Book Title: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
1. What Surprised me the most: What surprised me the most about Elon Musk is his ability to succeed and achieve in fields that seem unrelated. Specifically, the ability to tackle online banking, solar energy, space travel, and electric cars seems impossible for any one human. I guess what I am alluding to is that i was surprised by the brilliance and ambition of Elon musk even when I already knew of him previously.
What I most Admired: The thing I most admired about Elon Musk is his risk taking even when he already achieved success. After becoming a billionaire through pay-pal, the fact that Elon tied up almost all of his assets into the Space-X startup was what I most admired. If I were to become a billionaire I do not know if I would be willing to take another such large risk in order for me to continue pursuing my wild goals. That aspect really stuck out to me particularly.
What I least admired: What I least admired isn't necessarily Elon's fault but it is that Elon seemed not fulfilled with his life and goals. It seemed as if he was constantly looking forward and thinking about new inventions and aspirations instead of realizing how much he has achieved and done for the world. So i would say I least admired his ability to take a step back and realize how great he truly is, despite how ironic it sounds.
Adversity and Failure: Elon's whole life is basically about adversity and failure. What particularly stuck out to me was Space X's first three failures. Elon was out of money, having to borrow a loan in order to finance his last launch effort. If he were not able to successfully launch that rocket, his company would have been over. His ability to perform with grace and poise under that stress and demand mentally was something I correlated wit his overall success as an entrepreneur.
2. Competencies: The two competencies Elon has is what makes every person successful, talent and hard work. Elon was obviously born very gifted, but also spent hours daily as a kid through adulthood constantly reading, thinking, and refining his inventions and pursuits .Even now, he is known to work 80-100 hour work weeks and constantly stays up to date with new technology. Additionally, his rationality is what also makes him special. Some would define it as cold or unemotional, but it is actually perfect in business to remain calm and collected.
3. Confusing part: What confused me throughout the whole book was how Elon is able to learn and synthesize all of the information he digests. From my own perspective, it does not make sense how one human being can revolutionize so many industries and transform so much of our daily lives. I was confused and jealous how he his mind works and why he is able to understand such esoteric and difficult subjects in many fields.
4. Two questions: Number 1: What is your method for learning new information? Do you visualize, explain it to yourself, what is your secret?
Number 2: Do you believe talent or hard work is more important in learning?
5. 100 percent, Elon believes you must work hard to succeed. There is no doubt in my mind that he believes without hard work you cannot succeed. I completely agree with him. Its very simple to understand that if everyone else is working 40 hours per week and you are working 80, you are going to have an edge.
Hi Josh,
ReplyDeleteI read the same book and thinking about it, it does surprise me that Musk was able to be that successful in multiple fields. Most people are lucky to make it in one field, let alone make it big in three or four separate ones. I think that goes to show, with hard work and being at the right place and the right time, anyone can be successful. I also agree about what I liked the least about Musk. He was always so caught up in the moving forward or thinking in the future, I don't think he ever slowed down and thought about the current and now. This had to have a huge impact on his private and social life, and to me, there is way more to life than work, even at the high caliber of work he is doing.