13A Reading Reflection: Elon Musk

Reading about Elon Musk:

What surprised me the most was that he is from South Africa, which I did not know. I have family that live in South Africa so it was cool to be able to connect with him and understand when he was discussing the areas he grew up in and what those areas are like.

I really admired Elon Musk's ability to view the world in such an entrepreneurial way. He has such drive and enters into markets everyone had either given up on such as the automotive industry or enters into unfamiliar territory such as space exploration.

While Elon Musk is very driven and intent on being successful in his ventures, I did not admire the way he handles his business and treats his workers. He seemed to justify it away, but he mistreats many who work in his company and has them overwork and is very critical.

Growing up in South Africa, Elon Musk definitely experienced adversity. He continuously brought up his rough childhood and his extremely tough father. He was also an outsider in school. With his photographic memory and tendency to share his knowledge, people did not jump at the opportunity to be his friend. As a result he was bullied and isolated. He took this time and read as much as he could and developed a very successful video game. He took the isolation and bullying in stride and let it drive him toward his dream of inventing and creating and ultimately moving to America.

Elon Musk definitely exhibits a lot of entrepreneurial competencies. His photographic memory enabled him to be quite knowledgable and good at researching his interests. He was also very driven and imaginative when it came to developing solutions to unmet needs. He is also good with facing risk as a result of the adversity he faced growing up. It is this ability to handle risk that enabled him to invest so much into the companies he runs today.

Something I read that confused me was that one of the few places you can buy a Tesla is in high end shopping malls. As someone with a retail minor, I was quite shocked to find out that fact because shopping malls are dying and continuously losing foot traffic. I was confused by the fact that someone as knowledgeable as Elon Musk would only sell his products in such a dead space. It made me question why he would make such a decision rather than having the cars sold in a different space.

If I could ask Elon Musk any two questions I would ask what first drew his attention to computers and the technology industry. The book frequently referenced how pulled he was to computers and how he was extremely insistent on getting one and how he so quickly learned some of the hardest skills to learn. So I am curious to know why he was so insistent on getting one and what first peaked his interest in computers. I would also ask why he chose to make some of the most expensive places in the US (and California) to base his companies. He mentioned always wanting to move to the US, but significantly increased his overhead costs as a result of where he chose to base his companies. But also he placed the companies so far from each other that he has to travel by jet to reach his offices in both places. I would love to know his reasoning for making such a decision and how he justifies the cost of both rent and travel as being worth the location.

It is pretty clear that Elon Musk is all about working hard. He puts work over relationships and was disappointed by the decrease of staff working on the weekend (even though the factory was very full of staff). It is this mindset that perhaps is what leads to his mistreatment of workers because he tries to push everyone to put in the maximum effort in order to create a successful product. I think hard work is important, but do not fully agree with Elon Musk. I think there has to be work-life balance, and while working hard is important, family and relationships are also important. I think a business can be successful even when people have some time off every now and then.