Assignment 13-Reading Reflection #1

*I chose to read the biography Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance

1. You read about an entrepreneur:

• What surprised you the most?- Although this isn't directly related to Musk's entrepreneurial abilities, I would say what surprised me the most in this book was when Musk contracted falciparum malaria while on vacation with his wife at a game reserve near the Mozambique border in South Africa. Occurring shortly after the Board of PayPal/X.com voted him off from the CEO position, Musk lost 45 pounds over the course of the illness which took six months for him to fully recover from. The doctor who eventually figured out what exactly it was and cured him said that if he had waited a day later he very well could have died. This surprised me because I think it goes to show that everything happens for a reason. By that I mean that Musk was meant to live and do great things for the advancement of mankind.
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?- I would say what I most admire about Musk is his pure intellectual abilities. I mean come on. This guy taught himself code as a boy, proceeded to code his first video game at the age of 12, and now he's on a mission to revolutionize the space industry with a more compact type of rocket that can travel for longer distances yet still carry a suitable payload. This is all to try and colonize Mars as you very well may know... Oh, and to top things off he's already hit Detroit in the teeth with his Tesla electric cars, whose recharging stations are powered by solar energy... The guy is a freak and I'm jealous.
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?- The one thing that I definitely did not like about Musk is the fact that his work seems to have consumed him to the point where he is somewhat detached from his emotions. Since he's "wired this way," he's never been the best group/team leader, which is why he has so many people to get through as an employee before you can actually talk to him. However, I think this issue stems from his childhood. In the beginning of the book when we were learning about his upbringing in South Africa, he refused to talk about his father in any depth because "he's good at making life miserable- that's for sure"(37). There are other details that hint at Elon's father putting he, his brother, and his sister through psychological turmoil. All in all, I think this is the true reason Elon has this problem.
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?- In order to get to where Elon Musk is today, it's impossible to not encounter any adversity or failure. He has responded differently to different situations that all occurred during separate "stages" in his career, so to speak. The moment of adversity I will talk about again was when Musk was voted off from the CEO position of X.com/PayPal in September of 2000. The reason why I think this is the most important moment of adversity Elon has faced in his career thus far is because even though he was slighted out of the position, he knew deep down that he wasn't making decisions that were in the company's best interest. When his successor Peter Thiel re-branded X.com as PayPal, Elon didn't let it get the best of him. In fact, he was very calm and actually supportive of Thiel through the whole ordeal. He continued to invest in the company and was still the largest shareholder. I feel that he showed this restraint because he knew that he had done wrong and that the company was still going to be fine without him as CEO. In July 2002, eBay purchased PayPal for $1.5 billion, with Musk walking away with $250 million.

2.

• What competencies did you notice the entrepreneur exhibited?- There are two things I noticed that Musk is very competent at that most people aren't. One, his absolutely insane work ethic. I mean the man would constantly pull all-nighters in his younger years and would forgo eating, hygiene, etc... just so he could get more work done. Yeah, all of us pull all-nighters here and there to get work done, but this man was on a different level. This leads me to my second point, which is that when Elon truly believes in something, he feels a personal obligation to attack the counters to his beliefs himself. He doesn't want to work for somebody that is doing it, nor take up a profession that may have a trickle-down effect to the cause. No. He wants to do it himself and he won't stop until it's complete. This is without a doubt what drives his insane work ethic.

3.

• Identify at ;east one part of the reading that was confusing to you- One part of the reading that was confusing to me was the fact that Musk constantly over-promised, over-hyped, and just flat out bragged to the media about his latest project that was going to make him even more rich. I don't know if this is something he did on purpose or if it was just another weird, impulsive quirk to his personality. Either way, it has cause the media to be highly critical of his work over the years, especially when he fails.

4. 

• If you were able to ask TWO questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask and why?

Question 1- Do you still feel like you have the youthful energy that everyone raved about in the past or are your years of hard work/age starting to catch up to you?

-The reason why I would ask this question is because I think the answer would be a good determinant as to how much Elon will be able to accomplish before his life ends.

Question 2- Which company is your favorite? Why?

-First off, if anybody can have this question asked to them, they're doing great things. Anyways, I feel that I already know the general answer to this question fro reading the book. However, I feel that Elon himself could give me a more thorough answer that will really tell me why he likes one over another with respect to the individuality each company contains with how they work.

5. 

• For Fun: What do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

Elon Musk's opinion of hard work is just that: HARD WORK. He believes that if work is to be done, you must put your absolute all into every aspect of whatever it is you're working on. Even if that means periodically sacrificing things one needs to survive such as sleep, food, etc... He also believes that you must wholeheartedly believe in whatever it is you are working on. When it comes to the belief aspect of hard work, I one-hundred percent agree with Elon. Why would anyone work on something they don't truly believe in? It kind of just defeats the purpose of doing the work in the first place... However, I feel that Elon has an abnormal work ethic because of the extent of the connection he feels when he believes in something to that something. Most people can't make that deep of a connection, including myself. Therefore, I would rather work hard but know when it is time to call it quits for the day so that I can properly manage the other areas of my life. It's safe to say that Elon Musk is truly just a different animal.