Known for his out of the box thinking, bold and persistent nature – Elon Musk is undoubtedly a complex individual. He is a busy man with no time to write an autobiography, but Ashlee Vance’s perseverance resulted in limited access to Musk, as well his closest individuals to construct his story to date. The biography named “Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future”, provides insight into his grand visions and describes his ventures’ greater causes.
Vance begins with Musk’s upbringing, notes influential individuals in his life and highlights his incessant desire to learn. Vance reveals how his complicated upbringing inevitably fuelled his determination to achieve the impossible and not take no for an answer. It is widely known that he enjoyed reading about everything he could get his hands on, which developed his deep understanding in a range of fields, and inspired his ideas for space travel.
When this book was published in 2015, Musk was splitting his time between SpaceX and Tesla amongst other companies such as Solar City. While many investors saw Musk’s ideas as outrageous, Musk believed in his visions and used funds from selling his first start-up to invest in to future projects. His attitude towards business is not to see limitations if a technology has not yet been invented, and if component suppliers are too expensive, make it yourself. These two consistent actions have resulted in innovation and cost savings, contributing towards the companies’ successes.
The more I learn about Musk’s battles within his personal and professional life, I am in awe of his strength to handle copious amounts of stress and pressure. Whenever problems arise, whether it be technical, business or personal, he has the ability to wholly focus on a particular issue at that point in time. This is a skill which not many individuals attain, and I believe is a major factor of his success.
Vance mentioned that she struggled to gain full access to Musk and others for detailed information. Despite this limited access, through chasing countless interviews and using publicly available information, Vance has done a great job at compiling Musk’s progress into this biography. Later in Musk’s life, I feel an in depth biography outlining the intricacies of his mistakes and triumphs will be extremely useful for aspiring young innovators.
Musk has prioritised issues such as climate change and finite resources, and has bold plans for the future of humanity. I admire his grand visions, and how his ventures are mere cogs in his attempt to save humanity. Even if space travel and electric cars do not stimulate your interest, Musk’s story is inspiring as he aims to push the realms of technology and accelerate the development of rules and regulations in the process. This mantra can be applied to other facets of life, in which ever field piques your interest. Sure, not everyone can be ‘successful’ like Musk, but we can endeavour to model his strength and determination to reach your greatest aspirations.
Are you interested in learning more by reading this book?
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