13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ashlee Vance

1) What surprised me the most? The thing about Elon Musk that surprised me the most was probably the fact that he had so many different companies that he created become so successful. He created x.com an online bank which ended up merging with Confinity and this merged company ended up being rebranded to PayPal. PayPal was acquired by Ebay for $1.5 billion and Musk made $180 from that sale. I had no idea the Musk was associated with this successful service. Also Elon has created 3 companies valued at over a billion dollars. He invested $100 million towards SpaceX, $70 million towards Tesla, and $10 million towards Solarcity. These companies are all now worth over a billion dollars and he ended up investing that $180 million towards these companies and the fact he was able to do this much surprised me.

What about the entrepreneur did I most admire? The thing I admire the most about Elon Musk was his tenacity and from this class you can tell that tenacity plays a big part in whether or not you're successful in your businesses. In one of Elon's first start-ups, he slept next to his desk in a bean bag chair, and then showered at the local YMCA. The first employee that came back to work would kick him to wake him up, so he would start working again. If this type of living for one of his first companies doesn't show tenacity then I don't know what will.

What about the entrepreneur did I least admire? The thing I least admired about Musk was that he moved from his home in South America just to avoid serving his country when he turned 17. He left to pursue his education in Canada and although this all led to his success today, I still feel like serving your country is a high honor that shouldn't be avoided when needed.

Did Elon Musk encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did he do about it? Elon Musk went through adversity as all entrepreneurs do. As previously mentioned, with his first company he worked out of a very small area that doubled as his home. He slept in a bean bag and showered at the YMCA. This adversity was overcome and eventually got out of there when his businesses became very successful.

2) What competencies did I notice that Elon Musk exhibited? Elon Musk was a very successful man. He was very competent in setting his goals high and then actually achieving them. For instance he created x.com which was an online bank and it eventually merged with another company called Confinity. Later this company was rebranded to PayPal. Eventually it was bought by Ebay for $1.5 billion and Musk made $180 million from this. He eventually used all of this money to reinvest into 3 other billion dollar companies he created.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to me. One part of the reading that was a little confusing was when it was discussed that he wanted to send mice to Mars and also if that didn't work he wanted to also send a greenhouse to try and grow a tree to start oxygen there. I was a little confused reading about this because I didn't understand how this could really be done at all. I feel like there would be too many problems with both of these plans and I was just a little lost reading this.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the Elon Musk, what would I ask? Why? I would ask how Elon Musk was able to create big ideas and actually accomplishment them. Also, I would ask how he was able to face adversity in the eyes and overcome these obstacles. I feel like finding an answer for these questions would help make me into a better entrepreneur and help me achieve other goals in my life.

5) For fun: What do I think Elon Musk's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? I think Elon Musk believed that hard work is important, but I also believe that he thought to work smarter and not harder. I personally share the belief of working smarter and not harder and that's how I try to accomplish my all my work and that's how I try to overcome my challenges.