Elon Musk-Chapter1-5 Summary

Expression:

回译

1. In these pre-Internet days, Musk had to wait three agonizing （使人极度痛苦的，烦恼的）weeks to get a plane ticket. Once it arrived, and without flinching（退缩，畏惧，犹豫）, he left home for good永久的，一劳永逸的.

2. I was not in the habit of getting out-of-the-blue（出乎意料的，出其不意的） requests（贸然邀约）.

3. The university students were less inclined to（倾向于做某事） laugh off （一笑置之）or deride（嘲笑） his opinionated takes（独到见解） on energy, space, and whatever else was captivating him at the moment.

4. The flimsy（不周密的） pitch （推辞商品的说辞）got Musk thinking.

5. There was a lot of backlash（强烈的抵触情绪） and finger-pointing（相互指责）.

6. With the deal busted（破产，彻底失败）, Zip2 found itself in a predicament（窘境，困境）.

小词

1. Elon stumbled upon（偶然发现） what seemed like an obvious business opportunity.

2. He sprinted up to （冲上去）his boss'es office and pitched the opportunity of a lifetime.

3. Did he hype things up （炒作）and rub people the wrong way?

4. Every student should revere（尊重） his teachers.

5. Elon seemed to drift off（渐渐离开） into a trance（出神，恍惚） at times.

6. He'd been obsessed with （痴迷于）video games.

7. He can sweep you off your feet（坠入爱河）.

8. The brothers were tuned in to（对。。敏感，意识到） the Internet.

Summary:

Elon Musk, born in South Africa in 1971, was obsessed with reading books and did not well in sports. Thus, he had few friends and was considered as a mediocre and weird guy. Then in 1988, he went to Canada and had to do plenty of tough jobs due to failing in relying on his uncle. Later, during his study in Queen's University and University of Pennsylvania, he realized what he really would like to do. He was tuned in to the Internet,renewable energy, and space field. He created Zip2, his first start-up company, and sold it to Compaq Company. Then he founded his second firm, X.com, an online bank. X.com and its rivalry Confinity merged later, which was  re-branded as PayPal.

My Thought:

Elon小的时候便能专注读书每天10H，成年后又有对未来科技发展（Internet, renewable energy, and space）趋势的精准预测，同时有坚韧不拔的卓越品质（Do or die but don't give up），再加上不屑为投机者，而志在改变世界的志向，后面的Zip2和PayPal的成果现在看来如此的水到渠成。