Reading Reflection No. 1

1.     You read about Elon Musk:

a.     What surprised you the most?

I was really surprised to know that Elon Musk played a huge role in PayPal’s success because I only knew Elon Musk as the CEO of Tesla Motors.  Musk discovered an entrepreneurship opportunity for internet banking. He invested $12M of his own money into a company called X.com which later merged with Confinity, the founders of PayPal.  PayPal was later purchased by eBay for $1.5B.

b.     What about Elon Musk did you most admire?

The characteristic I most admired about Elon Musk was his enormous ambition to revolutionize solar energy, space, and automotive industries and achieve the impossible.  He never thinks on a small scale, i.e. gaming industry, and develops concepts that has and will possibly improve human civilization.  People think his ideas are crazy and far-fetched such as creating civilization on Mars and the notion of an electric car that could rival most sports cars in speed, design, and most importantly, affordability.  But despite the reluctance of critics to support his ideas he continues to work tirelessly to make sure these “far-fetched” ideas are materialized.

c.     What about Elon Musk did you least admire?

The characteristic I least admire about Elon Musk is his treatment of his employees and lack of compassion.  For example, he once reprimanded and insulted an employee that was present for his child’s birth rather than attending an important company event.  Musk questioned the employee’s priorities.  He has no limit on how far he will push his employees to achieve perfection for his vision of Tesla Motors, Space X, and Solar City, even if it comes at the cost of severing great relationships.

d.     Did Elon Musk encounter adversity and failure?  If so, what did he do about it?

Yes, he encountered adversity and failure.  Tesla Motors faced a financial crisis just as other automotive companies did during the Great Recession in 2008.  Tesla Motors was almost bankrupt by the end of 2008 but the car sales team put together by Musk successfully secured hundreds of orders for the Model S just in time to announce the first quarter’s profits and sales.  The numbers convinced investors to put their money in Tesla, which raised the tens of millions of dollars needed to prevent the company from going bankrupt.

2.     What competencies did you notice that Elon Musk exhibited?

The most valuable and interesting competency of Musk is his ability to innovate and materialize unimaginable ideas.  He is constantly thinking “outside of the box”.  He has developed plans to colonize Mars and build a self-sustaining civilization on the planet.  Also, his great ability to recall information and visualize technology was amazing and was a major contributor to his huge success.

3.     Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

One part of the reading that really confused me was when the author began explaining ultra capacitors, which was mentioned several times in the book.  I became disinterested every time the the author referred to ultra capacitors.

4.     If you were able to ask two questions to Elon Musk, what would you ask?  Why?

a.     What do you think contributes mostly to your ambition and drive to turn far-fetched, unimaginable ideas into reality?  I would ask this question to understand the mindset of a person that has the confidence to know a concept or idea will be successful despite a large number of critics and experts that believe otherwise.

b.     Do you think there is a balance between pushing your employees to their full potential and taking care of your employees personal needs?  I would ask this question to understand why he pushes his employees so hard.

5.     What do you think Elon Musk’s opinion was of hard work?  Do you share that opinion?

His opinion of hard work is attaining the end goal of of a job “by any means necessary” and meeting unrealistic deadlines at all cost, even if it means putting the priority of your family second behind the job.  Elon Musk works an average of 80 hours per week, 7 days a week.  He also believes in the concept that all things can be achieved, no matter the circumstances and will fire anyone that says “I can’t”.  We don’t share the same opinion of hard work.  I believe my family comes before the task and goals that need to be achieved at my job.  My priorities are family, work, then play.