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

When I walked into Barnes & Noble two weeks ago, I wasn’t actually looking to purchase a book. Usually, I go in, browse for 30 minutes, and get out. But when I walked around to the Physics and Science section, the first thing I saw was Elon Musk’s face.

Inevitably, I picked it up and began reading.

2 pages in, I decided I was in this for the long haul and sat on the floor, right there in the middle of the store. 15 pages in, my friends finally found me and forced me to leave. But I couldn’t part with this. I needed this book. Those first 15 pages captured me like so few books do (in fact, only one book in the past year has totally stolen my attention like this).

So I bought Elon Musk feeling on top of the world and excited to keep reading.

I travel a lot between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, PA, so, since I’m in the middle of taking classes in Pittsburgh, I swore to only read this book on the bus, because I knew once I picked it up again, I wouldn’t put down.

I was right.

The next day, I got on the bus, got to reading, and tuned out the world. Three hours later, I was nearly halfway through — and WOW. Vance’s writing style flowed right through my mind. No clunky sentences, no jarring phrases. It’s such an easy book to read, despite the complex nature of the contents.

Elon Musk, if you don’t know, is a biography. Yes, a biography. You’d expect the case-study of someone’s life to be boring and uneventful, dragging until the very end.

This wasn’t the case at all.

Vance opens the book at an interview with Elon Musk himself. The first line, a quote from Musk, “Do you think I’m insane?”, perfectly captures the whole context of the biography. Because as you experience the story, as you see the challenges Musk went through to reach the pinnacle he’s at today, the question nags at you. Musk isn’t soft-spoken, or easy on his employees, or a man who kicks his legs up on his desk and snoozes while his companies mill around him. Vance shows how Musk is both the CEO and an employee of his companies, simultaneously the teacher and student. He gets in the work, asks all the right questions, gives all the right orders. His vision is THE vision, and if you get in the way, Musk has been known to fire you on the spot.

Musk breaks every convention, every tradition, every standard. Vance takes you deep into the details, from Musk’s childhood and lineage in South Africa, all the way to Canada and the United States, where the bulk of the story unfolds.

When Musk looks at big businesses, he sees unmovable behemoths that refuse to change their methodologies. American innovation became a thing of the past. Technology and industry was growing – but nowhere near as fast as it should. So we follow Musk’s journey from his small start-ups, Zip2 and X.com, and move into his larger, more permanent ventures, namely SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity.

I myself am a huge fan of Elon Musk. Still, until the past year or two, I only thought of him as “that guy who made SpaceX” and “that guy who runs Tesla.” Until reading this book, I never knew the struggle — no, the hell he went through to make and keep these companies. You think, oh, he just has a lot of money.

Yeah, now he does. But did you know SpaceX and Tesla were hours away from going bankrupt? Did you know that the Falcon 1 rocket kept failing, and one more failed launch literally meant the end of SpaceX? Did you know SpaceX tested these rockets on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and would fix problems they encountered in a matter of days, as compared to months by standard companies?

This book is the first time Musk has explicitly let anyone interview him for a biography. Aside from a few questionable quotes that have been publicly denounced by Musk after the publication of this book, we’re still given a tremendous amount of insight into his head and how he runs the companies. Vance interviewed more than 300 people and spent over two years compiling this account. And I have to give credit to how up-to-date the information is. There are several events Vance mentions that occurred into 2015, such as the first landing attempt of Falcon 9 on the sea barge, which took place in January, and he refers to the second attempt as being in a couple weeks, which means that Vance included this information on a very tight deadline, probably mid-March (the second landing attempt happened on April 14, 2015).

I want to congratulate you, Mr. Vance. Well done. Very well done. I’m going to reread this book in a few weeks (probably after the scheduled June 19th third Falcon 9 landing attempt, this time on solid ground, as opposed to a barge). Anyone who wants a ridiculously thorough insight into Elon Musk’s life and companies should read this book. It had me from Page 1 all the way to Page 363, and even the appendices that come after.

This is an incredibly inspiring book, a important look into a game-changing business strategy, and a valuable lesson to the world. As Musk says, “If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.”

One of the most inspiring books I have ever read. A few life changing points for me:

1) First intro chapter shows how relentless the author was. Great lesson there. He didn’t ask for permission, he just went out and wrote it. Said he was going to write it with or without him on board. Which ultimately won Elon’s respect since that’s how he operates too.

2) Elon and his brother Kimbal coming over at 18 years old from south Africa. Their tactic about picking up the newspaper and cold calling the most interesting people to take to lunch is awesome. I challenge myself to do this now and I think its a great strategy to get out of your comfort zone. I gather he had the idea for pay pal with that tactic – it landed him the bank internship where he discovered the inefficiencies of banking world.

3) Elon has no “fear” button. Inhuman ability to withstand massive risks, pressure, and family drama all at once.

4) I bought 20 books. That’s how much I loved it. Would call up and take a “mad scientist” or business investor or tesla owner For coffee/lunch/networking and tell them about how great this book is and see what crazy ideas they had brewing as well. Started connecting them together and meeting all kinds of moonshot thinkers. Great Networking Icebreaker.

5) Requested a tesla charging station be installed at my place of work because well…we need to encourage more telsas around here and If Elon stops by we will be ready.

6) Googled Justine found her Ted talk she did about him And enjoyed Elons commencement speech too.

7) Started an interest in this whole solar idea, Bought a solar cell phone charger that will be a gateway into way Into it and go from there. Tours of people that have solar homes in the area.

8) Most ambitious dude ever with this whole Mars thing.

9) After you read this book you will never again complain about being busy.

10) I didn’t realize Larry Page and Elon were so close. Hope he is wrong about the AI thing though, but also triggered me to buy the book “the singularity is near”

I love the impact of the cover and I write a favorite quote in and give as a gift of inspiration to innovators in the area.

I’ve been inspired by Elon Musk for a while. His accomplishments are legendary and I wanted to know more about the men behind them. This book doesn’t disappoint. We see both the amazing drive and unstoppable vision as well as the ongoing challenges Musk has had working with people who are inevitably either not as smart, but as driven or more likely, both. Few had the fortitude to stick with him and the ones that do are fiercely loyal.

What I love most about Elon’s story is how powerfully he deals with every obstacle thrown into his path. Literally nothing could stop him. Not looming bankruptcy or bad press or any of dozens of other issues that would have stopped most of us. I hope to find 5% of that drive in myself after reading this book.

After reading this book it is clear for me that people like Elon Musk, and Steve Jobs look at life with a higher purpose in mind. They don’t slow down for anybody and keep always going forward because they know they are creating something that will revolutionize the future.

It’s perceived as selfish when they simply fire someone who is loyal and has sacrificed a lot for the company. Elon can be seen as a villain but in true he simply is looking at the bigger picture.

This man is building humanity’s future, electric cars that don’t damage the environment and can be recharged within few minutes, solar panels that will someday replace the electrical systems we currently use, rockets that aim to take people to Mars to populate it. He is a visionary and I am glad I decided to read Ashlee Vance’s book about him.

This book has made me one highly motivated aerospace engineering student and given me some great insight into what it would be like should I ever get hired at SpaceX.

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