Elon Musk in 3 minutes

A brief summary of Ashlee Vance’s book “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future”

In January I read “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future”, written simply and well by Ashlee Vance. This biography took me on a journey into the brilliant and difficult character of one of today’s most successful and innovative business leaders.

Musk is often compared to Steve Jobs or to early industrial titans like Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, but for me there’s no one quite like this South African-born entrepreneur, inventor and engineer. Elon Musk combines long-range vision and deep technical intelligence to build solar panels, electric cars and space rockets, all with the goal of saving mankind from destruction. But Musk’s success also comes with a turbulent personal life and a complicated childhood.

The book begins with Musk’s youth, a teenager with a serious interest in science fiction. Then it follows his move to America and early business endeavors. Musk’s first start-ups, both begun in the 1990s, were the web software Zip2 (sold to Compaq) and the online bank X.com (which merged with PayPal and was sold to eBay). He then gambled most of his earnings on a rocket start-up (SpaceX) that aimed to drastically reduce the costs of space travel and, eventually, transport humans to Mars, and invested millions more in a tiny electric-car company (Tesla Motors), begun by two other Silicon Valley engineers, that ultimately came under his control.

3 Things I Learned

1. What Elon Musk’s crazy work schedule looks like
2. How Elon was kicked out of his own company — twice
3. Why you can never rely on his time estimates

My 3 Favorite Quotes

“I think there are probably too many smart people pursuing Internet stuff, finance, and law. That is part of the reason why we haven’t seen as much innovation. (…) The best minds of our generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.”

“(Musk’s) brand of empathy is unique. He seems to feel for the human species as a whole without always wanting to consider the wants and needs of individuals.”

“The guiding principle at SpaceX is to embrace your work and get stuff done. People who await guidance or detailed instructions languish.”

Lessons & Insights

1. “His vision is so clear. He almost hypnotizes you.” Vision Statements and Mission Statements…every business has them. What separates Musk’s companies from the rest is that his vision and his conviction is so intense and laser focused that he almost wills himself and his organizations to accomplish the incredible feats that they set out to achieve. “What separated Tesla from the competition was the willingness to charge after its vision without compromise, a complete commitment to execute to Musk’s standards.”
2. Whether he is recruiting a top engineer, pushing through a tight product deadline, or pitching investors, Elon does not take no for an answer. He never, ever gives up and he expects that attitude from everyone around him. “One thing that Musk holds in the highest regard is resolve, and he respects people who continue on after being told no.”
3. Musk is a brutal boss but also brutal on himself. “You don’t get to where Elon is now by always being a nice guy.” Throughout the book, a lot is said about how hard he pushes his people, but time and again, they also mention that he sets the bar for that effort and those expectations. As a leader you can expect high standards and excellence out of your people, even at extreme levels, if you back it up by walking that same walk.
4. Most of the time when we’re stuck, we’re simply answering answers to the wrong questions, a problem we wouldn’t have if we’d asked the right question in the first place. “You always need to start with the first principles of a problem. What are the physics of it?” First principles thinking is the practice of actively questioning every assumption you think you ‘know’ about a given problem or scenario, and then creating new knowledge and solutions from scratch. Almost like a newborn baby.
5. People like Elon Musk help others realize what is possible in this life. What humans can accomplish when they aim high. So, the next time you have an idea, don’t worry about how crazy it sounds. Nothing is too absurd. Think the impossible and make it happen.
6. Unify all of your work under the roof of one giant goal to have a bigger impact on the world. Having a lot of goals in various fields of life is important. It’s the spice of life and it makes living fun. But if you think of the variety of your goals in levels of a pyramid, you can see how they influence your focus. If you can unite all the goals on the lower levels of the pyramid to somehow serve that one mega goal at the top , your life as a whole will become a lot more focused.