Speaking of Elon Musk, not many people may know, but when it comes to Tesla, people will immediately think of the way the local tycoon drives it through the streets. Elon Musk is known as the combination of Microsoft Gates and Apple Jobs, is what people call Silicon Valley Iron Man, and its legend is not inferior to the Well-known Bill Gates and Jobs.
What kind of legendary experience does Elon Musk have? How did he shape himself and succeed? In 1971, a wealthy white family in South Africa gave birth to a baby named Elon Musk. Musk has shown unusual thinking and learning ability since he was a child, but he is also often regarded as crazy because he has many alternative dreams about the Internet, solar energy and space.
As an adult, Musk immigrated to Canada with his crazy dreams in search of a paradise to realize his dreams. In the time that followed, he taught himself to program and design programs to start a business, develop rockets and electric vehicles at his own expense, and was on the verge of bankruptcy many times during the period, and also suffered malicious attacks from people from all walks of life. But what is this setback? In the end, Musk succeeded: SpaceX, the company he managed, realized the dream of launching rockets at low cost, Tesla developed pure electric vehicles with sports car-level performance, and Sun City's industry had a major impact around the world.
He gave the Silicon Valley elite a head start, and used technology and brains to complete the industrial counterattack in Silicon Valley, so that people around the world saw the infinite possibilities of the space and solar industries. Now, Musk still hasn't stopped his steps and is heading towards his Martian dream.
The development of mankind undoubtedly needs genius inventors and genius innovators like Musk to constantly break the tradition, but also need their heroism, and need them to pursue their dreams with the spirit of daring to be the first in the world.
With the development of the times, in the eyes of most people, the world has entered a perfect state, except for the heroes who save the world in the movie, it seems that heroism has disappeared in this era. However, through the "Silicon Valley Iron Man" that I want to explain today, you will find that there are still people in this era who have the dream of saving mankind and play the role of heroes of the times.
Shili Vance's "Iron Man of Silicon Valley: Elon Musk's Adventurous Life" book interprets a genius Musk who has been dubbed a madman, a liar, a paranoid, a dreamer, a humanitarian, a perfectionist, an industrialist, etc. with many different praises and criticisms from a comprehensive and objective perspective, and his ups and downs of his adventurous life can give the public a lot of profound inspiration.
Ashley Vance, author of "Iron Man in Silicon Valley: Elon Musk's Adventurous Life," is an American business columnist, veteran technology journalist, and one of the world's most famous tech authors. Currently based at Bloomberg Businessweek, he has authored dozens of covers and special stories covering the web, DNA sequences, and space exploration.
The writing process of "Iron Man of Silicon Valley: Elon Musk's Adventurous Life" was not smooth sailing, and the protagonist Musk was initially reluctant to accept an interview with the author. After the author persistently spent 18 months interviewing about 200 employees and friends who knew Musk and had come into contact with him, Musk agreed to let the author enter his life. In this book, the author presents the reader with a comprehensive perspective on the growth of a new era of American Silicon Valley business giants.
Okay, so I'm going to tell you more about the book. Today we will interpret the book from four aspects:
The first focus is on how Musk's character development in childhood influenced his future pursuit of dreams.
The second focus is how Musk's accumulation of knowledge in his academic years laid the foundation for his entrepreneurship.
The third focus is on Musk's early experience accumulation in the early stage of entrepreneurship, how to experience his career management skills.
The fourth focus is on how Musk's personality in the mature period of his career has achieved his reputation as a Silicon Valley Iron Man.
Let's take a look at the first highlights:
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="203" >01 How Musk's childhood character development influenced his future dreams</h1>
Elon Musk was born in South Africa, and under the peaceful beauty of South Africa, the specter of racism has always hung over the land. Musk, whose childhood was at the bloodiest and most heinous of apartheid, developed the belief from an early age that humanity needed redemption, but he didn't just think about South Africa's needs from the beginning.
Rather, it looks at the whole of humanity and sees humanity as a whole. This is also why a lonely South African boy insists on going to the United States, a land where he can realize his dreams, with the greatest sincerity to pursue the "collective enlightenment" of mankind and risk the survival of mankind.
Musk's adventurous spirit can be traced back to his grandfather, Joshua Norman Haldman, who, because he was not accustomed to the style of the Canadian government and believed that Canadian morality had begun to degenerate, gave up everything he had in Canada, and moved his family to South Africa.
Joshua often flew back and forth with his wife, taking his family on deep jungle adventures. Joshua takes a laissez-faire approach to raising children, never physically punishing children, but constantly teaching children that "you can do anything, you just have to make a decision and then let it go."
Unfortunately, Joshua died when Musk was still toddler, because he was flying an airplane accident. Grandpa's heroic adventures and countless slides grew up with Musk, which made his extraordinary adventurous personality penetrate deep into the marrow. Similarly, thanks to his grandfather's way of educating his children, Musk never believed that anything could not be accomplished, which was directly reflected in his extraordinary focus and harshness in his future work.
The superior family situation also provides a good growth space for Musk. Musk's father, Errol, is a brilliant engineer, he has a large number of books to read for Musk, and is willing to spend money on things like computers that Musk is interested in, which gives Musk the opportunity to immerse himself in things he likes from an early age.
Musk has been hungry for knowledge since he was a child, he read for 10 hours a day is a common thing, it seems that books are not in his hands, this boy has an unforgettable memory, coupled with a lot of reading, so that he is far more rational than his peers to think about problems. This study habit also laid the foundation for his later amazing performance at work.
Despite his deep-seated image as a nerdy Musk, he has a passion for risk-taking, often leading his brother Kimball and his cousins on adventures, organizing gunpowder and rockets at home, and completing what is considered the most dangerous journey in the world in the face of frequent violence in South Africa.
A series of risk-taking behaviors have had a profound impact on Musk's growth. These crazy and extreme experiences have changed Musk's view of risk, and it would be difficult to accept if he grew up to live only for a job, because it would be boring.
As a result, the image of an adventurer is quietly formed, and the unusual growth experience and genius-like learning ability doom Musk to an ordinary life. He seized the opportunity to immigrate to Canada and used Canada as a springboard to go to Silicon Valley in the United States and begin his adventurous life journey.
Well, here's the first key point: how Musk's childhood character development influenced his future dreams.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="204" >02 How Musk's accumulation of knowledge during his studies laid the foundation for his entrepreneurship</h1>
After a year of traveling in Canada, Musk entered Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and it was clear that the university was a good fit for Musk. He found a group of people who respected his knowledge and no longer acted as omniscient as before. At the same time, Musk's unique insights in energy, space and other areas of interest are also understood and respected by the students. He was a good fit in this environment.
Musk was even more ambitious during his college days, taking business courses and attending speech competitions, while his signature focus and competitiveness began in college and continued throughout his work. The study life of Queen's University has allowed Musk to experience a new way of life, and at the same time, he has more firmly pursued his life ideals.
Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania after receiving a scholarship, and he hopes that the Ivy League school will help him open more doors of opportunity. At the University of Pennsylvania, he majored in double degrees— a degree in economics from the Wharton School and a bachelor's degree in physics.
At the same time, Musk's long-term interest in the field of solar energy and the exploration of the use of new energy also began at the University of Pennsylvania, in his paper detailed his imagination of new ways of energy storage, and the professor's evaluation of him is also very pertinent, thinking that he can express his views clearly and concisely like logicians.
Musk began to consider his post-graduation choices during his college years, and he has always pursued ambitious goals and engaged in work that can truly be valuable to human society. His studies at Queen's University and the University of Pennsylvania led him to conclude that the internet, renewable energy and space are changing dramatically.
He firmly believed that he could make a difference in these areas and solemnly said that he wanted to enter these areas. Although such an unusual idea seems almost crazy to ordinary people, Musk has been practicing his original beliefs in later entrepreneurship.
He wanted the world to know that he was not like the workshop entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, that he was not following the trend or getting rich, that he was pursuing a holistic plan, that he was pursuing technologies that were truly valuable to human society, and that he was doing everything he could to turn them into reality.
Time can verify everything, and although Musk is seen as a madman, he proves himself with practical actions. Starting as an adventurer and a dreamer, he has created a doer in Silicon Valley in the new era.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="202" >03 Musk's initial experience accumulation in the early stage of entrepreneurship, how to experience his career management ability</h1>
In this section, we will explain Musk's initial entrepreneurial journey in two ways: first, Zip2, which conquered the web; second, the X.com company that stirred up the international financial revolution.
Zip2, founded by Musk and his brother Kimbal, initially seemed almost whimsical. Zip2 is committed to developing a website to create a searchable directory for businesses, which has a corresponding map, so that consumers can search through the website to the desired business or store, and know where the business or store is located.
This may seem commonplace today, but at the time, even drug users could not imagine such a service. Undoubtedly, Musk's genius imagination and practical ability make this fantasy possible.
The entrepreneurial experience is bound to be full of hardships, Musk independently completed the original code running in the background, and his brother Kimbar went door-to-door to sell. In the first 3 months of Zip2's existence, Musk and his brother lived in an office where they had a small wardrobe to store their changing clothes and then went to the YMCA for a shower.
Musk barely leaves the office, and he usually sleeps in the sleeping bag of his desk, which is no different from a dog to employees. Even more frustrating is that Zip2's sales targets are not ahead of their time to understand the importance of the Internet and the dramatic changes it has brought to business, and the company's situation is struggling. Musk's ability to focus on work has played an important role at this time, and for him, there is nothing that cannot be completed.
Musk's continuous improvement of the Zip2 software, a service that has evolved from a concept to a positional product that can be used to demonstrate, musk brothers with more valuable network services to attract customers and investors. Eventually, the Musk brothers' efforts paid off, with a venture capital firm investing $3 million in their company, and Zip2's influence gradually expanded.
But Musk paid the price of giving up control of the company and being forced to serve as chief technology officer, which musk has always regretted. Zip2, while well developed under the new leader, ended up being a behind-the-scenes player in the newspaper industry, much to the chagrin of Musk, whose original intention was to provide consumers with interesting services.
In the end, Zip2 chose to sell due to irreconcilable internal contradictions, which not only won Musk his first fortune, but also allowed him to begin to understand the business rules of this market. Musk aspires to be a leader, but people think he is incompetent, and for Musk, they are all wrong, and Musk proves himself with his actions.
The first entrepreneurial experience, while bleak to a halt, brought a huge fortune to Musk, and yes, Musk can use that wealth to accomplish his next grand goal. He wanted to build a full-service online banking service that would not only provide savings account and checking account services, but also brokerage services and insurance business.
This can be said to be the prototype of our modern online banking. However, at that time, it can be said that major changes were set off in the traditional banking industry, and major changes were often accompanied by huge risks. What makes Musk different is that he is willing to take personal risks, even to the point of madness, and he has invested a large part of the money he made from Zip2 into the X.com, investing $12 million and leaving only $4 million for himself.
However, although Musk formed an all-star team for X.com, Musk's advanced imagination and creative business methods were not approved by his peers, and not long after the creation of X.com, one of his right-hand men led almost all of them away. However, even if there are many difficulties, he is determined to do what he wants to do without giving up, X.com grow step by step under the support of Musk, in the process Musk showed his own agility and professional style, and also won him a large number of followers.
But Musk eventually lost control of the company again, and just as he and his wife were on their honeymoon, the company's executives staged a coup d'état and stripped Musk of his CEO position. Since then X.com has left Musk's ideas aside and moved forward, and finally cannot avoid the fate of being sold.
The experience of starting a business twice made Musk deeply aware of the importance of absolute control over a company. Musk's forward-looking imagination is always ridiculous to others, Silicon Valley investors are committed to getting rich, their assessment of risk is too conservative, and he is a natural adventurer, he pursues a higher level of dreams than personal wealth, he has to do something for humanity. This time, he was going to regroup and take his fortune with him to fulfill his lifelong dream.
Okay, so let's talk about the last bullet point of the book: Musk's personality in the mature period of his career, how to achieve his Reputation as Iron Man in Silicon Valley. This part is mainly divided into four aspects, including Musk's SpaceX company, Tesla electric vehicles, and Sun City.
SpaceX was founded by no accident, and in 2001, when Elon Musk entered the age of independence, he began to reflect on his own life, reflecting on his childhood dreams about rocket spacecraft and space travel, and making it his mission. He wanted to spark popular interest and reinvigorate the revolution in science, the conquest of the future and technological innovation.
Musk's family moved to Los Angeles and embarked on a journey into space. Musk's SpaceX was founded in 2002, and he hopes to build better-quality, lower-priced rocket thrusters to reduce the cost of spaceflight. Musk never thought about using the project to make money from the start, and invested a lot of personal property to maintain the company's operations and experimental work.
However, although Musk's development team recruits top talent, top students from prestigious universities and experienced scientists, the cost of a private company developing rockets on its own can be imagined. SpaceX's first three rocket launches have all ended in failure, and what breaks his heart is that his first child died unexpectedly, but can these setbacks bring down Musk? Of course not. Therefore, what is valuable is that Musk is more focused on his work under the unimaginable pressure of ordinary people.
Compared to the company's woes, Musk can't stand to find excuses or lack of a clear work plan, he is known for his harshness on the company's employees, he does not believe that there is nothing that cannot be done, and he also demands the same from his employees.
Employees who also fail to meet his requirements are usually directly fired, without mercy, so that Musk's employees are all elites who have been screened and left behind, and they also admire and trust Musk, which is why he can achieve success in projects that are considered to be fantastic. In the end, SpaceX succeeded in its fourth rocket launch in 2008, and it took 500 people 6 years to finally create this modern scientific and commercial miracle.
Tesla is another forward-looking project musk has invested in to make all-electric cars that will free people from dependence on oil. Musk was committed to creating the ultimate electric car from the beginning to bring users the ultimate driving experience, so Tesla's creation process is also long and difficult, and engineers need to design and develop from scratch.
Not only that, Musk's control of costs is even more extreme, if the price of a generator is $6500, Musk requires that the cost be reduced to $3800 within five months.
Tesla's employees are working under the pressure of Musk, and the effect is remarkable, Tesla's first electric vehicle prototype Roadster was successfully developed, and achieved major success at the press conference, but this time into 2008, Roadster's research and development costs of $140 million, far more than the expected $25 million, the company's money has been used up.
In the 2008 financial crisis era, no one wanted to put money into the auto industry, and Musk could only risk losing all his property and putting himself on the verge of mental collapse if he wanted to save Tesla back. At the same time, Musk's marital status is in trouble and he is in the midst of a divorce storm.
At this time, Musk is in a desperate situation in his life, he lost a child, was violently humiliated by reporters and ex-wives in the media, and the company that has spent his life is on the verge of collapse, but this time, he is still not knocked down by the desperate situation, but more focused on work.
There will be a blessing in the face of great difficulties, Musk led the company through the difficult years, and the next step is the take-off in the career. SpaceX is favored for its much lower prices than other competitors' launch rockets, and Tesla's electric vehicles are highly regarded for their ultimate driving experience and environmental efficiency.
However, career success has brought Musk a huge fortune, however, when Musk did these things, the starting point is not to make money, but to pursue his childhood dreams in the future and practice his beliefs. Therefore, failure is a common thing in Musk's view. He said: The probability of success of these things is inherently smaller than the probability of failure.
If launching rockets and building electric cars don't seem to have anything to do with each other, the emergence of Sun City has made Musk's ambitions clearer. Sun City has installed solar panels for private users from the beginning, reducing the cost of people using solar energy.
By 2014, Sun City had acquired a solar cell manufacturer and started manufacturing its own solar energy at a high price. Musk's focus on clean energy has always been the end, and his success may make people forget that the space industry and clean energy are actually very unpopular industries.
Musk believes in technology, that it can truly change people's lives. His obsessive pursuit of technology has earned him fame and fortune, but Musk's ultimate goal is to turn humans into a planetary species, and he believes that human survival depends on the ability to establish colonies on another planet.
Although this seems to most people to be a fantasy, it is undoubtedly a goal that Musk has worked for all his life, the world needs heroes, and this era still needs Iron Man. Fortunately, Max did not slow down the heroic road at all.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="200" >04 Summary</h1>
Okay, now that we've talked about pretty much today, let's review the main points we've made today.
First of all, we talked about how Musk's character development in childhood influenced his future dream pursuits. The shaping of a person's personality often affects his lifelong behavior, Musk's personality stems from the education and influence of family members, and musk's lifelong pursuit of things is derived from his childhood dreams. These directly inspire the educational problems of young children and deserve deep reflection from parents and teachers today.
Second, we talked about Musk's accumulation of knowledge during his studies and how he laid the foundation for his entrepreneurship: Any great ambition needs enough ability to support him, he is smart and diligent, and he tirelessly learns new knowledge that interests him.
Musk's school years have benefited him a lot in entrepreneurship. Many people today still don't know how to learn and don't pay attention to the importance of professional knowledge, and Musk's experience just opens a skylight for confused students.
Again, we talked about Musk's early experience accumulation in entrepreneurship and how to train his career management ability. The development of any new thing is not smooth, Musk's entrepreneurial journey has been described by himself as "swallowing glass and standing on the edge of the cliff", but the continuous accumulation of experience and the spirit of not giving up have allowed him to achieve career success.
Finally, we talked about musk's personality charm in the mature period of his career, and how to achieve his reputation as a Silicon Valley Iron Man. Musk is hailed as a legend of the new era of Silicon Valley, from being ridiculed and ostracized by everyone to being sought after by everyone, and finally creating tens of thousands of jobs for the United States. Since then, his pursuit of the ultimate spirit, tenacity and perseverance, and lofty ambitions have begun to be talked about. Musk used his personal charm to achieve his reputation as a new generation of Silicon Valley legends.
Musk has succeeded, and he has gained fame and fortune. But he still does not stop, he wants to do more, he wants to do more things that others do not do, he does not want to do, he undertakes his mission to change the fate of mankind with epic perseverance. This era needs such a person, with heroism, a spirit of adventure, dare to be the first in the world Iron Man.