3 Take-Aways from Elon Musk’s Biography

by Ashlee Vance

Sometimes you have to be ruthless if you want to make a change.

One of his employees took a day off to see the birth of his first child, to which Elon replied something along the lines of “How the fuck can you prioritise that? We are trying to change the world.”

Nobody is perfect.

People are portrayed in the media as extremes. Elon Musk has been portrayed extremely negatively in the past. Right now there’s a lot of hysteria about how he’s saving the world.

He’s done an outstanding job of revolutionising multiple industries and having a lot of success. He also has some ‘personality flaws’ (which played a role in enabling his success).

Make money soon if you want to have a serious impact.

It is the money that Elon may while at PayPal which enabled him to become involved in SpaceX and Tesla (and other exploits). He came on board as a venture capitalist and did not ‘invent’ the underlying technology for either.

Have you read the book? What were your take-away messages? Comment below.