Category: Elon Musk

Elon Musk: A Good And Strong Leader With A Powerful Vision

Elon Musk is a 47-year-old South African entrepreneur, investor, and inventor who has been fascinated with science and technology his entire life. His accolades include being the founder of SpaceX and co-founder of businesses such as Tesla, Paypal, and the Boring Company. Through his life as a man at the forefront of technological advancements, he has had many failings and critics along the way, particularly in the initial stages of his SpaceX project, from huge organizations such as NASA. Despite all this, his company managed to land a rocket booster vertically, for the first time, allowing boosters to be reused and revolutionizing the industry.

One leadership trait which is apparent is his vision, dedication, and perseverance. This means that, as a leader, he is laser-focused on the task at hand and is not phased by the possibility of failure due to having the desire and drive to do what he needs to do. An example of his drive and perseverance would be the fact that he was continuously investing and running Tesla through a long period of making losses. The reason for this is focused on the current objective and understands that it may not go smoothly at the initial stages but there are times when it is necessary to keep yourself and your people in the fight to reap the benefits later.

Following on, Musk has the ability to pass his vision on to those who work for him and then persuade them to become fully invested in his vision. This is a crucial trait of a successful leader, particularly in an innovative field, due to the fact that it means he is able to get his workforce fully behind any project regardless of apparent absurdity and encourage his team to work towards a common goal and invest themselves fully in the aim of the company. Without this, it is unlikely he would have been so successful in his ventures and tasks would not have been carried out so thoroughly.

One of Musk’s most important assets is that he is a social architect. By inspiring his employees on each of his ventures, he has been able to mobilize his workforce and encourage a new group identity. It is thought that because of this special philosophy, he has created a unique standard of excellence amongst his workforce. In addition to this, he is committed to leading this highly motivated workforce from the front which is clear in a statement made by him saying “For my part, I will never give up and I mean never”. He truly believes in his futuristic ideas and therefore is able to translate that belief to the rest of his company and instill a forward-thinking and creative culture.

Conclusion

To conclude, Elon Musk is a good, strong leader due to having a powerful vision and desire for the pursuit of that vision and the fact that he can spread that enthusiasm and determination to those who work for him, creating positive and progressive companies to better the lives of others into the future.

Elon Musk: Contribution To Society And Impact On Our Environment

For as long as I can remember I have always been interested in new inventions and machines that improve life and that put a modern twist on basic everyday necessities. When I read the outline for this book report I was enthused and had one particular person that automatically popped up in my mind to write about. For this book report, I am researching the CEO and creator of the car brand Tesla. I chose to write about Elon Musk because his contribution to society has made a great impact on our environment and the world as we know it.

Elon Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa on June 28, 1971. In Elon’s youth, he was always so consumed with daydreaming and pondering about various inventions that his parents began to show concern for him and wanted doctors to check his hearing. When Elon was 10 his parents got a divorce, and he suddenly developed an interest in computers to get his mind off the worries of his parent separation. He was a self-taught programmer, and he created a little game called Blastar. This was his first sold software game at the age of 12. In middle school, Elon Musk was small, shy, and brilliant. He was constantly bullied in school until the age of 15. After that, he went through puberty and a major growth spurt thus learning how to defend himself.

Elon Musk moved to Canada to attend Queen’s University at the age of 17, in 1989. This was mainly to avoid mandatory military service in South Africa. Musk later that year attained Canadian citizenship and following that gained American citizenship. Elon left Canada in pursuit to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania In 1992. He received an undergraduate degree in economics and managed to get a second bachelor’s degree in physics. After earning two different degrees he then planned to study at Stanford University to gain a Ph.D. in energy physics. His move, however, was short-lived because the timing of when he got to school was when the Internet had boomed. Elon then dropped out of Stanford after two days of becoming a student, this was to launch his first corporation “Zip2 Corporation”.

In 1995 Elon propelled his first organization, Zip2 Corporation, with his sibling, Kimbal Musk. In 1999, Zip2 was purchased for $307 million as a cash payment via a division of Compaq Computer Corporation. This also supplied them with $34 million in investment opportunities. In 1999, Elon and Kimbal Musk utilized the cash from their closeout of Zip2 to establish X.com. X.com was an online money installment organization. X.com which is now known as PayPal, earned Elon’s initial billion for it to be obtained by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock.

In 2002 he established his third company, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX. This was with the sole purpose to build a spacecraft for economic space travel. In 2008 NASA gave SpaceX a contract to move cargo for the International Space Station for NASA’s space shuttle missions. SpaceX made history when Falcon 9 rocket was launched into space as one of the first unmanned capsules on May 22, 2012. SpaceX put in motion a fruitful practice run with Falcon 9 rocket which was produced using reusable parts, this makes reasonable space travel more probable for future endeavors. In September 2017, Elon presented a model plan for his BFR (Big Falcon Rocket), which can carry 100 people. He announced that SpaceX was going to launch its first mission to Mars in 2022 with the BFR. This is with the intention of soon colonizing Mars. Since BFR is a mammoth rocket the only way to transport it will be by ship.

Who Is Elon Musk And What Made Him Big

One of the world’s most brilliant men was born on a summer day on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. His name is Elon Musk, his parents are Maye and Errol Musk, Elon’s mother was a famous Canadian model who worked jobs for Covergirl and other famous magazines. His father was from South Africa where he is a very wealthy engineer, Elon, and his family continued to live in South Africa until he was 17 years old. When he was 10 his mother and father got divorced but stayed in South Africa so the kids would not have to move (Editors, The Biography).

Elon Musk is known around the world, he is a famous inventor and scientist that currently owns and operates one of the world’s largest tech companies. However, Elon’s rise to fame and fortune did not come easy, in an interview with the New York Times, Elon told the reporter that he had an excruciating childhood and was bullied constantly in school for his “bookish” demeanor. After the divorce of his parents, his father became emotionally abusive to Elon and his two siblings, according to Elon his father would take him and his brother to sit in complete silence for four hours and listen to his father teach them about something. In the interview, Elon goes into greater depth on his experiences with bullies saying that “They got my best [expletive] friend to lure me out of hiding so they could beat me up. And that [expletive] hurt. For some reason, they decided that I was it, and they were going to go after me nonstop. That’s what made growing up difficult. For a number of years, there was no respite. You get chased around by gangs at school who tried to beat the [expletive] out of me, and then I’d come home, and it would just be awful there as well (Maya Kosoff, Business Insider).” He would continue to take this sort of abuse until he was around 15 years old when an unexpected growth spurt caused him to take an interest in karate and judo which backed off the bullies at home and his school.

Despite his troubled youth he did not let that stop him, he had an idea at a young age to make a quick buck, Elon along with his brother Kimbal went around making handmade chocolate Easter eggs to sell to the rich people in his neighborhood. He reported selling them to customers for 20 times the cost of making them! His schemes didn’t stop there, while his parents were out of the house he would build his own homemade explosives and rocket ships! Elon stated that the explosives he was making were powerful enough to kill him! His next mission was to correctly code his own video game, he finished the project at twelve years old and sold the game for 500$, the game was his own version of “Space Invaders” as the game’s mission was to destroy alien space ships before they destroyed you. Before moving to Canada as a teenager he had one last idea before he left Africa, he and his brother tried to open and run their own arcade center across from their local high school. They got signed leases from the city and the only thing they needed was a parent signature because of being underage. However, their father reportedly “flipped out” over his son’s idea and would not sign the papers to open up their own store ( Zameena Mejia, CNBC).

Elon saved up enough money and moved himself to Canada at the age of 17 to get a head start on college and his studies. His life in the new world started off rocky, he said for the beginning parts of his college career in Ontario he was living off one dollar a day, spending his money at the grocery store on groceries in bulk, constantly living off oranges and hotdogs. While in Canada he attended the University of Queens, while enrolled in classes he worked on gaining his Canadian citizenship in part because he believed when he achieved this it would be easier to gain his American citizenship after college. Three years later he moved to America to attend college at the University of Pennsylvania, He graduated there with a degree in economics and physics. His college education did not end there however, he transferred to the University of Stanford in California to obtain a master’s degree in energy physics. However his visit to the University was cut short by him dropping out of the university two days after enrolling to start his new company, “Zip 2.” Seven years after the release of his new company Musk finally earned his American citizenship (Editors, The Biography).

His first successful company, “Zip 2” was a company that was started by Musk and his brother to help tourists and other people know the city better, this was an online program that would build a city guild and help people get ideas on what to do with their day. It grew popular fast with the New York Times and Chicago Tribune, 4 years after the release of “Zip 2” Musk and his brother sold the company to Compaq Computer Corporation for $307 million in straight cash, along with $34 million in stock. In the same year that he sold his city tourism planning website, he launched a very famous program called PayPal, however in the begging, it was under a different name, X.com a year later this company changed its name to Pay Pal and helped skyrocket Elon’s net worth to over a billion dollars! eBay bought PayPal in 2002 for 1.5 billion dollars in stock. Musk, continuing his streak of starting big companies in the same year he sold another, started his new space exploration company, Space X. Elon had a goal to make a space travel commercial, his dream was to make traveling to space just like flying from New York to California. In 2012 Elon did the impossible when Space X sent the world’s first unmanned rocket to the International Space Station with 1,000 pounds of supplies. Space X continued to improve and make more improvements and technological achievements. While busting through the space world Musk was working on a side project in Tesla Motors, the goal of this company is to provide affordable all-electric luxury cars. The company has improved beyond just cars, producing solar panels, batteries, and other products. Musk has his hand in all things Tesla with him overseeing the product development, engineering, and design of every new product. This company skyrocketed when in 2017 it announced that it passed General Motors as the country’s most valuable car manufacturer (Editors, The Biography).

Elon added another job to his plate in 2016 when newly elected President Donald Trump announced that Musk would be joining his team as a strategist. However, this was short-lived after Musk stepped down from his post on June 1st, 2017.

Elon’s family life has been shaky from his childhood, with divorced parents and an abusive father he hasn’t exactly had the best situation to gain influence from. He has been married twice and with his first wife he had 6 children, unfortunately, his first son died at 10 weeks old from sudden infant death syndrome. He’s married again to the same woman in 2012 but this marriage ended again with their divorce in 2016 (Editors, The Biography).

Musk has also started his own nonprofit foundation to help explore the “boundless potential of space exploration” this foundation also helps find renewable and clean energy sources (Editors, The Biography).

All in all Elon Musk is a business typhoon who is constantly innovating and churning out new products that will help benefit the people of the world, regarded as a good man and one of the smarter men in history, Elon is truly a Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison mind who will continue to influence and inspire future generations. People and other physicists will be able to study his research as he makes most of it widely available for people to study on their own and form their own hypotheses.

Are The Elon Musk’s Plans To Colonize Mars Realistic?

Elon Musk is an engineer, technological entrepreneur and founder, CEO and lead designer of SpaceX, as well as the CEO of Tesla. He has amassed a net worth of over 20 billion USD and is at the forefront of technological advancement on Earth. Musk has laid out a plan to construct spacecraft able to transport up to 100 people each to Mars in order to colonize the Red Planet, estimating that it may even be doable by 2028. Musk’s plan is ambitious from practically every way you look at it, and there are many differing opinions of whether Musk will succeed. Are Musk’s plans realistic, or are they just the creative rambling of a mad scientist?

The idea stems from Musk’s realization that “It’s important to get a self-sustaining base on Mars because it’s far enough away from Earth that in the event of a war it’s more likely to survive than a moon base”. Musk made this statement just a few days after Donald Trump announced plans to meet Kim Jong Un in an attempt to decrease the rising nuclear tension between their two Nations. However most experts on the subject have agreed that colonizing Mars would be a good idea, the main reason people are challenging Musk is on whether his plans are scientifically feasible. Musk’s idea relies on being able to access space cheaply. One of the more recent papers on Musk’s plans state that the cost of these trips to Mars must be lowered by up to “five million percent”. An essential part of lowering the cost will be reusable space technology, which is a brilliant idea Musk has already put to practice with extremely impressive landings of rockets back on Earth. However this reusable technology wont be all that useful when it comes to lowering the price if Musk isn’t able to set up fuel stations on Mars, which will prove to be a very difficult task. Experiments working towards this goal of self-sustaining fuel stations on Mars are already underway. The MOXIE experiment on the Nasa 2020 rover will look into whether we’re able to make oxygen from CO2 found in the atmosphere of Mars, which could definitely be possible.

Up to this point, everything seems reasonably feasible, however there’s still much, much more to this. Musk intends to launch huge spaceships into orbit around Earth which will be refuelled numerous times utilizing boosters launched from Earth while waiting to be sent to Mars. Each of these spaceships will be designed for 100 passengers and Musk intends to send 1,000 of these ships into space over the next 40 to 100 years, allowing up to a million people to leave Earth. Musk even plans to set up interplanetary fuelling stations on celestial bodies such as Enceladus, Europa and even Titan, one of Saturn’s moons which may have, or have had life on it. The ethics of this particular part of the plan have been questioned as many do not agree with contaminating a planet which could potentially have alien life on it. Despite all this sounding quite impressive, one expert in the field has dismissed Musk, saying that “he hasn’t actually explained how anything will be done, he’s just throwing out ideas left and right without much actual scientific planning behind them”. Others have stated that Musk hasn’t actually accounted for many of the problems he will find on Mars, for example one of the most obvious problems is the extremely low temperature on Mars. The temperature is usually around 0°C in the day and drops down to almost -120°C at night. Operating in such low temperature is already a problem for the small rovers that have been on Mars, though it has been solved with heaters in the design of the ExoMars 2020 Rover this would likely be a huge issue for the self-sustainable city Musk envisions due to the sheer power that would be involved. All Musk said on the matter was that “It is a little cold, but we can warm it up.”. This further shows that the whole idea might not have been thought out to the level needed for such a huge project, and even if Musk is able to “warm it up”, Mars’ atmosphere has been leaking slowly for the past 3.8 million years, meaning that any meaningful heat increase would likely be lost into space overtime.

Another problem that Musk hasn’t really addressed is the radiation past Earth’s magnetic cocoon. The journey towards the Red Planet, and life on it would be susceptible to dangerous radiation through deadly cosmic rays and solar flares. Solar flares could even strike us on Earth and would cause catastrophic amounts of damage to all electrical devices on our Planet, and are just more likely to strike Mars. As far as the radiation problem goes, just one trip to and from Mars would expose anyone making the journey to up to four times the advised career limits for astronauts with the best shielding technology we have today.

Overall I think that Musk may not be able to colonize Mars quite so quickly as he has predicted. However, shooting high generally means that we will gain something from his endeavours, even if it isn’t quite the same reality he was initially wishing for, it will certainly still massively benefit technological advancement and space exploration as a whole.

The Personality and Management Style of Elon Musk and Mohamed Al-Abbar

Introduction

The last century witnessed a huge industrial and civilization revolution that led to the formation of our present world and among the most prominent figures who contributed to building and shaping our present are Elon Musk and Walter Disney.

Elon Musk and Walter Disney contributed in completely different sectors, but we cannot deny what each of them presented to the world, and somehow we can all agree that they have met on one thing and that is their phenomenal leadership and management skills that in turn put both of their names on the list of the greatest Business Leaders of the 20th Century.

I choose Musk and Disney for their interesting and impressive success stories that will inspire whoever going to read this. However, In this paper, I will be presenting and analyzing Musk and Disney’s biography, what each of them faced in his life before they reached to where they are now, and what they have provided us with in the field of leadership and management in order to benefit and learn from their experiences and apply them to our reality and our present world to keep growing and progressing day after day not necessarily in the business industry but in our personal lives as well.

Elon Musk

Elon Reeve Musk is a South African-born American entrepreneur and businessman who founded X.com in 1999 (which later became PayPal), SpaceX in 2002 and Tesla Motors in 2003. Musk became a multimillionaire in his late 20s when he sold his start-up company, Zip2, to a division of Compaq Computers.

Musk made headlines in May 2012, when SpaceX launched a rocket that would send the first commercial vehicle to the International Space Station. He bolstered his portfolio with the purchase of SolarCity in 2016, and cemented his standing as a leader of industry by taking on an advisory role in the early days of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. As a child, Musk was so lost in his daydreams about inventions that his parents and doctors ordered a test to check his hearing. At about the time of his parents’ divorce, when he was 10, Musk developed an interest in computers. He taught himself how to program, and when he was 12 he sold his first software: a game he created called Blastar.

In grade school, Musk was short, introverted and bookish. He was bullied until he was 15 and went through a growth spurt and learned how to defend himself with karate and wrestling. At age 17, in 1989, Musk moved to Canada to attend Queen’s University and avoid mandatory service in the South African military. Musk obtained his Canadian citizenship that year, in part because he felt it would be easier to obtain American citizenship via that path.

In 1992, Musk left Canada to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in economics and stayed for a second bachelor’s degree in physics. After leaving Penn, Musk headed to Stanford University in California to pursue a PhD in energy physics. However, his move was timed perfectly with the Internet boom, and he dropped out of Stanford after just two days to become a part of it, launching his first company, Zip2 Corporation in 1995. Musk became a U.S. citizen in 2002.

Companies

Zip2 Corporation

Musk launched his first company, Zip2 Corporation, in 1995 with his brother, Kimbal Musk. An online city guide, Zip2 was soon providing content for the new websites of both The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. In 1999, a division of Compaq Computer Corporation bought Zip2 for $307 million in cash and $34 million in stock options.

PayPal

In 1999, Elon and Kimbal Musk used the money from their sale of Zip2 to found X.com, an online financial services/payments company. An X.com acquisition the following year led to the creation of PayPal as it is known today.

In October 2002, Musk earned his first billion when PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock. Before the sale, Musk owned 11 percent of PayPal stock.

SpaceX

Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, in 2002 with the intention of building spacecraft for commercial space travel. By 2008, SpaceX was well established, and NASA awarded the company the contract to handle cargo transport for the International Space Station—with plans for astronaut transport in the future—in a move to replace NASA’s own space shuttle missions.

Tesla Motors

Tesla was founded in 2003 by a group of engineers who wanted to prove that people didn’t need to compromise to drive electric – that electric vehicles can be better, quicker and more fun to drive than gasoline cars. Today, Tesla builds not only all-electric vehicles but also infinitely scalable clean energy generation and storage products. Tesla believes the faster the world stops relying on fossil fuels and moves towards a zero-emission future, the better.

Launched in 2008, the Roadster unveiled Tesla’s cutting-edge battery technology and electric powertrain. From there, Tesla designed the world’s first-ever premium all-electric sedan from the ground up – Model S – which has become the best car in its class in every category. Combining safety, performance, and efficiency, Model S has reset the world’s expectations for the car of the 21st century with the longest range of any electric vehicle, over-the-air software updates that make it better over time, and a record 0-60 mph acceleration time of 2.28 seconds as measured by Motor Trend. In 2015, Tesla expanded its product line with Model X, the safest, quickest and most capable sport utility vehicle in history that holds 5-star safety ratings across every category from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Completing CEO Elon Musk’s “Secret Master Plan,” in 2016, Tesla introduced Model 3, a low-priced, high-volume electric vehicle that began production in 2017. Soon after, Tesla unveiled the safest, most comfortable truck ever – Tesla Semi – which is designed to save owners at least $200,000 over a million miles based on [image: ]fuel costs alone.

Elon’s personality and managing style

Lead by Example

If you’re co-founder or CEO you have to do all kinds of tasks you might not want to do … If you don’t do your chores, the company won’t succeed … No task is too menial.” – Elon Musk “Just work like hell. If other people are putting in 40 hour work weeks and you’re putting in 100 hour work weeks, even if you’re doing the same thing, you know that you will achieve in four months what it takes them a year to achieve.”- Elon Musk One thing we all control is our own effort. Elon Musk realizes that his thoughts will only change the world if implemented and executed upon. He is known for his tenacious work ethic to see through his visions.

Lead with Purpose

You have to have a very compelling goal for the company. If you put yourself in the shoes of someone who’s talented at a world level, they have to believe that there’s potential for a great outcome and believe in the leader of the company, that you’re the right guy to work with. That can be a difficult thing, especially if you’re trying to attract people from other companies.”- Elon Musk Elon’s purpose is simple. He is determined to revolutionize three industries. He has said that he didn’t start Space X because he thought building rocket ships were going to be great for his portfolio; Space X is his way of making his mark on the world. No matter what the goal, leaders must develop a vision for where they would like to be and work until they reach their destination. In Elon’s case, that place is Mars.

Be Creative

The problem is that at a lot of big companies, the process becomes a substitute for thinking. You’re encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren’t that smart, who aren’t that creative.”- Elon Musk Elon Musk believes that process prohibits the ability for innovation to take place. In many cases, continued formal education can be a negative because it denies creativity. Without creativity, progress and innovation are impossible.

Be Collaborative

Talent is extremely important. It’s like a sports team, the team that has the best individual player will often win but then there’s a multiplier from how those players work together and the strategy they employ.” Musk understands that teamwork is a necessity for any team or business to succeed. It is integral to employ a team that operates in a cohesive and team-oriented fashion. This sense of pride in team success has to start with the leadership. Elon Musk leads by “doing” more than “telling”. Set an example that inspires your team to succeed as one.

Encourage Innovation

Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”- Elon Musk At Space X, their first 3 launches failed. Musk took that as an opportunity to learn and innovate. If someone is confined to the walls of which process does not allow expansion, innovation is impossible. Elon Musk enables and encourages employees to step out of the “traditional” way of thinking and to put all new ideas forth.

Be Decisive

Without decisive action to lay the groundwork today, the massive volume of affordable, high-efficiency panels needed for unsubsidized solar power to outcompete fossil fuel grid power simply will not be there when it is needed,”- Elon Musk Unless you commit to acting in the present, the change you want will never happen in the future. Elon Musk finds out what he wants and then acts on his ideas. Strategy and action lead to results.

Be Comfortable with Change

On being a CEO, “it’s eating glass and staring into the abyss”- Elon Musk You never know which challenges are going to arise. Successful leaders are able to adapt in any situation and continue pushing forward towards their team’s goals. Whatever comes their way, they understand how to enable their teams to leverage their strengths to find solutions and innovate.

Hire Carefully

I think you definitely don’t want to grow too fast. Make sure that every person you hire, you really need to hire that person.” – Elon Musk Don’t hire just for the sake of filling a position. Make sure you hire the right person the first time. Effective leaders add people because they are going to help them succeed not to fill a vacancy. Assessments like the Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment and the PI Cognitive Assessment can be leveraged to assess if a candidate has the appropriate behavioral drives and mental agility to succeed in the role.

Set Exceptionally High Standards

The number one issue for me is finding superlatively talented people. I think we’ve been fortunate to find some very, very talented people at SpaceX, but that is always the governor on growth.”- Elon Musk It is common knowledge that acquiring talent is one of the single most prevalent business challenges for leaders. What do you do to invest in your managers once you find the best people? The job isn’t done once you find and acquire top talent. The best leaders are self-aware. Gifted leaders understand the power of adjusting their behaviors and leadership style to inspire their people.

Mohamed Al-Abbar

Mohamed Al-ِِAbbar is one of the most important businessmen in the field of real estate in the world, and he is one of the most important influencers in the economy of the UAE.

Despite his humble beginnings, he received a scholarship in America and then returned to build a huge architectural and cultural heritage in Dubai.

The beginnings of Muhammad Al-Abbar

Muhammad al-Abbar was born in the UAE on November 8, 1956, to a self-made family, where his father worked as a sea captain and traded in African countries such as Somalia and Zanzibar.

Al-Abbar joined the University of Seattle in the United States of America and obtained a BA in Business Administration in 1981, he also received an honorary doctorate in humanities from the same university in 2007, and he was on the university’s Board of Trustees, and then on his return to Dubai, he took many administrative positions which opened doors for his opportunities and strength to build his empire in the field of reconstruction and construction, as he began to establish his own companies and implement important architectural projects.

Achievements of Mohammed Alabbar

Alabbar is the founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors at Eagle Hills. He is also the founder and Chairman of the Board of Emaar Properties, one of the most important real estate development companies in the world whose most important business was the development of the Burj Khalifa, the highest tower in the world, and Dubai Mall, the largest shopping center in the world. In addition to the Dubai Creek Tower, which rises to more than 3000 feet, and the Dubai Opera with 2000 seats and also the construction of Dubai Marina, the largest industrial marina in the world, along with King Abdullah Economic City.

Al-Abbar is also the Senior Adviser to the Ruler of Dubai, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and previously worked as a founding general manager for the Department of Economic Development in Dubai. Alabbar leads to huge investment groups. He is the founder and chairman of Africa Resources Middle East, the founder and major shareholder of RSH, which is specialized in selling fashion products in Singapore and owns more than 700 stores in Asia and the Middle East.

Al-Abbar Investment Group purchased the Americana Group, which owns a fast-food chain in the Middle East, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Pizza Hut, from the majority shareholder in it for $ 2.36 billion in 2016. Alabbar founded the Noon.com platform in order to compete with the Alibaba, and Amazon platform, and one of his companies was one of the competitors to buy Souq.com, the deal that Amazon finally got.

Al Abbar is also a member of the Dubai Executive Council and the Dubai Economic Council and has contributed to the growth of the non-oil sector in his country. He has also served as Vice President of the Dubai World Trade Center and President of Dubai Cable Company.

There are five great characteristics of a salesman that Mohamed shows us throughout his career:

• Honesty
• Enthusiasm
• Confidence
• Courage
• Persistence

Permanent development

Al-abbar loves adventure and takes high-risk steps to always develop himself, and sees that desire, passion, and courage are the most important keys to success. As he said in his interview with Al-Arabiya, surrender is the first enemy of man, so a person must try every time he fails until he is entitled to what he wishes.

Take action

Al-abbar says that thinking and planning without work is nothing, so we must all start and move as soon as there is a new idea to always be the first and the best in everything (lack of speech and a lot of work).

Investing in youth

Al-Abbar believes that youth are the future of this world, so we must trust and believe in them by educating them, giving them opportunities to prove their existence, and not to underestimate what they offer to have a better future.

Conclusion

All of all, we can clearly see how Elon Musk and Mohammed Alabbar have made their mark in their fields and their brilliant brilliance in the field of management, and how we can learn from what they have provided and how they have struggled and been patient in order to achieve their dreams and reach the top despite all What they faced and if we noticed that most of what Musk and Al-Abbar focused on dependent on being a leader with a clear and good future vision, setting future goals and plans with high expectations, working as a team and supporting each other, believe in their selves by having high self-confidence, and last but not least is to be creative because creativity enables us to emerge from the usual.

Elon Musk as a Leader

Introduction

For the Leadership analysis series, I choose the profile of Elon Musk, founder, CEO of SpaceX, Co-founder of Tesla, CEO of Neuralink, founder of the Boring company and also PayPal. (Ref-Elon Musk. (2019, July 19). Elon Musk is one of the pioneers of the world and a great human being. I already analyzed the many facts of Musk in the previous paper. In this paper I will discuss about his Ethics, code of conduct, conflict management and strategic planning skills. I will also discuss the Power and Politics skills of Musk.

Ethics and Professional Code of Conduct

Ethics are the standards of right and wrong that influence behavior. Ethics provide guidelines for judging conduct and decision making. The emphasis was on how an individual’s personality traits and attitudes, level of moral development, and the situational context affect their ethical behavior (ref- Achua, Leadership – theory, application, & skill development, 2014, P-371).

Musk is known for his leadership and his ethical code of conduct, be it while managing any project, team or while addressing his employees. Musk has always maintained ethics and always follow the code of conduct. After the failure of the SpaceX rocket launch for the 3rd time, he had a brief talk with the employees regarding the failure of the program. He said, ‘If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough’. Musk also mentioned that he will never give up on his part. It clearly indicates that he never stops working until he achieves the goal. Elon Musk ethics can be described with the following aspects (ref: ‘Elon Musk Work Ethic: 10 Secrets for Insane Success’)

• Start the day with critical work: Musk always starts the day with his most critical work. This means dealing with important emails so that it will unblock other people’s work and progress.
• Use Feedback Loops: Musk believe that one can achieve the final goal by the feedback of other peoples. With the feedback loops, work can be done in better ways.
• Better Communication: Musk believes that good Communication is the key to any success. He is the master at public speaking, converting complex topic into easy and understandable language.
• Time Management: Time is the essence of all things. Musk always tries to optimize his time using feedback loops.
• Embrace stretch goals: “The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur”- Elon Musk. He always tries to set the deadlines for company’s project and want his employees to finish the project before the deadlines.4

Professional Code of conduct is the vital element of any profession to maintain standards for the individual inside any organization. Many organizations have a written code of ethics or code of conduct that displays the values and principles governing employee behavior. Written statements have the advantage of explicitly stating the company’s position on ethical and moral issues, and they serve as benchmarks for judging both company decisions and actions and individual conduct. A growing number of organizations have added a code of ethics to their list of formal statements and public pronouncements. They are seen as tools for highlighting an organization’s ethical and socially responsible culture. (Ref- Achua, Leadership – theory, application & skill development, 2014, P-373). Professional code of conduct brings about trust, responsibility and duty to the people that the profession serves. Musk was determined to bring his goal alive and worked very hard until he achieved his dream.

Managing Conflict

Poor communications, feedback, and coaching can lead to conflict. A conflict exists whenever people are in disagreement and opposition. Conflict is part of everyday life in organizations. It affects everyone involved and how we manage conflict affects performance. (Ref Achua, Leadership – theory, application, & skill development, 2014, P- 200). Conflict management was proactively managed by Elon Musk. He recognized the challenges in the different projects and always try to overcome the challenges with the help of his employees. The five styles that Musk followed in managing conflicts are given below:

• Accommodating: Accommodating styles forsakes our own desires in exchange for those of others. In this type, we generally put the concerns of others before our own. Musk believe in this type for managing the conflicts. He generally tries to share the same idea as his employees do.
• Avoiding: This style generally evades the conflicts. In this type we generally neither pursue on our belief nor on the others which ultimately postpone the conflicts.
• Compromising: It generally attempts to find a temporary solution which results in pleasing all the parties.
• Collaborating: It generally finds a solution that will meet the needs of all other parties. Musk try to create a good collaboration with all his employers.
• Forcing: The forcing conflict style user attempts to resolve the conflict by using aggressive behavior to get his or her own way. When we use the forcing style, we are uncooperative and aggressive, doing whatever it takes to satisfy our own needs at the expense of others, if necessary.

Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is the management activity that is generally used to set priorities, strengthen operation, make certain goals to ensure that employees and the different stake holders are working towards the common goal. Strategic planning generally gives the details about how the association is going and how it will reach the final goal. After the failure of the SpaceX program for the third time, Musk did a strategic planning to overcome this issue. Musk told his employees that they need to be calm and should learn new things from their mistakes. Musk also makes the strategic plan for the Tesla motors. The main aim was to create a low volume electric car. This was the very smart strategy of the Musk because it gives them realistic and achievable goals.

Power And Politics

Musk is known for his leadership and great communication skills. He is very powerful and great influential leader. Power and politics are said to be one of the key aspects for the growth and success of any leader and Musk possess both of this quality. The primary source of Elon Musk power is his leadership skills. He hires brilliant and talented individuals that can design and develop his products. Musk generally influences people in his organization as well as outside world by using great communication skills. He often tweets about any achievement of his company as well as he appreciates his employees who are often involved in that success.

Application of Analysis to Leadership Roles and Responsibilities

Musk posses all the leadership qualities that a good leader should have. After researching on Musk throughout this semester, I can definitely say that Elon Musk is truly a great leader whose leadership style is very much relevant in workplace. Based on the analysis of leadership roles and responsibilities of Elon Musk, I will try to focus on the following aspects

• Ethics and Professional code of conduct are one of the key aspects of any company or organization. This are the strong pillars which help every individual to grow in the right way. Elon Musk leadership and his skills in this aspect inspire me a lot.
• Every organization have the conflicting personalities and it is very hard for the leader to manage the different conflicts. So, we can apply managing conflicts attributes of Elon Musk in our organization.
• In my current role, I have huge responsibilities of project planning. So, by applying the strategic planning traits, it will become very easy for me to manage any project.
• Most important characteristics that we can apply to our organization is power and politics. It is very important to make connections with the right people in the organization.

Conclusion

Musk is a great leader who dreamed big and broke all the barriers to achieve the final goal. The qualities that Musk possess not only limited to his organization but also inspire people outside the world. In conclusion I can definitely say that Elon Musk’s leadership has many traits which can inspire anyone.

References

1. A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK® guide). (2004). Sydney, NSW: SAI Global.
2. Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, application, et kill developmenz. Australia: Cengage Learning.
3. Elon Musk. (2019, July 19). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
4. Silvestre, D., Silvestre, D., & Silvestre, D. (2018, January 28). Elon Musk Work Ethic: 10 Secrets for Insane Success. Retrieved from https://www.dansilvestre.com/elon-musk-work-ethic/
5. Amaresan, S. (n.d.). 5 Conflict Management Styles for Every Personality Type. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/service/conflict-management-styles
6. https://sites.psu.edu/leadership/2014/11/30/power-and-influence-elon-musk/

The Hyperloop and Other Unbelievable Ideas of Elon Musk: What if they All Become a Reality

Elon Musk proposed the idea of a Hyperloop in 2012. A Hyperloop is a train system that is made of a capsule with low pressure tubes and it travels on a cushion of air at very high speeds. Because a Hyperloop can travel at high speeds, it can reduce the time it takes to arrive at a destination as well as reduce the cost of transportation. Elon Musk also proposed the idea of tourists flying around the moon and connecting the human brain to a computer. These three ideas are just proportions by Elon Musk, which if they become a reality, will revolutionize the world. The ideas of Elon Musk could significant impact on virtually everyone if they were to become a reality as they would provide the much needed solutions to everyday challenges.

Discussion

A Hyperloop is a high-speed train system that can travel at speeds of over 700mph. If it becomes a reality, it could change how passengers travel. Automobiles have proved inefficient over the years because of traffic jams that cause delays. Air transport however fast, is not convenient for everyday travel because of the location and the specific times of flight. The available rail system is outdated and cannot cater for the entire population. The Hyperloop will solve the problems of road, rail and air transport. It incorporates the speed of air transport with the convenience of a train and it cannot create traffic jams. This two characteristics will enable for faster and cheaper transportation (Ross, 2016). The Hyperloop will be safe since it travels on a tube in an underground tunnel which will protect passengers from extreme weather and disasters. Since it will be running on electricity alone, the use of greenhouse gases and fossil fuels will be minimized. The Hyperloop also has its own challenges as the high speeds of the Hyperloop may affect the passengers by making them dizzy. If anything were to go wrong in the Hyperloop, it would create a catastrophe.

Space tourism was proposed by Elon Musk in 2017 and he wanted SpaceX to facilitate two people to travel around the moon. If the possibility of exploring space becomes a reality, it will be fun and beneficial. It will provide information that can be used by NASA and STEM in creating space programs such as the anti-icing systems (Weinzierl, 2018). It will also trigger the innovative minds of people in a bid to try and overcome challenges in order to further explore space and this innovativeness will help better the earth. It will also create the possibility of finding and obtaining new raw materials.

Neuralink was started by Elon Musk with the idea to develop a technology known as Neural Lace that would create the possibility of a person to interact with a computer by uploading what others think and downloading one’s thoughts (Livingston & Risse, 2019). This technology will enable the testing of diseases that affect the brain such as Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.

Conclusion

The Hyperloop will change the form of modern transportation in that it will allow for a faster and cheaper form, it will minimize disasters and reduce the dependency of fossil fuels and greenhouse gases. Space tourism will enable NASA and STEM obtain information for developing space programs. It will also lead to development of innovations like anti-icing systems. The Neural lace will be crucial in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases like Parkinson’s that affect the brain.

Leadership Accomplishments of Elon Musk

Elon Musk is one of the biggest successful technology entrepreneurs. He has accomplished many achievements in his life. In 1983, he self-learned computer programming skills at 12; he sold and created a game code called Blastar. In 1994, he graduated with Bachelor of Science in Physics. In 1995, his first organization was Zip2. In 1999, he co-founded with his brother, Kimbal Musk, using the money from their sales of Zip2 to establish X.com where X.com is an online financial services or email payment company.

He started an online payment company which was Zip2 but current named as PayPal. In 2002, he earned US$165 million from his organization, PayPal. He constructs his own electric manufacturing company in 2003. He forms gigafactories to encourage the world towards the direction of sustainable energy. The purpose of these factories is for mass production of lithium ion batteries needed for the Tesla vehicles. In 2015, he invented a new creation called OpenAI. Also, he introduced Powerwall technology under Tesla for electric cars. He as a chairman invested in SolarCity Corporation that is providing solar power services which are electric cars, powerwall and solar roof.

He introduced a new high speed concept for transportation system called Hyperloop which is a pod that travels with reduced air friction at high speed. He is also a founder of SpaceX, Space Exploration Technologies which is functioned to build economical rockets to explore the outer space and reduce space transportation fees. At 39 years old, he is the CEO and designer of Tesla motors company. NASA awarded the cargo handling contract for International Space Station. He got listed on the Forbes list of the World’s Most Powerful People. He was the youngest billionaires on the Forbes400 as he earned $21.3billion.

Elon Musk is working in a transformational leadership style environment. He encourages and motivates workers that helps growth and shapes the future success of the organization. He proposes his own Hyperloop using a dozen engineers from SpaceX and Tesla. He provides a shorter travelling time than even a commercial airplane can currently provide. He always stands strong and believes his own vision. He persists and refuses to accept obstacle in his journey. He cares for the safety of workers. He deals with claims that the facility has lead to high injury rates. He treats failure as a lesson. For example, he trying to land a rocket in outer space and learning from their failures as their mission is to send people to Mars in 2024. Other than that, he was inviting his teams to give feedback to improve their performance. He constantly learning and look the new ways to solve the problems.

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

How can I change the world? This question is the most common question that at least each of us ask him-/herself once in this lifetime. This book is a boost of energy combined with mind-blowing decisions and examples to be followed for each of us. I have chosen this book because was an entrepreneur I want to discover the answer to the most common question. Despite the fact that I know everything has to be done step by step I want this book to challenge me in order to find out what is the best version of mine. I have also chosen this book after realising how powerful one decision or action can be in this world.

At the beginning this book is describing Elon Musk childhood. Leaving in South Africa together with his family, Elon Musk was a very poor guy. After that t the age of twelve Elan started to be an entrepreneur because of his game that he staled it for 500 dollars. During his late twenties Elon developed a company website service that sold it at the age of 28 and received 22 Million Dollars. Almost all the money were reinvested by him in a new project called X.com. This program became the most famous online banking method, known and used today as PayPal. As with his other to businesses Elan sold this one too. After selling this concept to bay he received 150 million dollars out of it. Instead of retiring or doing something totally different he decided to invest all the money that he gained in a new company called SpaceX. Knowing as a very risky decision maker, Elan could have lost all the money but being an example of believing in himself and the others he successfully made again a profitable business.

The other part of the money he gained, Elan invested them in a little start up called Tesla. With both companies Elan had a lot of troubles and weaknesses bath due to his four and patients he broke the rules and got the most powerful businesses.

Reading this book was a mix of learnings, feelings and thoughts. After reading it in less than five days this book all my goals and beliefs were reset. I learned exactly what passion, failure, determination and ethic means and this book learned me such a powerful life lesion.

When it comes to comparing this book with another one, a recently book that I have read came into my mind. “Mindset” written by Carol Dweck is one of the book that had the most powerful impact of my fresh started career. This book is in my opinion a describing method for Elon decisions that he was taking among the years. Also analysing it closer the first thing that I would start with is the parenting mindset. Selling that video game at the age of twelve with 500 dollars was a sign that Elon worked hard in order to obtain what he wanted. This thing is lighting us up that his parents encouraged him and paced his effort and chooses rather than intelligence or talent. When it comes to the business area looking to the Business Mindset explained by Carol Dweck in her book, Elon was the perfect example of a growth mindset. Being seen as the one who is taking the most risky decisions if it’s something important, Elon Musk was also known for his motivational formula that says the vision about something and the importance of any kind of situation drives you in obtaining the results that you have wished for. Another good example that relies to this books is the fact that having a growth mindset can be observed by the fact that every time he have sold a business all the money he gained were reinvested withought being spend on useless things or of a luxury vacations and lifestyles.

Comparing this two books helped me finding the perfect example for a growth mindset and has given me even more certain about my future plans.

Having such a big expectation as finding the answer for the question “How can I change the world” was a very high expectation of mine but knowing something about Elon Musk pushed me in having such a high goal. During this lecture I reached out a lot of conclusion in defining somehow the answer to my question. Besides my expectation this book was more than a normal book, I consider it the “bible” of how to take risky but assumed decisions. Another important learning is also the fact that when you gain a lot and achieve what you want is not at all the time when you end up your career and get ride of everything. Progressing everyday no-matter of your age and bring a lot of value to this world and more than that can actually change everything what existed until nowadays.

In my opinion this book is having a powerful impact on our society. First of all Elon created and came up with a lot of successful and world changing ideas that helped our society for a better development.

Another point is the fact that this book is a mind-blowing successful story that could be actually applied from each of us if we have had such a courage and determination. Reading all this roads I have been putting myself in Elon shoes and imagined how would it be and what I have been done when it came to taking all that hard decisions. After thinking about the importance of the businesses he has ben putted up together I realised that Elon Musk didn’t only changed his life he changed all our lives even though maybe we didn’t notice. Inventing the most useful online paying method- PayPal and building electro cars that are a help for us human beings in protecting the place that we are leaving in is a very important example of a strong business model but also of a big and large human soul.

Summing all this things up this books a manual of how the world can be changed only with some simple steps but followed up by tough risks. I think this book should be an obligatory lecture starting with high-school because through book a lot of teenagers could redefine themselves and see what they really want from this life.

Firstly Elon stared his career as a child, through that we can observes determination in having something done because of the fact he was very poor. Another thing that is very shocking is the fact that in his late twenties he became a millionaire and that is showing his struggle in taking risky but also important decisions that changed his and our lives. Finally what I realised after reading this book was the fact that it is not only a change for Elon its is also a big change for us and your society. Having all his invention and using them every single day without even realising it make me realise how important a decision can be. What I also consider to be very valuable is the fact that he had never given up on working and doing all the things that he liked being an example to follow.

In the end the thing that remained stick to my head was the following: never give up, if it is important and be conscious of you decisions!

Elon Musk: Life and Projects

Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa to Maye Musk, a model and dietician from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada and Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, and sailor. He holds South African, Canadian, and U.S. citizenship and is the founder, CEO, and lead designer of SpaceX; co-founder, CEO, and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; co-founder and CEO of Neuralink; and co-founder of PayPal. In December 2016, he was ranked 21st on the Forbes list of The World’s Most Powerful People. As of October 2018, he has a net worth of $22.8 billion and is listed by Forbes as the 54th-richest person in the world.

Born and raised in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk moved to Canada when he was 17 to attend Queen’s University. He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania two years later, where he received an economics degree from the Wharton School and a degree in physics from the College of Arts and Sciences. He began a Ph.D. in applied physics and material sciences at Stanford University in 1995 but dropped out after two days to pursue an entrepreneurial career.

Zip2 and PayPal

Elon and his brother Kimbal decided to rent an office which they used as both house and working space to start their own software company in 1995. Zip2, the name of the company, was founded thanks to the money given by their father Errol and began to develop quickly in those years of computer rise. Zip2 primarily provided and licensed online city guide software to newspapers such as The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune. Elon Musk was appointed the Chief Technology Officer. Zip2 trademarked “We Power the Press” as its official slogan and continued to grow. By 1998, the company had partnered with about 160 newspapers to develop guides to cities, either locally or at full scale. In 1999 it was acquired by Compaq for 307$ million, Musk received 7% of this sale, earning him 22$ million. In the spring of 1999, Elon decided to reinvest 10$ million by co-funding an online financial services and email payment company named X.com. In 2000, they merged with Confinity, a company that provided similar services, and decided to change the focus of the company to only the money transfer service, calling themselves PayPal. It expanded rapidly throughout the year driven mainly by viral marketing campaigns until company executives decided to take PayPal public in 2002. Paypal’s IPO listed under the ticker PYPL at $13 per share and ended up generating over $61 million. Later that year, eBay acquired it for 1.5$ billion and since Musk was the company’s greatest shareholder, he received 165$ million.

Space X

The multiplanetary dream After his cash-out from PayPal, Elon Musk was already thinking on what he was going to do next. He had various ideas in mind, many problems that he wanted to solve not for himself, but rather for the whole humankind. He wanted to do something different and not directly related to the internet, his main field, and decide to begin to explore new projects. As he said in a recent interview for Khan Academy, he was in America, the land of explorers and this gave him the spark to reach out of his comfort zone.

He had three main ideas in mind: first he wanted to make people care more for the environment, make them aware and give them the instruments to pollute less; second point is related to the environment but in a different way. Musk wanted to improve the transportation systems, make them more efficient, not dependent from fossil fuel, and so pointing to electric energy. Third point, he firmly believed that humans, proceeding at this tech improvement rate, would necessarily need to become a multiplanetary species, as an important step in expanding, if not preserving, the consciousness of human life and to do so he wanted to reignite space exploration.

So in 2001, Musk conceptualized “Mars Oasis”, a project to land an experimental greenhouse on the surface of Mars in an attempt to regain public interest in space exploration and to increase the budget of NASA. He decided then to travel to Russia with Adeo Ressi, his college partner, and an aerospace expert to begin a series of meetings to buy rocket that would bring the payload to Mars. Musk wasn’t really considered by the companies for his lack of rocket knowledge and so the first meeting ended without any progress. Musk felt that it was his right to be part of this idea, so he read and studied various books on the subject.

In 2002 the group met again with Kosmotras, and were offered one rocket for 8$ million, however, this was seen by Musk as too expensive; Musk consequently stormed out of the meeting. On the flight back from Moscow, Musk realized that he could start a company that could build the affordable rockets he needed.

Using approximately 100$ million from his PayPal cash-out, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies or simply SpaceX in June 2002. The newly CEO and CTO calculated that the raw materials for building a rocket actually were only 3 percent of the sales price of a rocket at the time. By applying vertical integration and the modular approach from software engineering, SpaceX could cut launch price by a factor of ten and still enjoy a 70-percent gross margin, and vertical integration’s reason was Musk’s belief that reusable rockets couldn’t be built with components from pre-existing aerospace suppliers. The first launch of the Falcon 1, name given to remember the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars, costed just 6$ million, while usually the average cost at that time was about 25$ million. Musk had been able to lower to a quarter of its actual cost the launch by building the smallest useful orbital rocket instead of risking bankruptcy for his company with a more complex rocket that might have failed.

Even if the path was not easy and nearly led the company to failure, in 2006, after Falcon 9, a newly developed rocket, had a successful launch, SpaceX was awarded a contract from NASA to continue the development and test of the SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle and Dragon spacecraft in order to transport cargo to the International Space Station. In 2008, 1.6$ billions was the reward NASA Commercial Resupply Services program gave to SpaceX for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the Space Station. Musk was living in great distress, working day and night to solve his company’s problems, until with the funds of NASA he was able to focus again of his long term scope, the human colonization of Mars.

On 22 December 2015, SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of its Falcon rocket back at the launch pad. It was the first time in history that such a feat had been achieved by an orbital rocket and it was a significant step towards rocket reusability, lowering the costs of access to space. This first stage recovery was replicated several times in 2016 by landing on an autonomous spaceport drone ship, an ocean based recovery platform. In late 2016 SpaceX intends to launch its Falcon Heavy rocket, which will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world.

In 2015, the company asked permission to the federal government to begin testing for a project that aims to build a constellation of 4000 satellites capable of beaming the Internet to the entire globe, including remote regions which currently have not internet access.

Musk stated in June 2016 that the first unmanned flight of the larger Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) spacecraft is aimed for departure to the red planet in 2022, to be followed by the first manned MCT Mars flight departing in 2024. He has expressed his interest in someday travelling to the planet, stating ‘I’d like to die on Mars, just not on impact.’ To achieve it, Musk plans to establish cargo flights to Mars, getting the first delivery there by 2018. A rocket every two years or so after that could provide a base for the people arriving in 2025 after a launch in 2024. Musk believes that by 2035 at the latest, there will be thousands of rockets flying a million people to Mars, in order to enable a self-sustaining human colony.

Tesla Motors

Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. The name is of course inspired by Nikola Tesla, a Serbian inventor that wanted to change the world at the beginning of the 20th century.

Elon Musk was the controlling investor in the first financing round in 2004 and became a chairman in the board of directors as well as an fundamental actor in the operations thanks to the 7.5$ million spent in the project. He truly believed in Tesla and wanted to change the public opinion over electric cars. The primary goal was to start with a premium, high-end vehicle, to catalyse the attention and attract affluent investors, as to emulate typical technological-product life cycles and initially enter the automotive market with an expensive. As the company, its products, and consumer acceptance matured, it had to move into larger, more competitive markets at lower price points.

After having consulted on the strategy, there had been other rounds of investment were Musk contributed substantially, always leading in the capital invested and able to attract friends in the tech community as Sergey Brin and Larry Page, but the actual first model wasn’t yet in production. In 2008, following the financial crisis, Musk assumed leadership and became CEO, avoiding bankruptcy by firing 25% of Tesla employees. The Tesla Roadster came out in 2006, but just as a prototype, and finally in 2008 the production began and Musk had decision making for the product design at a detailed level.

The Roadster is an all-electric sports car that was able to raise 187$ million, but wasn’t sold as much as wanted, just 147 cars. The awareness in the market was spread. Many people were finally understanding that electric cars were not just slow and boring cars, but could also attach to their environment-friendly etiquette the emotion that could give a real sports car. Later on in 2009, the next model of Tesla was announced, the Model S, bringing a huge wave of hype for Tesla, so much that Daimler AG decided to acquire 10% of Tesla, giving them the boost needed continue develop the model S.

In June 2009, Tesla had is turnaround. First it was approved the receiving of a low interest loan of 465$ million by the United States government as an incentive to 16 produce non-polluting vehicles and to further develop the battery technology. Then, at the end of the month, the 29th, Tesla Motors launched its initial public offering (IPO) raising 226$ million for the company. After Ford Motor Company in 1956, Tesla was the first American car maker to go public.

It was time for the company of Palo Alto to proceed to the next model in its business strategy. After the low-volume high-price Roadster, it was the Model S time with its mid-volume mid-price. Finally the delivering of cars began in 2012.

Model S was a huge success for Tesla, so much that car market competitors began feel the pressure and began to enter in the alternative-fuel market. They were amazed on how a small Californian start-up, run by people who knew nothing about car business, had such success. In order to allow quick charge for the new Model S, Tesla began to build a network of fast charging stations, that had to be spread all over to allow costumers a quick and efficient way to charge in case of long journeys.

The business was running good, Tesla had many collaborations with other car makers (Mercedes, Smart, Toyota) and decided to make available to everyone their patents. The reasons expressed for this stance included attracting and motivating talented employees, as well as to accelerate the mass market advancement of electric cars for sustainable transport. In the same year, Musk reduced his salary to one dollar. And, similar to Steve Jobs and others, the remainder of his compensation was in the form of stock and performance-based bonuses.

In 2015 it was the turn of the Model X to be put in production. Still being a mid-volume mid-price vehicle, but aiming at the SUV market. Well accepted after his first days, Tesla wanted to become a company with almost 100% of vertical integration, controlling all the supplies needed for their cars. That’s why they decided to establish in Nevada, the GigaFactory, an immense industrial site completely focused in the production of batteries. The plant, with the cost of about 5$ billion, would employ 6,500 people and reduce Tesla Battery costs by almost 30%. The state of Nevada helped to make this come true through a 1.3$ billion tax incentive.

17 In March 2016, Tesla revealed his latest model, Model 3, the high-volume low-price car that Musk wanted to be named Model E, but was negated by the fact that Ford already owned that copyright. Musk wanted the first three models to spell S-E-X but settled with ‘S3X”. However, the digit ‘3’ will be stylized like three horizontal bars, making it indistinguishable from the ‘E’ in Tesla’s logo.

Apart from Musk’s strange naming criteria, Model 3 has been the biggest one week launch of any product ever. Tens of thousands of people were reported waiting in lines to reserve their spot. During the Model 3 unveiling event, it was revealed that over 115,000 people had reserved the Model 3 prior to the event. As of April 7, 2016, one week after the unveiling, Tesla Motors reported over 325,000 reservations, more than triple the 107,000 Model S cars sold by the end of 2015.

The cash in of the company has unprecedented records. Musk announced plans for other projects, even in other vehicle categories; he is continuously improving the autonomous driving experience and enlarging his partnership deals with other companies. Up to now Musk owns 22% of Tesla and it is the project that occupies him the most.

Hyperloop

In August 2013, Elon Musk revealed a concept he had idealized for some time. His project was about a high speed transportation system that would use pressurized capsules travelling inside tubes with reduced pressure powered by air compressors, similar to the old post office sorting system. The mechanism for releasing the concept was an alpha-design document that, in addition to scoping out the technology, outlined a notional route where such a transport system might be built: between the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area. Musk decided to establish the foundations of his concept and create design competitions for students and others to build Hyperloop. This proposal would make travel cheaper than any other transportation system for long distances. The alpha design was proposed to use a partial vacuum to reduce aerodynamic drag, which it is theorized would allow for high- speed travel with relatively low power, with certain other features like air-bearing skis and an inlet compressor to reduce air drag. The alpha design document estimated the total cost of an LA-to-SF Hyperloop system at about 6$ billion. With the help of engineers of Tesla and SpaceX, the track for testing is under construction.

Developments in high-speed rail have historically been impeded by the difficulties in managing friction and air resistance, both of which become substantial when vehicles approach high speeds. The Hyperloop concept would eliminate these obstacles by employing magnetically levitating trains in evacuated or partly evacuated tubes, allowing for speeds of thousands of miles per hour. Nowadays there are many proposed routes for the Hyperloop system and Musk is working in collaboration with many countries to achieve this goal. Also, as if he didn’t knew it, if Hyperloop would be a success if would also be the perfect transportation system for a future Mars colony.

Solar City and Open AI

Solar City was founded in 2006 by two brothers, Peter and Lyndon Rive, on the suggestion of a concept by Elon Musk, their cousin, now chairman and largest shareholder. They idea was simple: installing solar panels would decrease the effects of global warming, a concept stressed deeply by Musk. The company grew enormously already in the first year thanks to a marketing campaign without equal and to the many advantages offered to the costumer. In 2007 it was already the market leader in California and in 2013 the second largest solar installation company in the United States. Since his three companies were doing so good, Tesla, SpaceX and Solar City, Elon wanted to put them under a save roof with each one covering the shoulders of the other. So in 2016, SpaceX acquires 90$ million of Solar City stock while Tesla formally submitted a merging contract with the reason that integrating Tesla batteries and solar power would be a perfect composition. As of now Musk owns 22% of Solar City.

Open AI is a research company created by Elon Musk in 2015 specialized in the development of artificial intelligence. There is a great concern of Musk about AI because he thinks that it would become a very powerful tool that the humans would probably not be able to counteract unless with specific rules set in the programming of the system. His idea is to make it available to everyone in a safe and beneficial way, without letting privates or governments be able to use it power for illicit tasks.