Elon Musk Book Summary - Elon Musk Book explained in key points

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Elon Musk summary

Name: Elon Musk
Rating: 4.4 (427 reviews)
Author: Ashlee Vance

Ashlee Vance

Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

4.4 (427 ratings)

23 mins

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Biographies Entrepreneurial Stories

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Elon Musk
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What’s in it for me? Learn what drove Elon Musk to the pinnacle of success.

There are only a few businesspeople in the world as well known and admired as Elon Musk. His successes in a range of areas – from electric cars to space travel – have established him as a household name.

But what is it that makes Elon Musk so special? These blinks lay bare his interests and passions – the forces that drove him to become the man he is today. They outline Musk’s unique passion: the desire to save mankind from destruction. It’s this goal that fueled his work on solar power, electric cars and space exploration, and, ultimately, led to his prodigious success.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why Musk married, divorced, remarried and then divorced his second wife;
how fornicating mice kick-started Elon Musk’s mission to Mars; and
how Elon Musk made electric cars sexy.

Saving the human race is what drives Elon Musk.

Achieving success in the sustainable-technology industry isn’t easy. Many try and most fail. And yet Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Motors and SolarCity, has managed to succeed not once, but twice. How did he manage it?

It comes down to the way he sees the world. Musk is not your average money-obsessed, Silicon-Valley entrepreneur. Uniquely, he possesses a kind of universal empathy. Harboring a deep care for the whole of humanity, Musk is driven by a single goal: to save us, the human race, by relocating humanity to Mars. In Musk’s view, the Earth, vulnerable to asteroids and with dwindling resources, is no longer a tenable home.

This concern never leaves his mind, and has instilled in him an unshakeable determination to get things done. Of course, this doesn’t always manifest itself well. Musk is notorious for setting unrealistic goals, assigning incredible workloads and verbally abusing his employees.

Musk even berated an employee who, instead of attending a company event, chose to be present for the birth of his child. Musk demanded that he consider where his true priorities lay. The way Musk sees it, you can either commit 100 percent to changing the history of the world, or not at all.

Love him or hate him, Musk is nevertheless respected by employees for his sense of mission. They know it brings success. And he’s no hypocrite, either. Musk’s sense of purpose is plainly evident in his grueling weekly schedule. Monday begins at SpaceX, in Los Angeles, where he works until Tuesday night. He then jets to Silicon Valley, where he spends Wednesdays and Thursdays at Tesla. Then it’s a flight back to L.A. There’s no way someone could commit to such a lifestyle without believing in what they were doing.

Musk’s unhappy childhood shaped his innovative and ambitious character.

Thanks to a unique and powerful sense of purpose, Elon Musk is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in modern society. But how did he come to see himself and the world the way he does? Well, it all started with a difficult upbringing in South Africa.

The young, near-friendless Elon Musk had a difficult relationship with his father, Errol. And yet when Musk’s parents separated, Musk chose to live with his dad to give him some much-needed company. But life with his father was difficult. In addition to the turmoil at home, Musk was often bullied by classmates, once receiving a beating so severe that he couldn’t attend school for a week.

Musk’s confidence and determination flourished even more during his college years.

In 1988, Elon Musk decided that he didn’t want to do military service in South Africa. So he left the country. Though he dreamed of moving to the US, Musk first went to Canada. His first year was tough, as he went from relative to relative and drifted between odd jobs. Then he enrolled at Queen’s University, where, as his self-confidence began to soar, his character took definite shape.

Musk was more ambitious in college than in high school. He entered public speaking contests, studied business, and even successfully wooed the woman of his dreams, Justine Wilson, who later became his first wife and the mother of his 6 sons.

Musk’s first start-up turned him into a dotcom, Silicon-Valley millionaire.

Fresh out of college and eager to jump on the dotcom bandwagon, Musk created his first company. In 1995, he and his brother founded Global Link Information Network, which was later renamed Zip2. Their aim was to help businesses clueless about the internet to get online for the first time.

Few small businesses understood the consequences of the internet; they had little idea how to get on, and saw little value in listing their business online or in having their own website. Things were tough at first, Musk and his brother worked very hard and still didn’t sell. They received a lot of rejections, the most amiable ones declaring that the internet was “the dumbest thing they’d ever heard of.”

Losing the war over Paypal left Musk with millions.

Musk, with his newfound money, joined the big-boys’ club. He used his earnings from Compaq to buy a McLaren sports car, a condo and a small prop plane. But the rest of his money went straight into his next business: X.com.

In those days, people were reluctant to buy books online, let alone share bank account details. But by partnering with Barclays, Musk succeeded in establishing X.com as one of the world’s first online banks, backed up with FDIC insurance and three mutual funds for investors to choose from.

Musk’s determination led him to another frontier: the space industry.

After his 30th birthday in 2001, Musk decided to escape the rat race. He relocated his family to Los Angeles, right around the corner from the hub of space industry.

Musk had always been keen to get involved in space. At the time, the Mars Society was developing a plan to test the feasibility of putting life on Mars by sending fornicating mice into orbit. Musk thought the plan was good; the only improvement, he thought, would be sending the mice straight to Mars.

Under Musk, Tesla Motors gave the electric car a future.

Electric cars used to have a less-than-cool reputation; they were certainly no match for high-power brands like Jaguar and Ferrari. But if you’ve seen any of the new Formula E cars, you’ll know things are changing. One man pushed harder than the rest to make electric cars cool and desirable, and that was Elon Musk.

Musk helped the world recognize electric-car technology for what it was: exciting, and always progressing.

From SolarCity to Tesla, Musk’s companies are unified.

Musk’s star power stems from three ventures simultaneously: SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity. This is because they all ultimately help him pursue his real, and unifying, goal: the survival of the human species.

Musk had long wanted to go into solar, but prior to creating SpaceX, he hadn’t thought there was any money in it. So when his cousins, the Rive brothers, were brainstorming about a new venture, Musk suggested solar.

Musk aims to further transform the aerospace, automotive and solar industries with the Hyperloop and other projects.

Musk has always had grand plans – so grand that people often find them a little far-fetched. In August, 2013, he unveiled more of these plans: the Hyperloop, as well as other developments at Tesla and SpaceX.

The Hyperloop is a new mode of transportation for fairly short distances. It’s a large-scale pneumatic tube, just like the ones used to send mail around offices, but, in this case, it’s for transporting people and cars in pods.

Musk’s success comes with a turbulent personal life.

Throughout these blinks, we’ve seen that Musk isn’t always an easy person to get along with. Even his marriages are a testament to this.

Married three times, twice to the same woman, Musk is romantic and hot-headed. His first marriage was passionate. However, he wasn’t always a compassionate husband – Justine recalls how she once reminded him, in exasperation, that she was his wife, not his employee. Musk responded by telling her that if she was his employee, he’d have sacked her.

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What is Elon Musk about?

Elon Musk (2015) gives us an insight into the brilliant and difficult character of today’s most innovative entrepreneur. Interwoven with details of his turbulent private life, these blinks reveal why Elon Musk is so determined to save the human race, how he’s worked towards this goal so far, as well as what’s on the horizon for potentially the richest and most powerful man of our future.

Best quote from Elon Musk

Elon Musk had built the automotive equivalent of the iPhone.

—Ashlee Vance

Who should read Elon Musk?

Thinkers with crazy ideas (who need some support in getting them off the ground)
Proponents of the aerospace, automotive and solar industries
People curious about Elon Musk

About the Author

Ashlee Vance is one of the most prominent technology writers today. An American business columnist, he has written for the New York Times and Bloomberg Businessweek.

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