3 Reasons Why Elon Musk is a Genius

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            Recently I finished reading Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance. It is a biography about Elon Musk and it really gives me a perception into more of his life than what the media offers. I enjoyed reading it much more than I usually do when reading, and I think Vance did a great job emphasizing interesting parts of Musk’s history. Vance also helped me realize why Elon Musk is so successful which is what this post will focus on.
  1.     The first reason Elon Musk is so successful is his willingness to take risks. This applies to almost all successful people, but his risks are unlike anyone else’s. There is one strong example that Vance highlights in his work. This example is when musk risks all his money on starting new companies. After Musk’s left his first two companies, Zip2 and PayPal, his net worth was approximately 250 million dollars. At this point he decided to pour all his money into starting SpaceX and Tesla. Several years after starting his new companies, they were performing poorly and losing most of their money. Right as the recession was hitting in 2008, he decided to keep going in funding his companies until he was in debt after being a multimillionaire. Musk’s move eventually paid off as both companies are now extremely successful, but if they had failed, he would have lost all his money. Additionally, Vance quotes Musk’s ex-wife who says, “Elon said ‘I will spend my last dollar on these companies. If we have to move into Justine’s parents’ basement, we’ll do it.’”
  2. Another characteristic of Musk that Vance displays in the novel is his urgency to get things done. Ashlee Vance explains how Elon would spend $90,000 dollars extra to transport one of his rockets a day early to the launch site. Saving an extra day made a large difference for him as it allowed him to gain time on their launch schedule as they were behind most of the time. Additionally, with saving the extra day, he saves a day where he must pay his employees as well.
  3. Finally, the last reason Elon Musk remains successful is because he does not care about making money. He is most concerned about making his companies successful. Vance expresses this mindset the most out of any of the reasons on this list. He discusses small queues he noticed during interviews with Elon along with general habits he practices such as rejecting paychecks from Tesla. Additionally, focusing more on the companies themselves instead of the pure business model allows him to make products and services perfectly tailored to his audience.
      Overall, Ashlee Vance’s novel is a fascinating story of Elon Musk’s life that I would recommend to anyone. Elon Musk provides insight into his businesses along with his personal life so anybody can relate. One of my favorite parts was seeing how Musk was able to build his businesses after college.


Comments

  1. Luke YouMarch 7, 2020 at 2:39 PM

    I appreciate how even though you chose a listicle format, you still stuck to a single topic. I think your paragraphs were strong and nicely explain why Elon is so successful. You chose some pretty unique traits of Elon, which not only helped explain what separates him from the rest, but also made the post more interesting to read and taught me things I didn't know about him. I also really liked the quote you used that explained how Elon took a huge risk by investing all his money into his companies when they were failing. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. JanakiMarch 8, 2020 at 9:12 AM

    I enjoyed your listicle format as your paragraphs were fairly concise and easy to read. Your topic was very interesting as well and I agree that read a book about someone gives you more information into the life of them than the media does. I learnt a lot of stuff that I didn't know about him and I like how you chose one topic and went into detail with multiple points on that topic. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  3. TheodoreMarch 11, 2020 at 9:54 AM

    I appreciate your ability in this post to convey why Musk is so successful in a brief, informative, and insightful manner. Your details are good and have made me very interested in reading it. I believe I saw it in the local library recently and I might have to check it out soon. Great work!

    ReplyDelete
  4. ArjunMarch 12, 2020 at 6:32 PM

    I like how you chose to use this listicle to explain why Elon Musk was a genius, and your paragraphs did a good job of illustrating the traits that have made him as successful as he is, and you listed reasons from the text for each reason on the list. Good job.

    ReplyDelete

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