13A
I read the Elon Musk autobiography a couple weeks ago,
so I will do my reflection on that. My biggest take away from the book is that
in life I need to find a problem, and then find a solution. He is not afraid of
any problem, and his great acumen has gotten him a fortune. The biggest thing I
learned about being an entrepreneur from him is learning everything about the
field as fast as possible. When he decided to get into the space business he
went and bought a couple textbooks on rocket science, read them cover to cover
in a couple days, and then did his calculations and realized everything could
be done for so much cheaper. The only part I wish the book went into was the
finances of his companies and how he funded them. I know that financing is always
one of the hardest things that startups have to deal with, so I wish the book
went into detail about how he decided to complete deals with VC’s, and if he regrets
any of the early financing decisions he made.
I think his opinion of hard work is that it’s the only way. Even now once he has made hundreds of millions he still works 18 hour days. His first vacation was more than 4 years after he started Tesla. So if he saw someone working 12 hours a day 7 days on a startup he would question why they are not working harder.
I think his opinion of hard work is that it’s the only way. Even now once he has made hundreds of millions he still works 18 hour days. His first vacation was more than 4 years after he started Tesla. So if he saw someone working 12 hours a day 7 days on a startup he would question why they are not working harder.
I want to try and be more like Musk in the way that I
approach problems. Starting a new car company, when there had not been a successful
startup in over 80 years, no problem. Creating a rocket company and privatizing
something that once cost billions of dollars, no problem. If I approach
problems with this type of attitude I will not let the magnitude of a problem stop
me from attempting to solve it.
I also read the book on Elon Musk and agree that we could all benefit a little more from not shying away from problems and instead looking to find solutions. The book did briefly mention that the financing for his companies came from the profit he made when he sold what later became PayPal, but I do agree that more detail on that would have been very interesting to learn.
ReplyDeleteHi Brandon! It seems at least half of our group did this assignment about Elon Musk. He has had great success; but he is a very controversial person. This is in part because he doesn’t treat his workers very well. I had to do a report on conditions at a Tesla plant in California in a previous class and worker conditions are horrible! There are few safety protocols, and the ones in place are not often followed. Workers are forced to work long hours there at low wages. The management fought really hard to keep the autoworkers’ union out (no big surprise), but management really punished workers who were in publicly in favor of bringing in the union. Musk made big promises about production levels that despite all the dismal conditions, he still couldn’t fulfil. So we can learn a lot about business success from Musk, but we can also learn a lot about how not to treat employees.
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