13- Elon Musk Reading

       This week I chose to read a book for once. I really am inspired by the work and passion of Elon Musk so I decided to read his biography “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future” by Ashlee Vance. This book was a great read and it really showed in-depth situations of his life and how he overcame difficult obstacles in his quest for greatness. What surprised me most about Musk was actually his life story before he became who he is today. His parents separated at a young age and he was often bullied in school. This lead him to look inward and focus on his personal goals. He supposedly would read about 60 books a month, which would develop his knowledge vastly at a very young age. This is something I wish I would have done at a young age because I feel he had an advantage over most people early on. What I admire about Musk the most is his courageous attitude towards bettering the world. He rarely lets people hold him back and he truly takes big risk as an entrepreneur. What I least admired about him after reading this book was his sense of solidarity. I seems that because of his early childhood that he does not trust many people. Another reason I really enjoy Musk way of working is that he does not give up. If a business or project would fail he would not give up. He would say “Answering questions is easy, the hard part is asking the right questions”. I feel like this directly relates to this course. Some of us might be finding these opportunities but we might not be asking ourselves the right questions to further our study on these business ideas. 

Elon Musk exhibits vast knowledge in the physics and engineering field which allows him to solve problems related to STEM related products. What is funny though is that Musk’s first breakthrough was X.com, later known as PayPal, which is an electronic banking solution. Now Musk focuses his efforts on SpaceX and Tesla.

One part of the reading that was confusing to me was his background knowledge on economics. Like I said earlier it was funny how Musk co-founded PayPal. This set him up for success in the business world but it really didn’t go that in-depth into it.

My questions for Musk would be: How do you find time to juggle all of these business and stay focused? I find it hard to just stay on track with my schoolwork, so I’d like to know how he manages his time. What is your motivation for bettering our society? Musk seems to have great business that really focus on an outlook to the future. I’d like to know what his passion for this is.

I think Musk thinks hard work is just work. I don’t think there is much that he cannot handle and his motivation is sky high. I think I can get there some day once I find my real passion for what I want to do.