27A – Reading Reflection No. 3


Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ashlee Vance
1) What surprised you the most?
               I was most surprised by the amount of breadth of the companies Musk owns and operates, and by the amount of time he takes to be able to mange all of these separate companies. This is very impressive considering the amount of success that he has experienced, Many men would have been satisfied with their achievements and decided to retire or manage their work at a slower pace.
What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
               I admired most about Musk the perseverance he showed in the face of overwhelming odds and adversity. The stress of owning a business of that size and liquidity can be crushing for most.
What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
               I least admired the accounts of his lack of empathy for his human resources. I believe in cultivating human capital and treating people with respect and empathy when they’ve helped you in the past. It’s an ugly thing to see people as disposable.
Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?
               Most notably, Musk encountered failure at a high scale than most with SpaceX’s public and catastrophic failures on display to the world. Musk continued on through the failures and continued innovation and improving their rockets systems.
2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?
               He exhibited great stress management. He maintained a forward vision through adversity and continued to innovate and create while others told him the idea was too far fetched.
3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
               The parts regarding his personal life were confusing. They added a bit of depth to the theme of him seeing people as disposable but I felt like it was unnecessary. Furthermore, he getting marries multiple times to the same woman is confusing in general.
4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
               At what point do you see more value in developing life on other planets more feasible than fixing our climate?
               I think this is a question that separates the feasibility of the two themes of his: fixing earth and leaving it.
5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?
               Similarly to Jobs, 100 hour weeks, flying from coast to coast, weekly, to work on something that really excites you or inversely, working for a moment on something that doesn’t.

Comments

  1. Nicholas LorenzoJuly 29, 2019 at 2:29 AM

    Great post, Robert! I found your reflection on Musk's story to be quite interesting and insightful. I too find it very surprising that Musk has his hands on so many businesses, as I am not sure how he can manage to do so while doing his best to serve each and every one. I totally agree with you, the fact that he does not value other people's contributions much according to previous accounts is quite disheartening to learn about. In my eyes, people are not just tools to exploit and take advantage of, everyone is valuable and should be respected.

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  2. WadboyJuly 29, 2019 at 12:48 PM

    Hey Robert, this post is great! I find Elon Musk to be a very inspiring figure becuase of his foresight and thorough understanding of the trajectory of technolgical advancements. How do you think that the principles that Musk used to become so successful could relate to your venture? You might not be working in tech but I'm sure that a lot of the idealogies that he exhibits are applicable regardless of the field that are applied to. Awesome review!

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