Elon Musk: Moving the World One Technology at a Time

Insight and Analysis into the Life and Accomplishments of a Technology Mogul

JR MacGregor

• Publisher: CAC Publishing LLC
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781948489423
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Wirtschaftsbiographien

Put aside what you read on the web about Elon Musk. There is a significant amount more to him than just his genius and his accomplishments.

This book lays out the life that he had before arriving in the United States and looks at the boy inside who set a path for himself, and literally went through the fires of hell before getting the opportunities that he wished for. He did not fall into wealth and he did not work his way up the corporate ladder, Elon made every bit of his life that you see today.

Some of the stories that you find in this book will shock and awe you and change the way you look at your own challenges. From arriving in a new country with just a few bucks and not knowing anyone, to working in farms and cleaning up after barn animals, to working in the fires of a toxic furnace.

Read about the man that is about to make this planet a safer place to live.

Elon Musk is an inspiration for a generation because he represents many of the values that define today's Millennials and Generation X. From PayPal to Tesla, the driving force that built these icons of the imagination was the desire to make the world a better place for everyone – it was never about the money.

This book gives you a deeper look and analysis of a man that defies the traditional mold of industrialist, entrepreneur, and achiever.

Don't wait any longer! Scroll up and click the 'Buy Now' button to learn more about this technology mogul!

Chapter 1 An Overview

“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”

― Elon Musk

––––––––

I am part of a generation, as is Musk, that grew up in a world where man has walked on the moon. Born shortly after the Apollo missions where all the jocks with the right stuff had launched the imagination of a planet. But that is the extent of our affinity to space travel – stories of the glory of histories past.

Therefore, there was always this thing in me that has seen our generation as lacking in the kind of tenacity that it takes to innovate big things – not just innovate social websites to share photos from the last family trip (which really, no one wants to see) and porn. These are all really wussy innovations – and by then it’s been some time since we’ve had some really good kick-in-the-pants kind of innovation and collective reaching for the stars.

We haven’t done much in a long time. Sure, we’ve got the Internet – but so what? Aside from shopping and posting pictures?

Then came the shuttle years when I was in high school. And since then there have been events here and there that didn’t quite match up to Armstrong’s first step, or Lovell’s thirteen days of valor. Until this afternoon.

I hadn’t planned on taking time off my already jammed schedule to watch what would be a frail attempt at a webcast of the Falcon Heavy being launched. The experience reminded me of the numerous live webcasts that were anxiety-ridden between the delayed telecasts, dropped transmissions, poor sound, grainy visuals and pressing matters that occupied the reality of my day. But against all intents to the contrary, I was late and checked my YouTube feed only to find that either I had the time wrong or the launch was delayed. Eventually, the live cast started with a couple of enthusiastic SpaceX employees and a whole bunch in the background. There was a vibe I had not recognized. It was invigorating, and I stayed.

The moments to the countdown moved at pace and as precisely as a Swiss watch – or should I say, with the precision of Musk. It was fairly flawless; the countdown started and the next thing I know spaceman was in his joyride pose in the Tesla convertible on his way to Mars. I was surprised, exhilarated, and full of appreciation for the steps that had been taken. Even if launching a car into space has got to be one of the most brilliant PR stunts ever concocted, planned, and executed, it was a testament to what we can do as individuals, as a team, and as a species.

But the thing that I thought was ironic was the fact that it was probably the world’s only electric car to have used kerosene to get to its destination – and lots of it. It got me to think about the dichotomy of Musk’s mind. On the one hand he is constantly talking about environmental issues and why we need to buy electric cars and use solar – all of which are spot on; but then, on the other hand, he lit a match to a kerosene rocket – the biggest one ever, and that will be the first of many. So, the dichotomy of his intentions and his mind are apparent. He swings from one state of existence into the next without effort, and you see it even in his views of AI. Or maybe it is just the way we humans advocate ideals but partake in necessities (even if the later does go against the former). Musk is no different decrying the ills of AI while using it in his products smacks of hypocrisy but, let’s face it; human beings are complex. We tend to roll with the punches and we have different opinions on different things based on the circumstances that surround those events.

To the layperson who is not an adoring fan (disclosure – I am neither a fan who thinks he is the next Jobs, Edison or Tesla; nor am I totally aghast at his actions, words, and deeds) Musk comes off as a bit of a kooky character, from the way he looks to the way he speaks. I give him a pass on that, but I do want to make a lesson out of his life.

He is obviously aware that he comes off as a little crazy, and far be it for me to label him as such since I am not qualified in any way to make such proclamations – but the fact that he can ask others if they think he is crazy shows that he either believes it, someone has told him so, or he is holding on really tight. I don’t begrudge him one way or the other because I strongly believe that, to change the world, you have to walk the fine line between mediocre and insane – every once in a while tipping over to the side of crazy. And that is what, with all due respect, Elon Musk is.

But I am not here to judge. We all have to balance our ideals because we live in the real world. But that just brings me back to the first point about Musk – the dichotomy of his mind. He sees things in two dimensions. And sometimes what you see in one dimension can be totally at odds with what you see in a different dimension. This is the point of departure we want to make with this book and the look that we take into the perceived motivations and life of this larger-than-life mountain mover.

I chose Elon as someone to write about because it’s someone that each and every one of us can relate to and, if you decide to make it in life, no matter which corner of the world you come from – and this includes the corners of the world that go beyond just first world countries, but the ones where kids grow up surrounded by things that most of us can’t even imagine. Musk grew up surrounded by Apartheid in South Africa, and that’s not the most conducive places for kids – especially smart ones. It was also a place that was marinated and drenched with racism – with effects unlike what our typical views of racism look like. It was a whole different brand of racism that was mixed with ungodly and evil acts and outcomes. That sort of environment breeds contempt for all creation and creates a social environment that you can’t imagine.

There are countless stories that you can easily Google about what life was like in Apartheid South Africa. Two great men – long before Musk was born – have sprung from the clutches of this past – India’s Gandhi, and South Africa’s Mandela. Both these men were in the midst of the atrocities and cruelties of a mindset that was based on the color of one’s skin.

Let me just give you an idea of the mindset in South Africa before Musk was born and through the time he was there.

There were three classifications of race: European, Colored, and African. Whites were European (a term of social and legal privilege – not necessarily to be associated with the continent), of course, coloreds were those of mixed heritage and Africans were black. And they had tests for these classifications. These tests for race were as arbitrary as they could get. For instance, your race was determined by such things as the moons of your fingers. If they were off-white, then that meant you have Black blood and that resulted in your being either colored or out and out black. People from Chinese heritage were referred to as colored, yet those with Japanese ancestors were considered white. Go figure.

Caucasians were obviously white, and so referred to as Europeans – and if you were blonde and blue-eyed, all the better. There was another interesting, yet albeit random test, and that was the test of your hair. If they put a pencil in your hair and it rolled off then, even though you looked dark skinned, you could be considered colored – a promotion of sorts. On the other hand, if the pencils remained in your hair and didn’t fall, then you have knotty nappy hair and that made you African.

By no measure, in any civilized world, can this be considered remotely amusing or innocuous. This was institutionalized and systemic racism of the vilest kind and, while this book is not about race politics in South Africa, it goes to show the mindset of people in the country that Elon Musk spent the early part of his life with.

In the cities, Africans (remember, that’s the term for those with black skin) were not allowed access after dark, and there was one of two ways for them to be in the city. They needed to have permission and they needed to be placed in housing that was adjacent to the Whites that they worked for. The way it was known, if the African had permission to be in the city after dark, was that it would be stamped in their Passbook – something that all Africans (blacks), and only Africans, had to carry on their person at all times. Europeans had no such burden.

Violence against Africans was widespread. Europeans could abuse and mistreat Africans with impunity, and the bravado that was part of the collective mindset was prevalent. Long train rides were not safe – for anyone, much less road travel. These were the kinds of conditions that were daily realities for those who lived in South Africa. The narrative here and in the rest of the book really doesn’t even come close to scratching the surface to the deplorable psychological stresses it places on a person, especially if that person is already empathic in nature and one who is not naturally given to illogical biases of race. Such was the basis of displeasure that Musk faced growing up.

Africans were not allowed to attend school, but coloreds were, so many people tried to change their race by doing the pencil test, and tens of thousands were successful. But the gang violence did not abate. There was an ingrained hatred of those of colored skin and there was a misunderstanding of the value of life among all. Even those who were colored or black in South Africa were convinced after some time of their place in the works. About thirty years ago, I was traveling with a teenager of colored classification. We rode to the city together from Heathrow Airport and, along the way, the city was going about its business, among which were garbage collectors putting trash bins by the side of trucks and emptying them in there. My new friend was in shock to see ‘white men’ do the work and he said that this can’t be – it’s not right. The notion in him that was ingrained so deeply was that it was unnatural for a man of white skin to do jobs of labor. It took a few years before he realized that all men were indeed created equal. But if he felt that way imagine how the white population of South Africa felt and how much of that dictated the way they behaved to the people around them. A sense of entitlement and a bullying sense of bravado. And even though Musk was neither colored nor African, he too felt the tip of the bravado’s whip.

His experience during high school was more than just that of a school nerd getting trashed at the hand of the neighborhood bullies. It was a mix of personal animus they had for him and the typical bravado of a country that had trickled down to the youth of the city – and that was something that did not look at the equality between men, rather it was always White over Black, Strong over Meek, Brawn over Brains.

There was a stretch of time in high school when he was literally stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea. The only difference was that it wasn’t a choice so much as a timeshare. He split his days between time at school where he attended classes, talked to friends, and either got beat up or spent the afternoon running and hiding from those who had marked him as quarry; then he packed up and went home for the second half of his day and there he would read, do his chores, read some more and deal with the difficulties of a father that was the cause of so much pain and anguish in his and his sibling’s lives. More on that part of his life in the chapters to follow.

Then there is this third factor – National Service. Serving in the military during National Service is something every teenager does. A number of countries have this in place, although it is not something that we have here in the US. It’s tantamount to a draft, but it is more of a compulsory perpetual thing where every person, by the time they reach a certain age, have to enlist and serve a mandatory period of time where they are trained and deployed if need be. This is supposed to serve two purposes. The first is that it is supposed to provide the country with able young men to take part in military duties, which include domestic control if need be. The second, and the reason it is so in many countries, is that it is meant to enhance the character and personalities of young men in the country. It has been proven that a two-year stint in the military increases the person’s ability to succeed in the world at large and to be able to learn the necessary discipline to be part of a workforce that is effective.

This thing about having to join the military was not something that Musk was too keen on. In fact, he hated the idea of having to get into an isolated environment where he would be exposed to more bravado and the possibility of more ragging and bullying – probably something that would be worse than what he had faced in school. The second thing about joining the military, even if it was just for National Service, was that there was a lot of brainwashing going on in what they needed to do and the politics of Apartheid had a lot to do with that. He would have to be forced to listen to that propaganda – and what’s worse, he would probably have to enforce it when deployed. The beating of blacks and the unnecessary abuse inflicted on them by the military was not a secret. If creating a life and advancing his interest in electronics and software were the ‘pull’ he felt in going to America, then the fear of joining the military was the ‘push’ to get out of Apartheid South Africa.

There are stories abound all across the internet – so many in fact that I was initially not planning to include it in this book. But no matter how much I tried to put it away, it is not entirely possible to give you an accurate picture of the man or the forces that shape a man – and in this case the forces that shaped Musk – without going into the brutal beating he took as a kid and the one that brought him within inches of his life.

The forces that existed around him as a child, from the break-up of a happy home to the violence he was treated with in the schoolyard on a daily basis, and the harsh environment of the paternal home after his parents’ divorce would have been daunting for any other kid. Even if I had to go through that, I think that I would have found myself going crazy and, I suspect, Musk is also very cognizant about how he acts so that he does not come off as being crazy.

But when you add these events to the fact that he was subjected to some of the harshest conditions one could imagine, but yet he kept his intellectual ability intact, it shows the resilience of the human spirit. I define the ability that all of us possess, to varying degrees. It defines the cache of strength and mental ability that we can turn to when things get tough and when hope is hard to distinguish from pipe dreams.

It has always been my understanding, and all my books on famous figures in history and commerce reflect this, that biographies are not just about names, dates, places, and salacious fragments of information. Biographies are about how successful individuals made it great and made it beyond what we sometimes admire – and, let’s be honest, sometimes loathe.

For biographies to make sense, we need to see them in context and we need to look at the content with understanding instead of judgment. When you judge a person, the lessons they have to offer are wasted. Everyone has lessons to teach us. Churchill or Hitler, Gandhi or Lenin, the lessons in life and the path to our personal growth are there if we just look without judgment and malice. The same goes for the likes of Gates, Jobs, and Branson – all of whom I’ve written about, and it certainly goes with Musk.

The reason I decided to write about Musk is not because of the wealth he...