Category: Elon Musk

Introduction

Tesla, formerly known as Tesla Motors, is an American automotive company specializing in manufacturing electric cars, automotive engines, and solar panels. Tesla was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who was later joined by Elon Musk, who serves as a present Chairman and Chief Executive officer of Tesla. Tesla owns multiple production and assembly units wide across the World, primarily operated from Fremont, California.

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Tesla’s Organizational Structure

As explained by Elon Musk, the CEO, in the “Master Plan, Part Deux” memo released in 2017, the official aim and objective of Tesla is to:

• Generate demand and drive sales up for TESLA Motor’s electric car
• Build long-term brand awareness and manage corporate reputation
• Manage TESLA’s existing customer base to create loyalty and customer referrals
• Make its car completely Autonomous and affordable to most customer base
• Educate consumers about TESLA’s goals to improve the future
• Start the production of Model 3 and increase the waiting list for Model S and Model X from 10,000 to 20,000 cars

Looking into the organizational Structure of Tesla, Tesla follows a traditional form of corporate structure to control the managerial workflow of the organization. Tesla has a functional or U-form organization structure that considers organizational structure as its defining characteristic. Key characteristics of Tesla’s Organisation structure are

Function-Based Hierarchy – Tesla, as an organization, forms groups or departments based on its business function. This feature helps to maintain strict managerial control of the organization.

Centralization – Tesla uses centralization to maintain uniformity and manage control over the entire organization through a central group. Divisions – Tesla uses divisional categorization such as Geography, financial margins, and automotive and technology demarcation to implement and customize strategies.

Tesla’s Organizational Culture

Talking about the appropriateness of Tesla’s structure and how it supports and facilitates the achievement of its objectives, we have to contemplate the pros and Cons of the current organizational structure with reference to its improvement from the past. The positive side of following a functional form of organizational structure is that it highly influences accountability, information access, and decision-making activities with the organization making workflow processes centralized and hierarchy based. The lower side of Tesla’s corporate-based organizational structure is that it poses limitations on:

• Operational expansion in the global market
• Ability to implement new strategies
• Manage its operational activities and leadership effectiveness.
• Empowers rigidity and adaptability due to global centralization
• Highly centralized, leading to Anchor Bureaucracy

To address this disadvantage, it is recommended that Tesla reform its organizational structure to increase the level of autonomy and transparency. A corporate structure with a higher degree of decentralization tends to be more effective in creating competitiveness. Well, in the past, Tesla and Elon, as the Chief Executive Officers, have considered many strategy management approaches to re-organize and de-centralize to adapt to the changing business environment.

Some of them worth mentioning are as follows:

1. Flattening its Management structure:

In a memo released on May 14, 2018, Chief Executive Elon Musk told company employees in a memo that Tesla is implementing “a thorough reorganization of our company” that includes a “flattening of the management structure” to streamline its executive operations, improve communication, combining functions that are successful and trimming activities that are not vital. The memo states:

“To ensure that Tesla is well prepared for the future, we have been undertaking a thorough reorganization of our Company. As part of the reorg, we are flattening the management structure to improve communication, combining functions where sensible, and trimming activities that are not vital to the success of our mission.

To be clear, we will continue to hire rapidly in critical hourly and salaried positions to support the Model 3 production ramp and future product development.
Thanks,
Elon”

2. Consideration of going private:

As of 7th August 2018, Elon Musk stated, ‘I am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.’ on Tesla’s blog. Elaborating on that, Elon quoted that Tesla’s status as a public company puts enormous pressure on the Company to make decisions that may be right for a given quarter but not necessarily right for the Company’s long-term growth, so we would look forward to considering going private.

However, on Aug 24th, 2018, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that he is no longer seeking to take his electric-car Company private after indicating that both he and the Tesla Board of Directors had made the decision for the Company to remain traded on the public stock markets, which concluded what had been weeks of speculation about Tesla going Private.

Compatibility between Structure and Culture

Tesla’s culture represents the Human side of the organization, which supports the creation of human resources necessary for the delivery of innovative products in the global automotive industry. Tesla’s organizational culture values workers’ behavior and decision, which directly impacts the competence of the Company.

Overall, Tesla follows an innovative and problem-solving type of culture that motivates and encourages employees to develop new ideas and solutions which can profit the Company to facilitate the accomplishment of the Company’s goals. The development of innovative products and making them happen through its human resource is the ultimate motto of Tesla’s organizational culture. Key features or sub-cultures of Tesla’s organizational culture are as follows.

Move Fast – Tesla’s corporate culture facilitates business resilience through speedy responses to current issues and challenges in the global automotive industry. In this regard, Tesla emphasizes employee capability to respond rapidly to changing market trends and requirements.

Do the Impossible – Tesla’s corporate culture encourages employees to think out of the box and go beyond conventional methods to bring in new ideas that support the Company’s Innovation.

Constantly Innovate – Tesla believes in and emphasizes Innovation as their main priority. This feature of the organizational culture focuses on the continuous nature of Innovation at the Company.

Reason from “First Principles.” – Tesla promotes problem solving and reasoning as a special mode of inquiry. In this regard, Tesla roots factors to understand and solve problems in the real World.

Think Like Owners – Tesla’s culture motivates employees to develop a mindset that makes them think that they own the organization. This mindset can support business development, corporate vision, and mission statements making employees take responsibility and accountability in their jobs and in the overall performance of the multinational business. We are ALL IN – To improve synergy within groups, Tesla encourages the participation of all employees into teams observing teamwork as a unifying aspect of company culture.

Talking about the appropriateness of Tesla’s culture, it is certain that the Culture is driven by Innovation and works closely to achieve the Company’s objective. The positive side of such a culture is that it helps organizations to design and develop innovative products that are based on high-end technology and competent over market competitors. However, seeing, from an employee perspective, there could be immense pressure and responsibility to be innovative and stable to bring new ideas to the table.

This culture of the Company can also exploit employees’ intelligence and expertise until they are useful to the Company and let them down after usage. Chances are that committed employees can be taken as a luxury than a necessity. A total lack of stewardship is another factor to consider. Are the structure and culture compatible? Do they reinforce and complement each other?

Strengths and Weaknesses of Tesla’s Leadership

After thorough analysis and contemplation of all pros and cons of Tesla’s Organisational Structure and Culture, I see that there is a huge business gap that has to be addressed to facilitate the achievement of the Company’s objective. Here are some of my observations to support the opinion that the structure and culture of Tesla are not compatible with nor complement each other.

Tesla follows a centralized corporate structure that considers the CEO as the sole decision-making body. This principle inversely conflicts with their We are ALL IN subculture, which claims to include all employees in bringing Innovation to the Company. This draws an eye to the authenticity and effectiveness of Tesla’s culture and its impact on the structure. Tesla’s structure is function-based and constantly demands Innovation from the employee end. This could sometimes not consider employee socialization, the so-claimed relationship-building Cultural attribute of Tesla.

With recent developments happening in the Company’s structure (Going private, Request for more subsidiaries, Urgency to release Model 3), it is lucid that Tesla is running on a weak culture with no real vision or expected value return for performance.

2. Analyze Tesla’s leadership

Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Tesla’s leadership. Although Elon Musk is clearly relevant, don’t focus exclusively on him.

Despite being the youngest automotive Company compared to its market competitors, Tesla has succeeded in coming out as an innovative company with enormous strength that is profiting from the sustainability of the Company in the longer run. However, its greatest strength could be its biggest liability too. Though Tesla’s leadership has shifted the auto industry to manufacturing highly ambitious products, it has equally suffered to keep up the value due to its unthought leadership decisions.

A closer look at Tesla’s stock in the market portrays a different story insisting that the situation is not all black and white as it is said to be. So in order to better understand the internal strategic factors with respect to leadership management and its impact on the competitiveness of Tesla, here is a look at the strengths and weaknesses of Tesla’s leadership.

Strengths:

Transformational: Undoubtedly, Tesla is best known for its out of box thinking and innovative product lines, which makes the Company unique from its competitors since day one. Innovation serves as a primary backbone of Tesla, which plays a great part in contributing to organizational business growth and improvement. The behind-the-scenes executives are the ones to be appreciated for this accomplishment. Introducing World’s first fully electric sports car, Building its most recent Model 3 most affordable electric car of the era are some honorable mentions.

Control over execution and Production – Despite the challenges in expanding the business and failing to deliver the targets on time, Tesla’s leadership has remained committed to executing its innovative and ambitious ideas into actions for the future. The solid visualization combined with internal strategic management has helped Tesla be where it is right now.

Negative Power and Influence

Authoritative: As known by now, Tesla follows a centralized structure with top executives being the decision-making body, which makes Tesla Bureaucratic. Tesla’s leadership has failed to take Tesla global; in terms of the Business marketplace, Tesla suffers limited market presence, which restricts the Company from global expansion and overseas stability. Going by stocks, Tesla seems to concentrate its production mostly in the United States (due to high demand rates, value for price acceptance, and supply chain activities), which has made it hard for the Company to expand in the international market.

Poor predictability and focus on profits: With continued efforts to expand and come up as the most combat innovative automotive company, Tesla’s management has spent a significant amount of cash in Research and development trying to transform its car models. This has left the Company with a high load of debts marking only 4 billion in sales after an investment of 200 million for production. Also, CEO Elon’s decision to go private to save subsidiaries has raised high-level questions proving Tesla’s leadership fails in terms of the Company’s focus on turning profits into stocks.

Conclusion

Though power differentials remain high in Tesla, Elon Musk, the current CEO and chairman of Tesla, remains relevant to the topic in influencing the power play within the Company. In recent months Elon’s impulsive behavior and personal meltdown have taken a great toll on the Company’s reputation and stock prices. ‘I think the allure of Tesla, and the danger of Tesla, is Elon Musk,’ Damodaran said. ‘ The idea of announcing that he had “funding secured” for a go-private takeover of his Company and then reversing it in 17 days is just beyond the pale, which ultimately slammed the Company’s stocks within these 17 days. Poor decision-making, pressuring employees for Innovation, and improper social communication all at once sabotage Company’s internal environment resulting in greater fallback.

References

1. “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future” by Ashlee Vance
2. “Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age” by W. Bernard Carlson
3. “The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time” by Jim McKelvey

Introduction

Throughout time, humanity looked towards the stars. Furthermore, most of that was to expand knowledge. In recent years humans have been trying to colonize Mars this century. However, some people are skeptical, thus, saying this is not an intelligent choice or stating this is a waste of time and resources. And humans are still at least five years off from a launch from a manned mission to Mars.

In addition, Elon Musk has said before that the BFR (Big F****** Rocket) tests will launch in late 2019. There are some galvanizing and honest reasons why we should colonize Mars from some impressive names. Such as Neil deGrasse Tyson, Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, Michio Kaku, and of course, Elon Musk. These men state reasons ranging from possible doomsday of nuclear fallout global warming to the possibility of running out of resources, extinction, and the possibility of finding life.

The Visionary Endeavor of Elon Musk

In 2013, Elon Musk created an aerospace company called SpaceX with the vision to revolutionize rocketry. He invented rockets that are reusable. Thus to add, his true intentions ultimately would be to send a manned mission to Mars. Instead of burning up in the atmosphere, they landed intact on Earth. However, he had enough money to only fund three rockets. All three rockets failed and exploded (Anslow Louis). Nevertheless, he had barely enough money to scrap a fourth rocket which was a success.

Thus, his true intentions ultimately would be to send a manned mission to Mars. Ever since that one day, SpaceX has been creating facts of what people in the 60s called fiction. However, all this comes down to why and how humans would go there. One of the most popular reasons that Elon Musk and most other believers say why humans need to colonize Mars is that we may not depend on Earth for long or else humans will die one day, and we do not know when that day is to come. Dinosaurs lived for 165 million years; regardless, the most evidence we may find of them are just fossils.

If humanity is to thrive, then humans have to expand. Renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has said, ‘If the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before’ (qtd. In Orwig). Stephen Hawkings was a bold supporter of colonizing Mars and believed that humans must push towards this great leap forward. Thus, if we put humans on a different planet, this may increase the possibility of human civilization’s prosperity for the “…existence thousands if not millions of years from now.” (Business Insider)

Survival and Prosperity of Humanity

Another popular reason why humans should colonize Mars is the possibility of finding life. For all of the time, humans have never found life other than Earth. However, these two planets are very similar two each other. “The Earth and Mars are a bit like fraternal twins that slowly grew apart. Four billion years ago, both planets were warm, sheathed by protective atmospheres, and carved with rivers and pools of liquid water….” (The Atlantic).

Earth and Mars were once planets that shared many similarities to each other. Nonetheless, Mars has changed into a desert planet. Contrarily, There has been evidence of ice on the planet’s surface. From what humans know, all life needs water to live. Subsequently, this means that another worldly species, such as a unicellular organism, may live. For humans, this would mark one of the best discoveries and owing to proof of otherworldly life.

Conclusion

In retrospect, colonizing Mars should be something humans should strive for this century. The reasons are significant. Even just going to Mars and only having a colony would be a great leap for mankind. Humans may soon enough call themselves a multi-planetary species.

References

1. “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future” by Ashlee Vance
2. “Elon Musk: Inventing the Future” by Ashlee Vance
3. “Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future” by David West

Introduction

With the recent growth of startup companies and the economy, the value of specific market points has become more critical than ever. An excellent example of this is Elon Musk. Elon Musk is a business magnate, investor, and tycoon; however, his most defining characteristic may be his ability to value cash flow over the stock price. Understanding Elon Musk’s business tactics can help you diversify your portfolio and create healthy income streams. Here are the investment lessons you must learn from Elon Musk.

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Investment Lessons From Elon Musk

Elon Musk is known for being extremely transparent about his business tactics and processes. He readily shares what he has learned throughout his life to help others succeed. This is one of the many reasons why Elon Musk is a great example for anyone looking to build a business or diversify their portfolio.

Let’s take a look at some of the lessons Elon Musk has to offer.

1. Be persistent and never give up on your dreams

In life, as in business, it is easy to get discouraged. After all, many will walk away from difficult tasks and goals. However, those who persevere are able to achieve their goals. What are the best investment lessons Elon Musk has learned? How did he go from Selling Tesla Cars to becoming the CEO of Tesla Inc. (TSLA)?

How did he build a company that became one of the most valuable in the world? The answer to both of these questions is the same: relentless passion, focused determination, and the will to succeed. If you want to be successful in your own business, these are the lessons you must learn from Elon Musk.

2. Understand the power of exponential growth

Many startups grow exponentially, but few recognize the power of exponential growth. As a business leader, Elon Musk understood the importance of this concept early on. When building Tesla, he focused on creating a product that customers truly desired. This sent the company’s valuation soaring. If you want to grow your portfolio or your income streams, focusing on what the customer truly wants is a great way to ensure exponential growth.

3. Leverage The Power of Compounding

One of the best investment lessons that you can learn from Elon Musk is the power of compounding. By reinvesting his earnings and reinvesting in himself, Musk was able to turn a small amount of money into a massive fortune. This is because the value of his investments was growing due to an underlying factor called compounding. Compounding is a mathematical phenomenon where the value of an investment grows because of previous investments in that same asset. It essentially means that the more you invest, the more you earn in return. If you want to ensure your portfolio is Compounding properly, focus on reinvesting your earnings, and you will be surprised at how quickly you can turn $1 into $5, $50, or more.

4. Know The Importance of Being Bold

Another important lesson you can learn from Musk is the importance of being bold. When others were content to stick with the status quo, Musk constantly innovated and pushed himself to achieve more. Every employee, leader, and manager must exhibit this type of leadership if they want to see their goals achieved. This is essential in business, as it allows you to stay ahead of your competition. If you want to be the next Elon Musk, being bold and adopting new technologies, business models, and processes is critical.

5. Understand The Power of Focus

One of the keys to Musk’s success is his focus. He has always been laser-focused on his goals, which has helped him achieve incredible things. When you have a mind-numbingly large goal, being able to focus on it exclusively cannot be easy. That is why it is so crucial for entrepreneurs to establish robust, aligned company cultures.

In Tesla’s case, Musk has made it clear that he wants the company to be 100% focused on lowering sustainable energy prices for customers. This has been achieved in part by cutting costs and increasing production rates. In fact, Tesla has achieved such impressive results that they have become a threat to the utility sector, which had been the domain of the big three ( BATX, IBM, MSFT ) car makers until now.

6. Take calculated risks

In business, as in life, taking risks can have many rewards or consequences. At Tesla, one of the world’s most innovative companies, failure is an option. But that doesn’t stop Tesla CEO Elon Musk from thinking big. Musk has adopted a different strategy than most executives in the corporate world. He is known for taking calculated risks in pursuit of his goals. In his early years at Tesla, he pushed the envelope on spending and borrowing.

Now, he’s busy projecting the long-term target of Tesla’s stock price in the hope that investors will back him up when he takes the company private. Musk’s predictions are well within the box if Tesla’s past is any indication. But in the future, we may see Tesla operate differently, which could spell disaster for some investors.

7. Think outside the box

Elon Musk is undoubtedly one of the most innovative and influential entrepreneurs of our time. He is the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, two of the most successful companies in the world. As a venture capitalist, he is also known for being one of the earliest investors in companies like PayPal and Bitcoin. One thing that unites all of Musk’s ventures is an emphasis on innovation.

From using PayPal to reduce credit card transaction fees to establishing the first commercial spaceport, Musk has a track record of thinking outside the box. In addition to being a successful entrepreneur, Musk is also a great investor. Through Tesla and SpaceX, he has accumulated a large amount of cash which he uses to invest in startups in the early stages. If you want to learn from the best, follow Musk’s investing example and think outside the box.

8. Stay ahead of the curve

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is known for his unparalleled visions and goals. While many are envious of his vision of a sustainable future, millions of people respect his innovative thinking and entrepreneurial spirit. Elon Musk has always been ahead of the curve as a business leader.

In high school, he started a company producing Maritime Heritage exhibits and was named CEO of Tesla when he was just 28 years old. Since then, he has made a name for himself as one of the world’s most innovative and successful business leaders.

9. Think about long-term

Elon Musk is a famous entrepreneur, investor, and scientist known for being extremely proactive in thinking about the future. In addition to being the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Musk is also the founder of PayPal and part-owner of the Los Angeles Lakers. When it comes to investing, Musk’s approach is to focus on two things: future generations and parallel universes. Overall, Musk is a strong proponent of solid investment always.

10. Be prepared for anything

Elon Musk is, without a doubt, one of the most innovative entrepreneurs of our time. He’s conceived of and launched companies that have changed how we live, work, and even travel. And while he’s known for being challenged, his approach to business has received widespread praise. In fact, it’s often noted that Elon Musk’s focus on long-term thinking is rather rare among entrepreneurs. This makes him an ideal mentor for anyone looking to build a portfolio of the best investment lessons that you must learn from Elon Musk.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to become a successful investor, you can learn some essential lessons from Elon Musk. First and foremost, don’t be afraid to take risks. Musk has made some bold bets in his career, and while not all of them have paid off, his willingness to take risks has been a major factor in his success. Second, always think long-term.

Musk isn’t interested in short-term gains but rather in building companies that will change the world and generate long-term value. Finally, don’t be afraid to put in the hard work. Musk is known for putting in long hours and working tirelessly to achieve his goals. So what are you waiting for? Start learning from Elon Musk today, and you could be on your way to becoming a successful investor!

References

1. “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future” by Ashlee Vance
2. “The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution” by Walter Isaacson

Introduction

The last space mission to exit Earth’s atmosphere and land on the moon was on December 14, 1972. Apollo 17 carried astronauts into lunar orbit to traverse the rocky landscape of our moon for the last time.

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SpaceX’s Newest Mission

During the past few years, the interest in space research has been steadily increasing, with private companies partaking in the field specialization. Now with the success of companies such as SpaceX, it is likely that we will see a Lunar mission within the next decade. The ability to reuse rockets makes human-led space exploration and colonization possible in our lifetime.

SpaceX, a company in need of private funding, announced early last year that they plan to carry two passengers around the moon onboard their Falcon Heavy Rocket, which has made headlines in the last few months. Following that trend, Elon Musk, on behalf of SpaceX, has recently announced their intentions to carry eight passengers onboard the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) that is in development. Privately sold tickets that contribute a substantial amount of funding for this mission were sold to the successful fashion innovator Yusaku Maezawa, or “MZ,” as he likes to go by.

MZ also announced during that conference that he invited six to eight of the world’s best artists to inspire them to create their own masterpieces (SpaceX 2018). Project #dearmoon is planned for the year 2023. Although Elon has been ambitious with other mission timelines in the past, it is vital that this mission is successful on behalf of all space research.

The implementation of BFR on Earth

The BFR is the most capable rocket designed thus far. The creation of this rocket is an incredible stepping stone in human technology. At 118 meters tall, the BFR will tower over any previously manufactured rocket to date (Mosher 2018). Its predecessor, the Falcon Heavy, stood at 70 meters tall. Elon previously stated, “He proposes using his still-in-the-design phase rocket [BFR] for launching passengers from New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes flat” (Dunn 2017). This ship would be traveling at approximately 303-km/s, 20 times faster than your average commercial flight. Time spent traveling would decrease dramatically, whereas previously, it would take upwards of 15 hours to reach Shanghai.

Assuming this is implemented into our transportation system appropriately, the creation of multiple shuttles could entirely change our global economy. This will enhance the positive effects of globalization we see, allowing trade and travel to happen much faster. Elon also noted later that “A seat should cost about the same as a full-fare economy plane ticket” (Dunn 2017). The demand for these tickets would surely drive the cost up aggressively; however, if implemented correctly, an economy-fare travel option capable of moving across our planet this fast will certainly improve the global trade market.

BFR, Our Bus Around the Solar System

Implementation of this rocket will certainly change trade on Earth. However, the ability to travel across our solar system consistently is the next huge step for mankind entirely. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, has mentioned his intentions to create a Moon and Mars base. The first cargo missions to Mars are expected sometime in the next decade, and the success of project #dearmoon would certainly add to its probability (Dunn 2017).

With the human population growing exponentially, it seems obvious that we should focus a large portion of our budget on expanding life to other planets. The innovations in technology humans have achieved in the last century are remarkable and allow for the possibility of innovation we haven’t imagined yet. It is undoubtedly possible that the success of the BFR will promote a rapid increase in space technology. SpaceX funding will rely heavily on the success of this mission.

Conclusion

At the top of innovation, with the help of hundreds of incredible engineers and scientists, SpaceX has the sustainability of the human species at the top of its priorities. The success of missions in the next decade will provide us with foresight on human potential. It is extremely important for the future of our species to look towards the stars and continue to evolve new ideas into something as exceptional as the BFR. Also, for competitive companies to involve themselves in the space industry, if we want to see tangible effects of this project, maybe #dearmoon will inspire us, as not just a nation but a global collective, to assure the success of planetary colonization.

References

1. APOLLO 17 (AS-512). (n.d.). Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
2. Dunn, M. (09/27/2017). SpaceX: Rocket for the moon, Mars, and NY-to-Shanghai in 39 mins. AP Top News Package. Retrieved October 10, 2018.
3. Mosher, D. (09/18/18). Elon Musk just revealed the ‘final iteration’ of SpaceX’s biggest and most powerful rocket ship — take a look. Business Insider. Retrieved October 10, 2018.
4. Sharp, T. (2012, July 23). Saturn V Rockets & Apollo Spacecraft. Retrieved October 15, 2018, from https://www.space.com/16698-apollo-spacecraft.html
5. SpaceX. (2018, September 18). FIRST PASSENGER ON LUNAR BFR MISSION. Retrieved October 15, 2018, from https://www.spacex.com/news/2018/10/09/first-passenger-lunar-bfr-mission

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 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.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk is a South African entrepreneur and Business Leader. He is the Co-Founder of X.com which later became PayPal, The Boring Company, Zip2 and OpenAl. He is the CEO of Tesla, Co-founder, CEO of Neuralink and Chairman of SolarCity. (Baldwin, Kaufmann, Yoffie, 2018) He keeps challenging the process in order to solve as many problems as possible that humanity is facing such as; preventing the extinction of mankind by colonising the Mars, developing and improving electric cars without putting patents on any of its research fundings, technology for a better environment and a safer online payment method. (Vance, 2015)

Elon Musk’s accomplishments are not driven off of money or success. He wants to contribute as much as possible to society. Elon Musk is neither afraid or ashamed of a failure. He claims “that failure is an option and that if your visions wouldn’t fail by the first try your ideas are not innovating enough.” (Vance, 2015) Through-out his business career, he proved himself as a very talented strategic thinker, by dreaming the unreal and turning it into reality. Following his path one can learn to develop a successful business with nothing but your dreams and further achieve a better life and name for themselves.

Personal Trades

Elon Musk is the first child of an engineer and serial entrepreneur Errol and fashion model Maye Musk. He was born and lived all his childhood in Pretoria, South Africa. When Elon was just seventeen years old his parents divorced and he moved to Canada by himself. There he would spend the first year travelling around and took any odd jobs offered. (Vance, 2015) Since Elon Musk is gifted with a photographic memory and is blessed with an immense love for reading he did extraordinary in school and graduated with an undergraduate degree in economics and physics at the University of Pennsylvania.

One can assume that Elon Musk doesn’t hesitate to take an entrepreneurial risk since he grew up in South Africa where people live every day as if it is their last because of all the daily danger and violence they are facing. With a twitter account of 24 million followers, Elon is not afraid to speak for what he believes is right. However, what he shares with his followers is not always positive, some of his posts got him in trouble with public or even legally prosecuted. He tweeted things such as telling his Twitter followers that he is making Tesla private, (Fleishman, 2018) which led to loss of money within the stocks of Tesla.

However, since Elon Musk does not spend a penny on the advertisement the attention he gets due his tweets are helping him and his businesses to stay relevant to the public. Musk is clearly ahead of his time as he takes risks where others might hang back such as finding ways and solutions to give access to people stepping on the Mars. Elon Musk even stated that it was never about the money for him, but about solving and tackling the problems for the future of humanity or problems that could affect the future of humanity.

Problems

The era when Elon Musk decided to invest in the idea of online banking, was an era where no one was introduced to this idea. Furthermore, at the time Amazon had just started selling books, which compared to now is mind-blowing since Amazon is now known as an online store. Moreover, Musk started x.com with two other guys named Harris Fricker and Christopher Payne who then later left the company due to their ongoing issues with the company. (Vance, 2015)

However, Musk did not give up and was further persistent with how he ran his company leading to him gaining popularity after 1999. The company was gaining popularity very quickly, meaning the market was getting competitive. Confinity was one of their main competitors, who focused on expanding the web and how to make email based payments. They developed Paypal which was in competition with x.com. (Vance, 2015)

March 2000, x.com and Confinity had now joined forces to become one. The qualities that these two companies had complimented each other and worked well with the population’s needs and wants. Furthermore, Elon Musk at this time was the largest shareholder of the company. As the company further grew it started having more inside issues and at one point there was tension between him and the coworker, which led to him be replaced with Peter Thiel. However, this did not bring him down as he kept investing in the business and soon became one of the biggest shareholders of the company.

In 2001, X.com became what is known today as Paypal. The company’s revenue per year is $250 million. The company was offered at $1.5 billion and was accepted by Elon Musk in 2002 for $250 million. (Vance, 2015) After being financially stable by having invested in such a successful business, he was ready to settle down with his wife. He decided to move to Los Angeles with his wife and there he rediscovered his childhood hobby; space travel and rocket ships.

With the profit earned from PayPal he decided to take interest in space projects again. He joined the Mars society, which was a non-profitable company that brought together scientists and engineers who wanted to occupy Mars. The plan that he put together was to send a small robotic greenhouse to Mars to increase the interest of people in space. Furthermore, Musk took a trip to Russia to consult with the Russian government whether he could buy some “Intercontinental ballistic missiles” but unfortunately they dined his proposition of investing $20 million of his own money into this project. (Vance, 2015) After being rejected he concluded that he should invest this money into opening his own business.

Moreover, after some time he put his theory into practice, June 2002, Space Exploration Technologies was his reality to his once a dream. The factory was working on developing rockets and establishing a new name for this brand that Elon Musk had come up. (Baldwin, Kaufmann, Yoffie, 2018)

Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 in order to solve a lot of problems that humanity is facing but cannot prevent such as natural disasters. He built a sub-business in Nigeria called NigeriaSat-X that is building satellites that can monitor crop and manage weather disasters. SpaceX also targets other problems by space launches such as GPS to track poachers or using long-range communications to organise charities. (Johnkingsley, 2011)

Elon Musk’s Ideas for the Future Elon Musk has blown up in popularity this year for being the owner of the companies SpaceX, Tesla, Paypal, and many other famous companies. His main goal is to revolutionize transportation on Earth and even in space! With a net worth of 22 billion dollars, he is very important today. His approach to the 21st century is to go straight for what he wants, even if it seems impossible. The way Elon thinks of things is what seems impossible is a possibility to him which is where he thinks of these ideas.

Hyperloop

The Hyperloop is perhaps one of the most futuristic of his ideas. The goal for the Hyperloop is to be able to travel at extremely high speeds in a tunnel to get to somewhere like San Francisco from Los Angeles in 30 minutes. The Hyperloop is supposed to top out at about 700 mph. It has completed a successful test already but designs are still in the making for it. Something going this fast on the ground can be revolutionary for transportation, and the cost is going to be low too.

Colonizing Mars

Colonizing Mars has to be the most ambitious thing Elon Musk wants to do. His first stage of executing this plan was to make a greenhouse on the planet. According to Musk, lush foliage would “Reignite the thirst for space travel and restore funding to major institutions like NASA. Musk knows that the problem with executing this plan would be the cost of transport, but this problem is also getting resolved by him. He expects his company, SpaceX, to be able to commence the colonization plants sometime in the 2030s and have a colony on Mars set up by 2040. TrustedReviews.com states that “If we have a linear improvement in technology, as opposed to logarithmic, then we should have a significant base on Mars, perhaps with thousands or tens of thousands of people”. The first batch of people that are going to travel will need to pay their own way to Mars at a pricey cost of $500,000, but 2030 isn’t for another 11 years.

Internet Satellites

Elon Musk wants low-cost and unfettered internet access for all people to have. He means to do this by launching satellites into space. SpaceX is in the early creation stages of producing over 700 micro-satellites that can work together and make formations by grouping together. Each satellite will weigh 250 pounds, but the price totals out at 1 billion dollars each, so it might take a while. Reportedly, Musk is working with other companies to get this big project done.

Affordable Space Travel

SpaceX was to become a private space transport company. One of their overall goals was to dramatically decrease the price of space travel by a factor of 100. From this, it could kickstart possibilities of citizens being able to travel through space. In 2008, SpaceX was the first company to have a privately funded, liquid fuelled craft to orbit Earth. Also in 2010, they were the first to recover a launched spacecraft. Finally, SpaceX also launched cargo and docked it to the I.S.S. All of these, were on the lower end of prices for space travel which is why SpaceX was nominated to send human cargo to the I.S.S.

This may only be the start for Elon and all of his companies. Expect much more of these ideas to come up from him in the future.

Elon Reeve Musk FRS (born June 28, 1971) is a technology entrepreneur, investor, and engineer. He was born in Pretoria, South Africa. The interesting thing about Elon Musk is that he finished a degree in economics before he decided to study physics. He got into Stanford University but he dropped out days after because he wanted to become an entrepreneur.

By now he is well recognized all around the globe mostly because he is known as the co-founder of Tesla, Inc. But this isn’t his only contribution in the fields of engineering. He has been involved in many other projects and plays a part in a number of companies. What is particularly interesting about Elon is that he is a self-taught engineer as he mentions in a lot of his interviews. [2: Tesla, Inc. information ]

Here we are going to mention a number of his projects which changed the worlds as it is and left an inerasable mark on it. Elon’s first project was Zip2. Zip2 was a software which provided city guides to newspapers. The company was later sold for millions and he got a nice share out of it. [3: Zip2 was a company that provided and licensed online city guide software to newspapers.]

His second project is X.com which is probably an unknown company to most of people but the product of it is something that life now would probably not be the same. By merging X.com with another company they created PayPal. PayPal is now used in all spheres of society because this new virtual way of paying is rapidly taking over and is used in almost every part of the world. Via PayPal people can make online transactions which are safe and their users are trustful. Elon later left PayPal a bit before they were acquired by eBay, another huge company which changed the internet and the way of life. [4: PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American company operating a worldwide online payments system that supports online money transfers and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods like checks and money orders. ]

After that Elon was interested in space exploration. He founded SpaceX in 2002 in attempt to lower the transportation costs and colonizing Mars. The company produced quite a few spacecrafts and rockets. They are the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft (Dragon in 2010), the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (Dragon in 2012), the first propulsive landing for an orbital rocket (Falcon 9 in 2015), the first reuse of an orbital rocket (Falcon 9 in 2017), and the first private company to launch an object into orbit around the sun (Falcon Heavy’s payload of a Tesla Roadster in 2018). This is a huge step in space exploration and he is setting the way for future generations on how to approach space exploration. SpaceX has a number of future projects which even include transportation on earth which would replace airplanes. So called Starships would replace airplanes as the duration of the trip would be reduced by a lot. Long distance trips are said to take about half an hour. This would change transportation as a whole.

Another transportation project and probably the most known project of Elon Musk is Tesla, Inc. Tesla, Inc. (formerly Tesla Motors, Inc.) is an American automotive and energy company based in Palo Alto, California. The company specializes in electric car manufacturing and, through its SolarCity subsidiary, solar panel manufacturing. Tesla makes and sells cars which are powered by electricity and do not cause pollution. These cars are Tesla Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Roadster and Semi vehicles. Elon Musk did not found the company but he is a co-founder as he joined later. These cars are currently changing the car market and are raising in sales every day. They are getting exported to Europe more and more and will probably take over the market in a few years. The cars are made on every platform, so there is not a gas powered car that has an advantage over the Tesla models. They have incredible capabilities, they are fast, modern and are not a danger to the planet. Tesla models can be charged by home chargers and there are Superchargers set up all over US at the moment and will probably put them all over Europe as well. The time it takes to charge (30 minutes), it is longer than to charge gas but it is not that long to be unbearable. The battery has a projected length and can cover the mileage that is projected before it needs charging. At the moment the company is working on self-driving cars which will hopefully make transportation safer. [8: ]

Elon Musk is taking part in many more projects as SolarCity, Hyperloop, OpenAI, Neuralink , The Boring Company and such. He has even had time to venture into music. He released a rap single on April 2, named RIP Harambe.

In conclusion Elon Musk is one of the most influential people in the world at the moment. He has been involved in many projects that are changing our everyday life and he keeps on delivering new ideas that will change it even more. While others are too busy playing on their smartphones Elon Musk is sending shuttles into space, making self-driving cars and changing the world. His contribution to the society and technology as a whole cannot be diminished as the world would not be the same without him.

REFERENCES

1. Elon Musk : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
2. Tesla, Inc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla,_Inc.
3. Zip2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip2
4. Paypal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal
5. SpaceX: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX
6. Tesla: https://www.tesla.com/
7. Amir Bajraktarević, 170302090

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.