 220] Interviews are tough with puzzles, code writing and Musk interviewed the first 1’000 employees de SpaceX. I am far from finished but needs to end up for now with my usual cap. tables for Musk’s ventures: 1-Paypal, 2-Tesla Motors, 3-SolarCity which he did not found but backed from the early days and the two founders are his cousins, 4-finally a tentative cap. table based on what SpaceX announced. How does innovation work It’s really a fascinating book and obviously Elon Musk is too. A really unique and tough character. And obviosuly, very much criticized and hated too. One such harsh critics comes from the MIT Technology Review with Tech’s Enduring Great-Man Myth by Amanda Schaffer. You should read it. I just extract two sentences: – “To put it another way, do we really think that if Jobs and Musk had never come along, there would have been no smartphone revolution, no surge of interest in electric vehicles?” Well, this is a critical question about the source of innovation. Society or individuals. The question is relevant for science too. – “It’s precisely because we admire Musk and think his contributions are important that we need to get real about where his success actually comes from.” This is a quote from Mariana Mazzucato whom I have often quoted here. her book The Entrepreneurial State is a Must Read. It deals with the role of government in innovation. my stronger and stronger belief with years is that the governement makes things possible (science, technology and invention, innovation) but without exceptional individuals – often geniuses, sometimes to the border of insanity – I am not sure so much happens. Now let me quote more Ashley Vance because the final chapters are as great as the first ones. These quotes show that despite the high role of the governement, it’s not sufficient to explain how innovation works. As Tesla turned into a star in modern American industry, its closest rivals were obliterated. Fisker Automotive filed for bankruptcy and was bought by a Chinese auto parts company in 2014. One of its main investors was Ray Lane, a venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Lane had cost Kleiner Perkins a chance to invest in Tesla and then backed Fisker – a disastrous move that tarnished the firm’s brand and Lane’s reputation. Better Place was another start-up that enjoyed more hype than Fisker and Tesla put together and raised close to $1 billion to build electric cars and battery-swapping stations. The company never produced much of anything and declared bankruptcy in 2013. The guys like Straubel who had been at Tesla since the beginning are quick to remind people that the chance to build an awesome electric car had been there all along. “It’s not really like there was a rush to this idea, and we got there first,” Straubel said. “It’s frequently forgotten in hindsight that people thought this was the s***tiest business opportunity on the planet. The venture capitalists were all running for the hills.” What separated Tesla from the competition was the willingness to charge after its vision without compromise, a complete commitment to execute to Musks’s standards. [Pages 315-16] During the entire period of SolarCity’s growth, Silicon Valley had dumped huge amounts of money into green technology companies with mostly disastrous results. There was the automotive flubs like Fisker and Better Place, and Solyndra, the solar cell maker that conservatives loved to hold up as a cautionary tale of government spending and cronyism run amok. Some of the most famous venture capitalists in history, like John Doerr and Vinod Khosla, were ripped apart by the local and national press for their failed green investments. The story was almost always the same. People had thrown money at green technology because it seemed like the right thing to do, not because it made business sense. From new kinds of energy storage systems to electric cars and solar panels, the technology never quite lived up to its billing and required too much government funding and too many incentives to create a viable market. Much of this criticism was fair. It’s just that there was this Elon Musk guy hanging around who seemed to have figured something out that everyone else had missed. “We had a blanket rule against investing in clean-tech companies for about a decade,” said Peter Thiel, the PayPal cofounder and venture capitalist and Founders Fund. “On the macro level, we were right because clean tech as a sector was quite bad. But on the micro level, it looks like Elon has the two most successful clean-tech companies in the US. We would rather explain his success as being a fluke. There’s the whole Iron Man thing in which he’s presented as a cartoonish businessman – this very unusual animal at the zoo. But there is now a degree to which you have to ask whether his success is an indictment on the rest of us who have been working on much more incremental things. To the extent that the world still doubts Elon, I think it’s a reflection on the insanity of the world and not on the supposed insanity of Elon.” [Pages 320-21] Tony Fadell about Musk Tony Fadell, the former Apple executive, credited with bringing the iPod ad iPhone to market, has characterized the smartphone as representative of a type of super-cycle in which hardware and software have reached a critical point of maturity. Electronics are good and cheap, while software is more reliable and sophisticated. […] Google has its self-driving cars and has acquired dozens of robotics companies as it looks to merge code and machine. […] And a host of start-ups have begun infusing medical devices with powerful software to help people monitor and analyze their bodies and diagnose conditions. […] Zee Aero, a start-up in Mountain View, has a couple of former SpaceX staffers on hand and is working on a secretive new type of transport. A flying car at last? Perhaps. […] For Fadell, Musk’s work sits at the highest of this trend. “Whether it’s Tesla or SpaceX, you are talking about combining the old-world science of manufacturing with low-cost, consumer-grade technology. You put these things together, and they morph into something we have never seen before. All of a sudden there is a wholesale change. It’s a step function.” [Pages 351-52] Doesn’t this remind you of Zero to One by peter thiel. Larry Page about Musk Google has invested more than just about any other technology company into’s Musk’s sort of moon-shot projects: self-driving cars, robots, and even a cash prize to get a machine onto the moon cheaply. The company, however, operates under a set of constraints and expectations that come with employing tens of thousands of people and being analyzed constantly by investors. It’s with this in mind that Page sometimes feels a bit envious of Musk, who has managed to make radical ideas the basis of his companies. “If you think about Silicon Valley or corporate leaders in general, they’re not usually lacking in money,” Page said. “If you have all this money, which presumably you’re going to give away and couldn’t even spend it all if you wanted to, why then are you devoting your time to a company that’s not really doing anything good? That’s why I find Elon to be an inspiring example. He said, ‘Well, what should I really do in this world? Solve cars, global warming, and make humans multiplanetary.’ I mean those are pretty compelling goals, and now he has businesses to do that.” [Page 353] Larry Page about education This is a very interesting piece [pages 355-56] not linked to Musk: “I don’t think we’re doing a good job as a society deciding what things are really important to do.” Page said. “I think like we’re just not educating people in this kind of general way. You should have a pretty broad engineering and scientific background. You have some leadership training and a bit of MBA training or knowledge of how to run things, organize stuff, and raise money. I don’t think most people are doing that, and it’s a big problem. Engineers are usually trained in a very fixed area. When you’re able to think about all of these disciplines together, you kind of think differently and can dream of much crazier things and how they might work. I think that’s really an important thing for the world. That’s how we make progress.” [Pages 355-56] Some final words about Musk It’s funny in a way that Musk spends so much time talking about man’s survival but isn’t willing to address the consequences of what his lifestyle does to his body. “Elon came to the conclusion early in his career that life is short,” Straubel said. “If you really embrace this, it leaves you with the obvious conclusion that you should be working as hard as you can”. Suffering though has always been Musk’s thing. The kids at school tortured him. His father played brutal mind games. Musk then abused himself by working inhumane hours and forever pushing his businesses to the edge. The idea of work-life balance seems meaningless in this context. […] He feels that the suffering helped to make him who he is and gave him extra reserves of strength and will. [Page 356] However…. As Thiel said, Musk may well have gone so far as to give people hope and to have renewed their faith in what technology can do for mankind. [Page 356]

This book is well researched, and the author had great access to Elon Musk. The style is fast paced, yet detailed enough to give some great insight into the man and his companies. I thoroughly enjoyed it and believe it is a “must-read” for anyone investing in Tesla stock or its competitors. I do have a couple of criticisms: first, the part about the Justine Musk divorce was a nearly word for word copy of her blog describing her side of the story. I was shocked by how similar it was. Also, the last chapter "unified field theory of Elon Musk" seemed to be unnecessary padding, wasting time on other people's opinions on Musk. It didn’t fit into the biography. Perhaps it was an attempt to ensure that the book doesn't come across as hagiography. Some interesting points about Elon Musk: 1. He eats fast 2. He has had a challenging life: the loss of an infant, a brutal upbringing in South Africa, pushed out of companies he co-founded, nearly going broke in 2008, divorces 3. Late bloomer; he was more ambitious in college than he was in high school 4. Extremely hard worker; for the first three months of his first start-up he and his brother literally lived in the office. He slept on a beanbag next to his desk. Justine said: "Elon would come home at 11 and work some more. People didn't always get the sacrifice he made in order to be where he was." His co-investor Gracias said: "He has the ability to work harder and endure more stress than anyone I've ever met. What he went through in 2008 would have broken anyone else. He didn't just survive. He kept working and stayed focused. Most people under that sort of pressure fray, their decisions go bad. Elon gets hyperrational. He's still able to make very clear, long-term decisions. The harder it gets, the better he gets. Anyone who saw what he went through firsthand came away with more respect for the guy. I've just never seen anything like his ability to take pain." Watson at SpaceX said: "I don't want to be the person who ever has to compete with Elon. You might as well leave the business and find something else fun to do. He will outmaneuver you, outthink you, and out-execute you." 5. Very intelligent and self-taught in many fields; he read books about rockets and propulsion to start Space X. Maniacal attention to detail. 6. He doesn't spend time on niceties or "building relationships" other than family or close work colleagues because he is too busy and smart to want to waste time. 7. Not afraid to face withering criticism: he faced tremendous resistance on the idea of electric cars and had to invest mostly his own money in the company. 8. He nearly went broke in 2008: "he looked like death itself," said Riley. He would have nightmares and yell out, his weight fluctuated wildly, he had bags under his eyes, and they had to start borrowing money from his friend. He no longer flew his jet back and forth between LA and Silicon Valley- he took Southwest. Some good quotes: "Where Mark Zuckerberg wants to help you share baby photos, Musk wants to save the human race from self-imposed or accidental annihilation." – the author Musk: "That's my lesson from taking a vacation: vacations will kill you." after he nearly died from malaria from a trip to Africa. "The longer you wait to fire someone the longer it has been since you should have fired them." "I will spend my last dollar on these companies. If we have to move into Justine's parents' basement, we'll do it." -Elon Musk Things I took away: • I expected to read the book to be mostly interested in Elon Musk and Tesla and instead the SpaceX portion was the more interesting part. The amazing effort and persistence in the face of constant set-backs was mind-blowing. He sunk millions of his own money into the company- basically, all of his net worth went into TSLA and SpaceX and he lost all of it by 2008 when the cars weren't selling and the rockets weren't working. Yet today, both companies are worth billions because he said he would live in his parent-in-laws' basement if that is what it took to succeed. • I didn't realize how close both TSLA and SpaceX were from going broke. He had to put in his last $12 million cash. • Interesting fact: if you buy a Tesla car, they will give you the option of picking it up in Silicon Valley and touring the factory where it was made.

I've been fascinated by Musk for quite a while. I even entertained thoughts he might be some sort of space alien hybrid, helping us develop new technologies. I wondered where this guy came from and where he got all that money. I wondered why his new technologies, which are a threat to industries which have been known to resort to rather nasty tactics to suppress such competition, seemed to have no power to do so in his case. This book certainly answered all my questions and then some. I had no idea he was one of those dot-com millionaires, starting with his connection with PayPal. Explaining where his money came from certainly clarified quite a lot. His personality explained the rest. There was so much about his management style that I admired. In most cases in today's world, his tactics will either get you sued for harassment and/or fired. Which explains a lot. But if you want something considered impossible done correctly, that's what it takes. The results of Musk's methods speak for themselves. He does what he says he'll do and is a force to be reckoned with. He's not been suppressed by existing industries since he has the money to proceed on his own, unlike most inventors who depend on selling their patents. In that case, they're typically bought up by competitors, their ideas left to rot somewhere in a file cabinet to assure the status quo. Along those lines, Tesla is another awesome success story, a venture that was more than once on the brink of failure. But Musk persevered, his vision and intentions a testimony to those who promote such tactics for manifesting what you want. I loved the part where Tesla acquired a former GM plant in Fremont, California (not too far from where I lived many years ago) virtually for free. Tesla is driving conventional carmakers crazy. The cars are kicking butt in all areas from safety to speed to virtually "free" fuel as he builds recharging stations. He's out to change the world and making steady progress doing so, specifically in previously troubled industries collapsing under their own weight. His personal life was certainly interesting as well. Did you realize he has 5 boys, i.e. a set of twins and a set of triplets from his first wife, Justine? Or that as a child he was bullied, in some cases brutally enough to land him in the hospital. His photographic memory has served him well, his intelligence and scientific understanding off the scale. If someone tells him something can't be done, he usually fires them and does it himself. I find that inspiring, not obnoxious. The author did a great job of providing a glimpse of what this guy is like, not only as a slave-driving manager, but as a person. I admire much of what he stands for and stands up for. I loved the author's candid writing style, often imbued with humor that had me laughing out loud. I don't doubt that I will eventually read this book again. It's inspirational to see what one determined man can accomplish when he sets his mind to what needs to be done, then commandeers the help and talent he needs to get there, leaving naysayers in the dust. His self-imposed mission is to save the world from itself and so far it looks as if he might do just that. It won't surprise me one bit if he's the one who gets us to Mars. If you have any doubts, then you should read this book. It made a believer out of me and restored my faith in old-fashioned hard work and ingenuity, which has somehow gotten lost in our crazy world. This book convinced me, more than ever, that it's people like Musk who should be considered heroes in today's world. Not obnoxious sports figures, crooked politicians, and those who want to be taken care of at others' expense. It's time that we return a strong work ethic and intelligence to the status it deserves for making this a better world. I highly recommend this book as an example of what one determined man can accomplish. I also recommend sharing it with your kids, but this one has lots of f-bombs. Fortunately, there's a cleaned up version suitable for kids.

There is an article on Business Insider titled “Steve Jobs Vs. Elon Musk – Which Tech Legend Actually Accomplished More” which was inspired by the question “Who is the next Steve Jobs?”. That has been a big question to people since the passing of Steve Jobs. The judgement has been left to many fanatics of the Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs. But to Musk, when asked about trying to emulate Steve Jobs, he simply responded “No”. Then what is the legend that he is building? The answer can be found in Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, a biography written by Ashlee Vance and published in 2015. For the first time Musk has consented to cooperate with an author to tell his life’s story. He respected Vance’s determination and inability to take “no” for an answer. In fact, this is how Musk operates as well. This book provides genuine insights into Musk’s life by elaborately recounting his life’s events in conjunction with recording different perspectives of people close to him. The book does not only give us his side though, but spends just as much time highlighting his vision and talents as it does illustrating his deep rooted flaws and massive ego. By doing this, it captures how Elon Musk can be a brilliant innovator as well as being overly demanding and critical of both his employees and family. Musk’s motivations are conveyed especially well throughout the biography and help to give insight into his immense drive as well as his choice of start ups. It was particularly interesting reading about the evolution in Musk’s character and motivations after his near death experience with Malaria. Including experiences such as these help to explain how adversity has helped to mold Elon Musk into the man he is today and are some of the most interesting parts to read through. It also captures much of his personal life including some of Musk’s highest highs and lowest lows. And without a doubt one of his lowest points covered in the book, is his divorce with his ex-wife and the mother of his five children. The book provides extensive detail of this time period and shows the reader how Musk was not always the media darling he sometimes appears to be today. The author gives us personal details of Musk’s divorce and how it was made into a public spectacle in which he played the villain. This came at a time when his businesses were failing and he was at risk of losing everything. However, the book does a good job transitioning from this low point into some of Musk’s greatest accomplishments and his experience finding new love. Vance covers many aspects of Musk’s life, but one of the things the book focuses on is the company he is most well known for, Tesla. It takes us from the beginnings of Tesla, and shows us the successes and failures of the company, and reminds us why Elon Musk is a household name, summing the company up in one statement, “Tesla had transformed the car into a gadget.” Throughout the book, we are reminded how Tesla has created a car that is more than a means of transportation; it’s an extension of our gadgets. Reading about Musk’s dreams and then seeing the process of him creating those dreams was inspiring. At the very end of the book, Musk states that he “would like to die on Mars.” This book shows us a man who, through failure, has succeeded but won’t stop until he has accomplished all he plans to accomplish.

This book confirms that Elon Musk will go down as one of the greatest entrepreneurs in American history. The book is an incredible inspiration for anyone who has a business as it details the many times that he could have failed and didn't because of his incredible commitment, dedication and vision. He has many of the talents of Gates and Jobs but his wealth accumulation and his impact will likely exceed both. SpaceX earlier this week was just certified by the US Air Force to launch satellites for the Pentagon, wrestling the monopoly away from the United Launch Alliance, a joint space venture formed in 2006 by Lockheed Martin and Boeing Defense. This should allow SpaceX to capture a major portion of the $80 billion annual revenues from space launches. This is the first of many biographies about Musk that will be written just like was done for Steve Jobs who is really the only person that can be fairly compared to Musk. More than likely Musk's contributions to tech and humanity will far exceed Jobs as they nearly have now and he is 15 years younger than Jobs and will likely far out live him. The book is not an authorized autobiography but ultimately Musk agreed to allow the author dozens of personal hours of time with him in which he was able to reveal many details about his life. Some of the facts I found fascinating is that while everyone knows that he is from South Africa, I have read many articles about Elon but never saw any mention of his American ancestry which goes back many generations. His great grandfather and grandfather were actually American chiropractors both graduating from the Palmer school. His grandfather was quite the explorer and aviator and eventually moved his family to South Africa but wound up dying in an aviation accident. The book describes Musk as having a photographic memory and reading up to two books a day while he was a child. When he ran out of books he started reading the Encyclopedia Britannica. This is likely one of the characteristics that contributed to his success. But the downside of his brain is that he would frequently reflect on items and he had challenges making friends as a child. This was such an issue that his parents had his adenoids removed hoping that it would solve the problem. So while Elon was born in South Africa, America can rightly claim his as hers as most of his innovations were in the US and his ancestral lineage is here. It is also interesting that his mother was strikingly beautiful and was a finalist for Miss South Africa and continued to be a model into her sixties. Although the book is not an authorized by Elon, it offers many important early details into his life and will quite likely eventually emerge as one of the most important American entrepreneurs ever born. The writing is easy and even more enjoyable to read the Walter Isaacson's authorized Jobs biography. While I have yet to read the entire book and will update my review once I have, if you are a Tesla or Musk fan than I strongly recommend that you read this deeply inspirational book. BTW, I personally own two Tesla S sedans. I preordered my first one nearly two years before it was made and got one of the first 2000 made. I liked it so much I gave it to my girlfriend and I purchased the P85 two years later. I will purchase the P85D in the next year or so but will wait till they add more features. Not only has the Tesla rated much higher than any other car Consumer Report ever evaluated but it is the safest car or SUV ever tested. The P85D has an insane mode that will move the four door sedan from 0 to 60 in 3.2 seconds, but because it has two electric motors and is an all wheel drive car it is faster 0-30 than any commercial car out there, including Ferrari, MclLaren, Lamborghini or Corvettes

A good news message is that Elon Musk had to come to the U.S. to realize his dreams. What he has done and is doing he couldn't accomplish in any other country today. It's a major strength of the U.S. that we shouldn't take for granted. We need to allow well educated and highly motivated people such as Musk to get resident visa to come to the U.S. and create new businesses and new jobs. We also need to be sure that our tax system and business regulations favor investments in new businesses and in growing existing businesses. We can kill the golden goose. I think this is a book that can be read at several levels: 1. The biography of a very complex and driven person who is attempting to do extraordinary things. He could become as great or greater than Steve Jobs, succeeding in several separate industries. 2. The business history or several unique and potentially very successful startups; PayPal, Space X, Tesla, and Solar City. Each involved a major attack on entrenched companies, using revolutionary business models, in major industries with the intent of overturning the existing order and finding newer and better ways to do business. Musk’s original goals were grandiose such as remaking the banking system using the Internet. I each case, he was able to quickly evolve his business plan to do something that was practical but revolutionary, such as develop an online payment system, PayPal. 3. It is a survivalist tale. Musk survived a difficult childhood, he left his home country to immigrate to the U.S., he risked everything he had in each of the businesses he started and came very close to failure several times, and survived being ousted as CEO at PayPal. He has the ability to work even harder and think very clearly when the pressure is greatest and not lose his vision or become discouraged and quit. 4. A critique of our major institutions, are we loosing our mojo? Are our big, bureaucratic, and very expensive government and private sector organizations obsolete dinosaurs? Everything costs too much, takes too long, and doesn’t work that well from new weapons systems, to space flight, health care, education, banking and finance, and state and federal governments. Our bureaucracies are often unresponsive to the needs of the country and its citizens. It’s a story of how an underfunded upstart can take on the biggest bureaucracies in the U.S. and win; NASA, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin in Space, General Motors in electric vehicles, etc. In aerospace, the U.S. did not develop a replacement to the space shuttle. NASA and its aerospace contractors surrendered commercial satellite launches to others because they couldn’t compete on cost, and were dependent upon Russian rocket engines and Russian rockets to send our supplies and astronauts to the space station. It took Musk and his initial $100 million bet with his own money to become the low cost supplier of commercial and military satellite launches. If he perfects the reuse of his rockets by performing vertical landings on their launch pads, he will achieve additional dramatic reductions in launch costs. Why didn’t NASA do this with its 2016 budget of $18.0 billion, 18,000 employees plus 40,000 contractor employees? Perhaps it was a major aerospace company such as Boeing or Lockheed Martin? Bill Fletcher, southern California

Voilà un innovateur au parcours décoiffant ! Passionné de jeux et développeur talentueux, Elon Musk se refuse d’abord à créer des jeux, considérant que cette activité ne lui permettra pas d’avoir un impact sur l’humanité. De fait, son rêve ultime est de coloniser Mars. En attendant d’y parvenir, il est capable de complètement révolutionner des secteurs d’activité auxquels il ne connaît rien de prime abord. Alors que l’industrie automobile était moribonde aux États-Unis, il conçoit une voiture de sport puis une berline électriques au design révolutionnaire et aux performances inédites. Les premières voitures se sont vendues 100 000 $ avant même d’être construites ! En parallèle, pour contribuer à son rêve ultime, il s’attaque à l’aérospatiale et se donne comme objectif de devenir le premier lanceur low cost de satellites de taille moyenne. Il ne parvient pas à négocier l’achat de fusées aux Russes et conçoit sa première fusée dans le vol de retour de Moscou, après avoir lu un manuel technique. En 2012, il réussit à envoyer un ravitaillement à la station en orbite ISS et à faire revenir la fusée sur terre. Son dernier projet consiste à créer l’Hyperloop, une sorte de tube électromagnétique qui permettrait de relier Los Angeles et San Francisco en 30 minutes. Il pourrait bien y parvenir ! Elon Musk s’avère attachant par sa capacité à innover de façon radicale dans des secteurs qui ne connaissaient plus que des améliorations marginales. Mais la biographie est également très transparente sur son exigence hors pair qui le rend tyrannique avec ses collaborateurs. Ne lisez pas cet ouvrage comme un manuel de management, mais plutôt comme un stimulant à l’innovation si vous avez le sentiment d’avoir fait le tour de votre secteur d’activité !

This book provides excellent insight into the mind of a genius. He is one of the greatest minds of my time, and this book allowed me to observe his thought process for a few minutes. I love it.

Auch wenn das Buch mehr die Unternehmen Tesla und SpaceX beschreibt, so kann man dennoch einen guten Einblick in die Welt Elons gewinnen. Angefangen bei seinem Leben in Südafrika und seinem ersten Startup in Amerika merkt man recht schnell, dass dieser Mensch immer Großes vor hat und nicht aufgibt, bis er diese Dinge erreicht. Stets angetrieben durch die Frage "Wie kann ich das Leben der Menschen verbessern? Wie kann ich dafür Sorgen, dass die Menschen auch noch lange bestehen bleiben?" macht er sich daran, Alternativen für die endlichen, fossilen Energieträger salonfähig zu machen, sowie die Raumfahrt mit einem typischen Startup-Approach völlig umzukrempeln und neu zu erfinden. Er ist meiner Meinung nach einer der wenigen Menschen, die kurzfristige und persönliche Profite völlig vernachlässigen (Er hat seine vielen hundert Mio. bis zum Bankrott in seine eigenen Firmen gesteckt und verloren), um langfristig das Leben der Menschen nachhaltig und für immer zu verbessern- das zeigt, wie ernst er es mit seinem Vorhaben meint, die Welt zu verändern. Er hat nicht nur die Raumfahrt schon jetzt komplett verändert, sondern auch die Art Elektrofahrzeuge zu bauen- auch wenn Elon Tesla nicht gegründet hat, so ist es ihm zu verdanken, dass Tesla überhaupt erst so groß und verbreitet wie heute ist. Dieser Mann hat keine Angst vor großen Ideen und scheut vor nichts zurück, um diese umzusetzen- Auch wenn er dabei soweit geht, dass er sein Leben und das seiner Mitmenschen diesen Ideen unterordnet. Selten habe ich mich so klein, unbedeutend und unwichtig gefühlt, wie nach diesem Buch. Dieser Mann hingegen erschafft gerade Dinge, die die Welt für immer verändern und gehört für mich zu den wichtigsten Menschen unserer Zeit und dieses Jahrhunderts. ...Man kann nur hoffen, dass er nicht zu früh aufgrund eines Herzinfarkts stirbt.

I ordered this book as I had an interest in Tesla and SpaceX, but knew little more than that covered by mainstream news columns. This book has now turned that interest in to an obsession, and has genuinely made me excited about the future of technology and the human race. I found Vance's writing style extremely engaging, and finished the book in a week - including reading all appendices and notes - something I have never done before. As other reviewers have stated the content gives a very thorough account of Musk's personal life and his approach to business, including the clinical manner in which he squeezes every drop of talent from his employees - and discards them if they don't perform. Not all aspects of Musk will be to everyones tastes, and I found myself intrigued by the obvious truths surrounding his strive for perfection. I think this is the most fascinating aspect of Musk and it's obvious that he innately pursues every goal with a "definite major purpose" whatever the cost (socially and financially), whilst pushing for "constant improvement" and perfection; you just can't fault the guy - he delivers what global superpowers and large corporations simply can't or won't do. After finishing the book I feel like my eyes have been opened to what is possible and what is being achieved right now. If Musk delivers on his long term goal of a unified field theory our future is very bright indeed. Buy this book.

Nice book cover. Nice feel. good read