Elon Musk: Inventing in the future

Elon Musk, A man with great vision. Guess many have heard of Tesla. While Tesla is gradually drawing our attention with its auto-driving assisting function, the latter is an unknown for many. It’s the first privately-funded company that is able to compete with the conventional rocket builders like Boeing. With a mission of offering space exploration service at an affordable price in the future, not only did it reduce the cost of per launch of rocket, it also changed the whole industry, where the government projects are hugely overpriced.

The idea of Tesla, SpaceX or eBay are all doubted by many people when they were first introduced. The so-called “mission impossible”. However, it all turned out to be a success so far.

How did Elon manage to do that?

Elon was a shy and know-it-all kid who loved reading. Having been through a perceived miserable childhood and bullying in school, he seems to be tougher and was able to endure the hardship and tremendous stress associated with the financial strait of both company at the beginning stage.

His success can be attributed to his big vision and his ability to think out of the box. Most of his achievements are from challenging the status quo, like challenging the current automobile industry or banking system.

Combined with his photographic memory and good grasp of knowledge on everything related to his business, his success is not a coincidence.

Gotta say that there was of course luck and opportunities involved especially for the case of eBay, but these two elements are not conclusive enough. Many in Silicon Valley also made a huge profit through selling off their startups, however, many turned to venture capital instead of putting nearly all of their fortune and efforts in extremely risky new startups like Elon.

Despite his success, I feel like he is an extreme case like Steve Jobs in terms of his personality traits and management style. He fired people easily, even loyal and capable employees who had been working for him for years. The lack of empathy in leadership may bring some employees their full potential, however, it erode trust in the long term. If Elon didn’t get the huge fortune from selling eBay, he would surely be dragged down by people. As the old saying goes, We are all lifted up by people over the corporate ladder.