Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance

 6/∞

I remember the very first moment I have heard about Elon Musk. I saw him in a video introducing a Tesla car. The headline went something like this: “A new Steve Jobs.” I got curious and watched the video.

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I was not impressed by all means… A new Steve Jobs lacked charm and charisma. How he could be a new Steve Jobs when he lacks these two fundamental dispositions of a great entrepreneur? I was asking myself.

I was waiting to answer my question until I have read this book. As many millennials I was strongly influenced and fascinated by Steve Jobs. I was also somehow expecting that Elon Musk is going to have similar personality. But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Richard Branson said something like: “Success is not a formula which could be easily taught in schools.” Therefore it would be sooooo naïve to expect that all successful billionaires are going to have the same personality or the same stories. (That would be so boring on the end, wouldn’t be?)

Although, there are some billionaires whose personality really worries me e.g. Jeff Bezos or Donal Trump, I do not get the same feeling about Musk. I admire Musk’s relentless work ethic (he puts loads of hours in) and he really wants to be on the forefront of the technology (if you buy a Tesla car, it will be the best Tesla car with the best available technologies at the time - no Chinese outdated cheap shit). He gave up majority of his personal possessions and sold most of his properties. One of his major drivers is that he wants the human race to go to Mars.

In the other words, Musk wants the best, for the humanity and for his consumers. I think that is fair. Sadly, not everybody is like that. Majority of companies want you to spend a lot, but they do not offer much in return, but Tesla and SpaceX do.

I was taken by surprise when I have read in the book that technology in rockets haven’t changed much from 1960s and if there would’t be SpaceX, they would not probably change at all as there is no Bipolar world anymore and the USA and Soviet Union do not need to compete with each other. Basically, the rockets used by NASA were running on an ancient technology. SpaceX got to redesign the rockets and move rockets in 21st century. What more is there to say? Musk made his rockets cheaper and more efficient. He saved up money to NASA and made space traveling more accessible.

I also loved Musk’s take on Hyperloop. As you may have heard in California there is a high-speed railway under construction. In comparison to Europe, the USA sucks when it comes to the public transport. I was a big fun of a high-speed railway. Musk did not like it and proposed Hyperloop instead. I have released how useless, blind and hopeless government officials could be when constructing large public projects. Government official just do not have the “means” and “creativity” of an entrepreneur. There are also companies which are constantly trying to sell an overpriced and outdated technology to governments. I would heave…

There are also some critics of Musk. Vaclav Smil (the Czech emigree and the favourite author of Bill Gates - Gates claims to read every single of his books) in the book “Made in U.S.A. suggests that Musk’s companies are just overrated.

It is to fair to say that by this moment Musk has contributed to human race more than Steve Jobs or Bill Gates did.

There are always going to be people who are going to say that something is not going to work. Electric cars, rockets or hyperloop, but Musk proved them wrong and I think this is the most important lesson we should take on into our lives: If somebody says it won’t work, just prove them fuckers wrong.

What I’m going to dive in next? I’m not planning to stop reviewing books any time soon. Regular life in corona pandemic seems shit and I want to keep my spirit high. I’m happy to leave a mediocre life to those who are not willing to educate themselves further. But I do not want to belong into the “mediocre club.” My next moves are therefore going to be:

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone

Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing by Vaclav Smil (Yes! This is going to be the first book I’m going to read written by Vaclav Smil!)

Favourite “quotes” (more like paragraphs this time):

“The relationship between Musk and Bezos has soured, and they no longer chat about their shared ambition of getting to Mars. “I do think Bezos has an insatiable desire to be King Bezos,” Musk said. “He has a relentless work ethic and wants to kill everything in e-commerce. But he’s not the most fun guy, honestly.”

“Carmakers looking to put a modicum of effort into their ads have been hawking the exact same things for decades: a car with a bit more room, a few extra miles per gallon, better handling, or an extra cup holder. Those that can’t find anything interesting at all to tout about their cars turn to scantily clad women, men with British accents, and, when necessary, dancing mice in tuxedos to try and convince people that their products are better than the rest.”

““Musk did not have his own house, which left the couple moving into a home that belonged to Musk’s friend the billionaire Jeff Skoll. “I had been living there a week when this random guy walked in,” Riley said. “I said, ‘Who are you?’ He said, ‘I am the homeowner. Who are you?’ I told him, and then he just walked out.””

““So even though Ford did the Model T a hundred years ago, nobody thinks of ‘Model’ as being a Ford thing anymore. So it would just feel like they stole it. Like why did you go steal Tesla’s E? Like you’re some sort of fascist army marching across the alphabet, some sort of Sesame Street robber. And he was like, ‘No, no, we’re definitely going to use it.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t think that’s such a good idea because people are going to be confused because it’s not going to make sense. People aren’t used to Ford having Model something these days. It’s usually called like the Ford Fusion.’ And he was like, no, his guys really want to use that. That’s terrible.” After that, Tesla registered the trademark for Model Y as another joke. “In fact, Ford called us up deadpan and said, ‘We see you’ve registered Model Y. Is that what you’re going to use instead of the Model E?’” Musk said. “I’m like, ‘No, it’s a joke. S-E-X-Y. What does that spell?’ But trademark law is a dry profession it turns out.””

“The point is that it’s fucking backed by Uncle Sam. It doesn’t matter what the South Americans do. You cannot lose unless you think the U.S. Treasury is going to default. But they still didn’t do it, and I was stunned”

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Coming up next:

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

Feel free to share and comment or recommend books you find inspirational.

Peace