Summary from Inside Flap: There are few industrialists in
history who could match Elon Musk's relentless drive and ingenious vision. A
modern alloy of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs, Musk
is the man behind PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and SolarCity, each of which
has sent shock waves throughout American business and industry. More than any
other executive today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast fortune
to inventing a future that is as rich and far-reaching as a science fiction
fantasy.
In this lively, investigative account, veteran technology
journalist Ashlee Vance offers an unprecedented look into the remarkable life
and times of Silicon Valley's most audacious businessman. Written with
exclusive access to Musk, his family, and his friends, the book traces his
journey from his difficult upbringing in South Africa to his ascent to the
pinnacle of the global business world. Vance spent more than fifty hours in
conversation with Musk and inter- viewed close to three hundred people to tell the
tumultuous stories of Musk's world-changing companies and to paint a portrait
of a complex man who has renewed American industry and sparked new levels of
innovation--all while making plenty of enemies along the way.
In 1992, Elon Musk arrived in the United States as a
ferociously driven immigrant bent on realizing his wildest dreams. Since then,
Musk's roller-coaster life has brought him grave disappointments alongside
massive successes. After being forced out of PayPal, fending off a
life-threatening case of malaria, and dealing with the death of his infant son,
Musk abandoned Silicon Valley for Los Angeles. He spent the next few years
baffling his friends by blowing his entire fortune on rocket ships and electric
cars. Cut to 2012, however, and Musk had mounted one of the greatest
resurrections in business history: Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity had enjoyed
unparalleled success, and Musk's net worth soared to more than $5 billion.
At a time when many American companies are more interested
in chasing easy money than in taking bold risks on radical new technology, Musk
stands out as the only businessman with enough dynamism and vision to
tackle--and even revolutionize--three industries at once. Vance makes the case
that Musk's success heralds a return to the original ambition and invention
that made America an economic and intellectual powerhouse. Elon Musk is a
brilliant, penetrating examination of what Musk's career means for a technology
industry undergoing dramatic change and offers a taste of what could be an
incredible century ahead.
RATING
When I walked into Barnes & Noble two weeks ago, I
wasn't actually looking to purchase a book. Usually, I go in, browse for 30
minutes, and get out. But when I walked around to the Physics and Science
section, the first thing I saw was Elon Musk's face.
Inevitably, I picked it up and began reading.
2 pages in, I decided I was in this for the long haul and
sat on the floor, right there in the middle of the store. 15 pages in, my
friends finally found me and forced me to leave. But I couldn't part with this.
I needed this book. Those first 15 pages captured me like so few books do (in
fact, only one book in the past year has totally stolen my attention like
this).
So I bought Elon Musk feeling on top of the world and
excited to keep reading.
I travel a lot between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, PA, so,
since I'm in the middle of taking classes in Pittsburgh, I swore to only read
this book on the bus, because I knew once I picked it up again, I wouldn't put
down.
I was right.
The next day, I got on the bus, got to reading,
and tuned out the world. Three hours later, I was nearly halfway through -- and
WOW. Vance's writing style flowed right through my mind. No clunky sentences,
no jarring phrases. It's such an easy book to read, despite the complex nature
of the contents.
Elon Musk, if you don't know, is a biography. Yes, a
biography. You'd expect the case-study of someone's life to be boring and
uneventful, dragging until the very end.
This wasn't the case at all.
Vance opens the book at an interview with Elon Musk himself.
The first line, a quote from Musk, "Do you think I'm insane?",
perfectly captures the whole context of the biography. Because as you
experience the story, as you see the challenges Musk went through to reach the
pinnacle he's at today, the question nags at you. Musk isn't soft-spoken, or
easy on his employees, or a man who kicks his legs up on his desk and snoozes
while his companies mill around him. Vance shows how Musk is both the CEO and an
employee of his companies, simultaneously the teacher and student. He gets in
the work, asks all the right questions, gives all the right orders. His vision
is THE vision, and if you get in the way, Musk has been known to fire you on
the spot.
Musk breaks every convention, every tradition, every
standard. Vance takes you deep into the details, from Musk's childhood and
lineage in South Africa, all the way to Canada and the United States, where the
bulk of the story unfolds.
When Musk looks at big businesses, he sees unmovable
behemoths that refuse to change their methodologies. American innovation became
a thing of the past. Technology and industry was growing - but nowhere near as
fast as it should. So we follow Musk's journey from his small start-ups, Zip2
and X.com, and move into his larger, more permanent ventures, namely SpaceX,
Tesla, and SolarCity.
I myself am a huge fan of Elon Musk. Still, until the past
year or two, I only thought of him as "that guy who made SpaceX" and
"that guy who runs Tesla." Until reading this book, I never knew the
struggle -- no, the hell he went through to make and keep these companies. You
think, oh, he just has a lot of money.
Yeah, now he does. But did you know SpaceX and Tesla were
hours away from going bankrupt? Did you know that the Falcon 1 rocket kept
failing, and one more failed launch literally meant the end of SpaceX? Did you
know SpaceX tested these rockets on an island in the middle of the Pacific
Ocean, and would fix problems they encountered in a matter of days, as compared
to months by standard companies?
This book is the first time Musk has explicitly let anyone
interview him for a biography. Aside from a few questionable quotes that have
been publicly denounced by Musk after the publication of this book, we're still
given a tremendous amount of insight into his head and how he runs the
companies. Vance interviewed more than 300 people and spent over two years
compiling this account. And I have to give credit to how up-to-date the
information is. There are several events Vance mentions that occurred into
2015, such as the first landing attempt of Falcon 9 on the sea barge, which
took place in January, and he refers to the second attempt as being in a couple
weeks, which means that Vance included this information on a very tight
deadline, probably mid-March (the second landing attempt happened on April 14,
2015).
I want to congratulate you, Mr. Vance. Well done. Very well
done. I'm going to reread this book in a few weeks (probably after the scheduled
June 19th third Falcon 9 landing attempt, this time on solid ground, as opposed
to a barge). Anyone who wants a ridiculously thorough insight into Elon Musk's
life and companies should read this book. It had me from Page 1 all the way to
Page 363, and even the appendices that come after.
This is an incredibly inspiring book, a important look into
a game-changing business strategy, and a valuable lesson to the world. As Musk
says, "If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you,
you should still do it."
Purchase
