Why Elon Musk allowed Walter Isaacson 2 years of unfettered access and to write a biography that Musk did not in any way change is a mystery. It could be that Steve Jobs did the same and Musk felt a need to share his story similarly, but it does not matter.
His personal life, thought process, work strategies, accomplishments, and flaws were laid bare.
Born into an extremely dysfunctional family and brought up in a violent South African environment Musk learned from an early age to work hard and fight to achieve success. Gifted with a genius aptitude in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math {STEM}, he made his way to college in Canada, transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated with an engineering degree. Musk existed on a different intellectual plane and his interpersonal skills can be summed up as he did not care what others thought and suffered no fools. Society would ordinarily crush such an obnoxious person, but Musk brought to the table unique skills. Skills that a capitalist society could leverage and make investors rich.
The unifying theme throughout Musk’s biography is that Musk is a shining star, a renaissance man with a vision to preserve humanity from destructive forces. But what sets Musk apart is the way he turns his visions into reality. He gets venture capitalists to see the potential profits and they put up the funds needed to get the companies off the ground. Musk then drives worker productivity and delivers on-time product success.
We want to thank James Betti for this Contribution – Please direct yours to Steve@GraniteGrok.com.
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All of Musk’s visions involve creating STEM products. Engineers design the products, and workers build them. “Musk’s Rules” for success are quite simple. Discover what part of the product assembly was taking too long or costing too much and find a way to make it go faster and cost less. Challenge every regulation, and if it does not make sense, ignore it. Make the engineers who designed the product work near the production site so they could see the design flaws that made assembly difficult or costly, and then correct the flaws. But what made Elon Musk unique is in difficult times, he would walk the assembly line, day and night, interacting with all problem areas, giving advice, and demanding engineers and workers alike be more efficient, innovative, cost-effective, and most importantly, take risks. If 10% of the risks did not fail, Musk decreed the employees were not risking enough. Musk made few friends and terminated workers who did not meet expectations, and not surprisingly, employee burnout was substantial. But as opposed to the cost-plus contracts the government routinely awarded to other private companies, contracts the companies never completed on time and for which they always came back for more funding, Musk delivered on time and within budget.
SpaceX is an excellent example of Musk’s modus operandi. Musk felt there was a high probability humans would destroy themselves and that for humanity to survive, other planets must be colonized. Musk recognized that America’s space program was in tatters and to realize his vision of interplanetary colonization, the space program needed to be revitalized. He raised investor capital with the vision that if a private company could cost-effectively launch rockets into orbit, satellite placement could be monetized by capturing lucrative government and private contracts. He implemented “Musk’s Rules” and personally oversaw the work. SpaceX succeeded in creating a cost-effective reusable rocket that could be launched into orbit, and SpaceX became profitable. Musk’s creation launched thousands of satellites that, when linked together, formed the satellite-based internet connection “Star Link.” During its Ukrainian invasion, Russia was able to jam all earth-based internet connections, and without Musk allowing Ukraine to use Star Link, Putin would have overrun Ukraine. SpaceX continues to try and develop a massive rocket capable of leaving orbit and propelling humans to Mars. While Elon Musk has been overseeing multiple other ventures, six prototypes have failed.
The Space X story highlights Musk at his best, but it also demonstrates his inherent weakness. The truth is colonizing Mars in Musk’s relatively short time frame is not going to happen. Even if SpaceX can produce a rocket capable of reaching Mars, the technology and infrastructure required to mount a colonization effort does not exist. Until spaceships can achieve a velocity approaching the speed of light or a breakthrough occurs that allows time and space to be warped, the present nine-month one-way trip to Mars would be self-limiting. Not to mention the harsh atmosphere’s lack of oxygen and the planet’s lack of usable water. If there were easily harvested profitable Mars assets, investors might be interested, but this is not the case.
SpaceX demonstrates by the sheer force of his vision, engineering innovation, “Musk rules,” and refusal to accept defeat, Elon Musk can produce a marketable futuristic product. But until the rest of the universe’s infrastructure catches up to Musk’s new product, his vision hits a dead end. As with his rockets, the same can be said about his electric cars. A Tesla is a wonderful technological achievement, but present-day electric grid infrastructure and electricity production cannot support America’s transition to all-electric vehicles, and charging stations are not readily available. Middle and lower-class Americans cannot afford the expensive electric cars or the price of installing home charging stations. The massive amounts of electricity needed will have to be derived from fossil fuels, and thus defeat the purpose of electric cars. Both SpaceX and Tesla are examples of putting the proverbial cart before the horse. This does not mean the companies founded by Musk will be in financial trouble. Both SpaceX and Tesla have morphed away from Musk’s initial vision. SpaceX is more of a vehicle for access to space, and Tesla is moving towards high-end driverless electric cars and artificial intelligence. With Musk distracted by X {formerly Twitter}, these successful companies may decide they no longer need or want Elon Musk’s” Rules”.
Musk has moved into the public square and labeled the progressive agenda as a “woke mind virus” triggering civilizational suicide and he has told the biological truth about there being only two sexes. By liberating Twitter from its woke masters, Musk has plunged a knife into the progressive elites’ plans to control and censor free speech. But in doing so, he has made very powerful enemies. Enemies who never cared about Musk’s lofty visions and only tolerated Elon Musk’s unsophisticated rudeness because he previously served their purpose. Enemies who know how to bring the force of government against him. Enemies that can manipulate the media to harm both him and his family.
If Elon Musk’s simmering star is not to be extinguished by the coming global elite onslaught, he needs to prioritize his vision to save humanity. Most importantly, Musk has to keep X and free speech alive. Because spreading the truth on a platform that reaches billions and leveraging every bit of his formidable abilities will fuel Musk’s star, morphing Musk into a white-hot weapon. A weapon perfectly suited to incinerate the “woke mind virus” and thwart those who would enslave us all.
