Elon Musk: The Living Mad Genius

Elon Musk: The Living Mad Genius

So I recently finished Ashlee Vance’s “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.” It’s definitely a fun and interesting view into the life of someone I’ve been very interested in learning about for a while now. The author originally did not get the blessings of Elon and just went on to investigate and research by himself because Elon finally said that he would be a part of it and help out to hopefully at least give some input into a book being written about him.

Many of us know Elon as the PayPal Co-Founder who went on to found Tesla, SpaceX, and is a majority holder and chairman of SolarCity. SolarCity is probably the one that is mentioned least in the news, but is still very interesting in the work they are doing, the pace they’re doing it at, and the ultimate vision they are trying to accomplish. It’s also very interesting to see how these three companies have become intertwined to help each other grow.

Reading the book, I felt like I could see a bit of myself in Elon. I am by no way saying that I’m an intellectual genius by any right. What I am saying is that I might be similarly crazy HAHA. What do I mean by this? People who know me would probably say that I’m a bit all over the place and that I have a lot of things on my mind. I might have a lot of things that I want to accomplish with seemingly no plan on how to get there. I’m definitely a risk taker and have probably grown into that as I grew up. I would also say that when I have a plan to do something I will try my best to get it done.

As I read about Elon’s journey to where he is now, I have nothing but respect and at the same time, what he went through would give a normal person ulcers and probably through them into a mental asylum. In the book he definitely went through some health struggles that were connected to the stress he put himself through. I hope that I don’t pick up these habits from him. Let’s just say I hope to pick up the good habits and not the bad ones.

When you read about his journey from Austrailia to school, to starting his first company Zip2 to PayPal to what we know now with Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity, it’s really inspiring to see how much ambition this man has to accomplish what he set out to do.

He is very much so a true entrepreneur in every sense of the word even though he runs some very large and currently established companies. He is quick to learn and move. He’s put the mantra fail quick and get back up to great use through his two companies. He’s a tremendous risk taker. He’s also very good at bringing in the right people and inspiring them to work hard for this dream that he has. Hopefully I can do the same with my companies and keep them working with me in the time to come. I need to do a much better job at seeing the vision of where we’re going with my companies.

The question I need to ask myself is what is my end vision of Sunrise Energy Solutions and Auto Haus Designs. Where would I like to see them in a couple of years? How can I grow them?

It’s a great book for people who want to understand the life and mind of the man behind PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX. I highly recommend it since it’s also just very well written and entertaining. I would readily say he’s a living mad genius. I’m excited to see what else he’s going to do in the years to come.