Reading Reflection No. 1

Elon Musk: Tesla, Space X, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance

What surprised me the most about Elon Musk is that he came to America with only $2000 and was a graduate school drop-out yet was able to pick himself up and become the innovative, game-changing multi-billionaire that he is. This point is also what I most admire about Musk as it shows that he relentlessly persevered and had great visions for what he can do and become and create. The thing I admire the least about Elon Musk is that he felt like he had to be in America in order to make it in life and get the technology for his dreams. I don't like this perspective because, even though America is indeed known as the land of opportunity, other countries have a variety of doors open too for people like Musk especially regarding start-ups in technology (i.e. Israel, Korea, China). Elon Musk encountered adversity and failure in his schooling and his first attempts at getting a job. He learned from the experiences, made networking connections through them, and used what he gained from those challenges to grow as an individual and continue on his quest. He learned to explore new ideas and not do the same mistakes. 

If I were able to ask two questions to Elon Musk, I would ask: "If you could go back in time, would you have gotten the condo in Palo Alto instead of the F1 car?" and "What helped you to keep a healthy business relationship with your brother and friend (who are also a part of your personal life)?". I would ask these two questions because I would want to know if his life experiences would affect the way he thought as a young adult and because I want to know how to best balance personal life and business  especially as I hope to work with some people in my social circle when starting my business.

Compentencies that I noticed in Elon Musk is hard work full of passion and efficiency, healthy and effective notions of teamwork, die-hard commitment to career, and consistent creative, forward, and conceptual thinking. I think Elon Musk sees hard work as a natural product of having a meaningful goal/dream and being passionate and all-in regarding it.

One part of the reading that confused me was when Musk asked the author if she thought he was insane since to me it's an obvious answer from all of the ground-breaking, out-of-the-norm things he did but the author had to spend a lot of time with him, and write a whole book, in order to discover the answer - but I'm glad she did.