Assignment 27A – Reading Reflection No. 3

Elon Musk 

• What surprised you the most? I had this idea that Elon Musk was kind of a billionaire playboy but I definitely had the wrong impression of him. Although he is a billionaire, he has worked very hard for his money and that was never his main motivation. He is actually kind of a nerd who loves sci-fi and dreams of changing the world and helping mankind. He is also a dad and seems to be pretty involved with his sons when he is not working.

• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? I most admire Elon's ability to turn a vision into reality. He is unique in the way that he can dream up a concept that would seem impossible to many people, but he can actually pull it off. 

• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? I least admire they way he treats people. He is lacking in the empathy department and doesn't have much concern for people's feelings. There are many examples of this in the book. He is also a workaholic who doesn't leave much time for relationships. I thinks he just gets so much satisfaction and fulfillment from his work that he doesn't need human relationships the way that most people do.

• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? Elon has experienced a lot of adversity and failure in his life, but he has never let it hold him back. He was severely bullied as a kid and had a bad relationship with his father. From this adversity he grew stronger and more independent. He was on the brink of financial failure many times in his career due to taking big risks. He failed many times when trying to launch his first SpaceX rocket into orbit. He failed at PayPal and almost sunk Tesla but he didn't give up. Musk has said, "Failure is an option here...if things are not failing, you are not innovating".

• What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? Tenacity. He really doesn't give up. He has endured many things that would break the average person. He can handle stressful, high pressure situations and stay calm and collected. He is great at focusing on the task at hand and figuring out solutions. He is obviously a visionary and he is highly intelligent. He wants to understand all the parts of his organizations from the business side to the physics of how things work.

• Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. The only part of the book that was a little confusing was the time lines and the order of events. The book didn't always explain well about how long things took to accomplish or in what order events took place.

• If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why? I would ask him what his next big innovation will be. I just know it would be something that seems impossible, but somehow he will make it work. I would also ask him what he thinks the future looks like for mankind. I know he sees people living on Mars someday. He actually wants to die on Mars. I would want to know what his vision for that looks like and how far he thinks we are from that becoming a reality. 

• For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? Without a doubt, Elon believes in hard work. He spends the majority of his life working and expects his employees to have the same intense work ethic. He is really driven by his vision to change the world and he works as hard and fast as he can to do just that.