Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future Summary
I accidentally came across this book from my Amazon Prime, and I am always very curious about Elon Musk for the longest time therefore I was anxious to read it. From what I heard from people and the news, I always wondered what is in his mind, Who is this man? How is it humanly possible to achieve what he has achieved? What else can he achieve in the future? Will he become the richest man on Earth? Or on Mars? he seems full of mystery in everyone’s eyes.
I truly enjoyed reading this biography. Not only this book is written in a very passionate and engaging way, it’s also very inspiring for anyone who is curious about our present and future. I wish one day I am able to meet Elon Musk in person.
He is businessman, engineer, inventor and visionary for the future of mankind. His purpose is not after money, in fact he fears there will be another mass extinction event, and wants nothing less than to establish a human colony on Mars, and human can become planetary species. He is only 47 but he has accomplished more than other people could in 3 lifetimes.
He grew up during a very violent and dangerous period in South Africa, and had a difficult childhood, being viciously bullied in school and suffered psychological abuse by his father. In the book, it didn’t give details on how he got abused by this father, but I guess probably Elon didn’t want to reveal too much details regarding that.
As a youngster, he read comics, devoured books, dreamed of humanity conquering and colonizing the stars. From the starting point, his mission in his life was so clear already, and he never gave up on his dream. That’s one of characters I admire him.
His ultimate goal in his childhood was to move to America and stay in Silicon Valley, because he knew from the beginning, that’s the only place for him to achieve his mission. He grabbed the first opportunity came to him, and moved to his mother’s home country, Canada.
Eventually, he ended up at the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in economics and physics. Musk then moved to California, attended Stanford University, dropped out from there later on, and entered the business world.
His first company was zip2, which became part of AltaVista eventually, as well as X.com of PayPal fame, but was forced out. I feel people got enthused by Elon Musk, got rich by his vision, but then forced him out because investors simply wished to cash out, and they obviously didn’t share the same vision as him. Their purpose of the business was different than Musk’s. They were all after money, but Musk had the purpose for mankind. I feel sickening that he got backstabbed a few times throughout his career.
But he didn’t stop there and complain, instead he continued pursuing his vision and dream. The second thing I admire him is that he never give up and take all the risk he could to pursue his dream. Every time he had an idea, people said he’s nuts and that deal could not work, he ended up proving them wrong. His three main businesses are Tesla (electric cars), SolarCity (renewable energy), and SpaceX (aerospace industry), which all share the same vision to future humanity.
A lot of people described him as awkward, demanding, and difficult to work with. Absolutely no excuse for such behavior, but his success shows hat his way of doing things works. When he fired his personal assistant Mary Beth Brown, it was a bit ruthless, it showed his lack of empathy to other people. This might be the reason for his failing relationships with his ex-wives.
Also the hyperloop is a fascinating idea as well, he might be the next tycoon in transportation business. Plus to all those achievements in the book, Falcon Heavy was launched successfully after the book was published. Out of all super entrepreneurs and technological legends of the modern era, he is the number one ticks my own heart on my dreams, passions and particularly space. For a single man to dream of colonizing Mars and actually doing all he can to make that a reality is just simply astounding.
I deep admire Musk for his brilliance and accomplishments, I really like the author’s compelling writing style, and highly recommend the book to readers interested in Elon Musk; his radical visionary, business ventures, and the future of the planet.
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