Wolf Review(Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance)
Happy New Year! It is my first blog of the year, I thought it would be wonderful to start the new year with some healthy reading. It has been a while since I last made a book recommendation. Today’s subject should perk the interest of The Tesla Bulls. I got the book at a book stall in Ho Chi Minh Book Street, during my recent trip to Vietnam. I have read a few books written on Elon Musk. Most books are written by authors trying to look into Elon Musk’s world from the outside. This self-titled book happens to be one of the few books written on Elon with his input and acknowledgment. The book, Elon Musk, How The Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Is Shaping Our Future written by Ashlee Vance, was not a new title, it was first published in 2016 when Tesla was just making its mark as an up-start automaker. There were a couple of updates done on the book since. This book is by far the most enjoyable book written about Elon Musk I had read.
The author had close contact with Elon Musk’s inner circle of friends with some ex and current colleagues in the tech world, giving this book more depth and insights. The book helps the reader understand the works of the brilliant mind behind SpaceX and Tesla.
Elon Musk, who originated from South Africa, didn’t have a great childhood. His relationship with his dad was frosty. That was one of the main reason he left home for Canada at a very young age. His love for coding started as a kid, his maturity was way beyond his peers. Others were displaying their adolescent and he was constantly coming up with new coding ideas. A glimpse of his tech ingenuity was on display at a very young age when he won the top prize in a computer game design contest.
Musk’s first major venture was a partnership with his brother, Kimbal, in forming Zip2. In 1995, he saw an opportunity in the world of internet. The internet was just at the start of an exploding trend. Zip2 was a location-based website similar to Google map with restaurants and other services listed on the web. It was tough peddling their service to potential businesses because most American businesses didn’t have the slightest clue of internet. The money-losing business was struggling for cash till God magically dropped them a windfall from nowhere. Compaq, the computer giant, offered to buy the whole business in cash for USD $305m. It was a stroke of good luck just after the failed merger with a rival for $300m. It was a very successful venture for Elon Musk, earning him a cool USD $22m for his effort. That successful venture whipped up his appetite for bigger things.
The next big idea came in the form of X.com. Most people will associate X as the former Twitter but X.com and Confinity had their roots back in the pre PayPal era. The combined company of X.com and Confinity gave birth to PayPal which was sold to eBay for a whopping USD $1.5b in 2002. Elon Musk was the biggest shareholder of PayPal that had benefited greatly from the sale. He racked in USD $180m from the sale. The detractors of Elon Musk had a fair amount of animosity and criticism about his level of contribution to the success of PayPal. He was accused for riding the coattails of his more capable co-founders. One thing for certain, he is one of the most successful individual among the “Silicon Mafia” or those ex-PayPal alumni that goes on to create successful startups.
With the sale of his PayPal stake, instead of spending his life watching the sun go down in Bahamas, similar to other tech millionaires, he was onto his biggest project yet, SpaceX. The setting up of SpaceX is a childhood obsession with Mars, rockets and space. The success of the company is been written into the history textbooks. This is one person that refuses to take no for an answer. Everywhere he goes, he manages to disrupt and made an impact. First in internet and later in the auto industry. The Space Industry is at his crosshairs for major disruption.
There are stories and the circumstances about his involvement with Tesla. Readers will be able to know his corporate tussle with Eberhard, the original co-founder of Tesla and the operation difficulty Tesla had to endure during design and production phase for their first roadster. In 2008, the cost of developing the first Tesla Roadster had gone way over budget to a tune of USD $140m, far higher than the estimated USD $25m. Tesla would have gone bankrupt if not for Elon’s deep pocket and his delicate team of engineers, their ingenuity to solve complex problems ranging from battery cell catching fire to manufacturing flaws.
Elon Musk is a risk-taker. People who like him for what he has achieved in the tech space, will admire his entrepreneurial flair. There are people who drew a line in the sand due to his erratic behaviour. If I had read the book in 2016, I might have invested in Tesla, just maybe.🤔
This book goes into Lone Wolf ‘s highly recommended list for the detail write up on Elon Musk’s start-up history, his personality, his family, his obsession with advanced technology which can affect the human race positively. I put him in the same league with the pioneering innovators of Steve Jobs and Edison. One important aspect about Elon being Elon, he is able to muster his troops well, aligning their strength towards a larger common goal. Maybe just one day, we might know Mars, as Planet, Musk. The book in typical Elon Musk fashion had a few profanities written. Elon Musk and I can agree, go f*** the book if you have not done so.
***Find 😀
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