Elon Musk
Elon Musk is a real life Iron Man, Inventor, Entrepreneur, Innovator and a man with Vision. He is the one behind diverse extra ordinary companies viz. Pay Pal, SpaceX, Tesla, Solar City, OpenAI, Boring Company, &Neuralink. The central character of the very popular movie "Iron Man" was inspired by musk's real life. (He played Cameo role in the film Iron Man -2 & scene was shot in his company.)
Born in South Africa, Musk showed signs of genius through his reading and knowledge. Although he was smart and intelligent was being bullied a lot by his school mates. He went to Canada before he turned 18 for completing education in Physics and Economics. He believes that to do wonders one must possess knowledge of Physics as we are mostly governed and affected by it every point on time.
Awards
- FAI GOLD Space Medal (Highest award in Space)
- Forbes 20 Most Powerful CEO in 2011
- Esquire Magazine 75 Most Influential People
- Tesla Model-S awarded Car of the Year in 2013
- Times 100 most influential people in 2013
Accolades
- Iron Man movie is inspired from Him
- He is known as "Young Richard Branson"
- Many call him "Saviour of Mankind"
- Regarded as "Henry Ford of 21st Century"
- I call him "The Living Steve Jobs"
The lessons to be learnt from Elon Musk
Knowledge
This brilliant champ at the age of 10 dared to correct a person who informed him saying that moon is crores of miles away; Musk said- Its just 200 thousand Km away. A reaction out of the knowledge he had at an early age.
Reading Habit
He read for atleast 5 hours daily even on non-exam days (that too books not directly related to his studies).
Fear
He self-read and self-healed himself. He discovered that Darkness is just the absence of Photons so it's nothing to fear about darkness.
Early Bird in Business
At 10 he tried joining computer class, but he was way ahead then the computer teachers in South Africa. By the time he was 12 he developed the game ‘Blaster' and sold it for $500. He had business mind since then. He got admission at Stanford for PhD but left the course in just 2 days. He thought that it was the time to take advantage of the internet boom. He immediately started working on identifying and catering the internet industry.
Problem Identification and Solving
Elon musk identified the problem people faced of finding the details of restaurant or an ATM in new city or a state by developing an online solution for locating things and businesses. He incorporated Zip2 Corporation (an online city guide) and let the world free from Yellow Pages. It was the first company in the world to teach people to search things online.
Fully Engaged/ Gets Going
Most of us nowadays, seek financial freedom. Many plans for certain amount and wish to get retired by the age of 45 or 50. Elon Musk received a whopping $165 Million in July 2002. He could have got retired, got villas and even series of islands with that amount. Elon Musk never stopped. He kept on doing something new and great.
Innovator
He took over operations of an electric car company viz. Tesla. Can you recall an electric car seen in India? Its size, look and speed? Elon Musk successfully launched Tesla which is faster than Ferrari and Cheaper than Maruti 800 car (in terms of fuel economy). He dreamt and delivered electric cars to reduce pollution. In a startling announcement Elon Musk declared that by 2030 there would be no petrol, diesel, CNG or LPG cars. It would be only electric cars. This was supported by a study made and published in May 2017 by Stanford Economist, Tony Seba that in next 8 years there would be only electric cars due to its Zero fuel emission and longevity.
Business for Humanity
Most of the people across the world want to start a business which has good profit margin and which would earn a lot of fortunes to us. Elon Musk is quite different from us all. He says whenever he thought of a business he used to ask one question to himself. He asked ‘What are the problems that will affect humanity?' That is how he started or developed Tesla, Zip2 Corporation, Pay Pal, Solar City, Neuralink, Boring Company, Open AI and SpaceX. While launching Tesla & SpaceX he says "It wasn't question of profit versus non-profit. It was how do we (mankind) live?" This sums up all!
Thinks of Greater Good
Having known that Internet is the next business to make fortunes, we would certainly rush at thinking some business as to how we can use internet in making money and profit. Elon Musk says he will launch 4425 satellites around our planet Earth for being an internet service provider. He says, he will provide internet to entire world FREE of cost!
Salary
Wow! CEO of a big company. Compensation in millions. SundarPichai received $200 Million salary last year (i.e. Rs. 1300 Crore rupees) as the CEO of Google. Elon Musk just drew $1 as his salary at Tesla. Currently he draws just $37000.
Achievement by efforts and not a Dream
Having started a business, Musk said he didn't know how much sales we can expect from best client. The value of one order received by Elon Musk's SpaceX Company was $1.6 Billion from NASA.
Protection of Production process
Obviously all want to patent their products and processes. Elon Musk said he does not trust the government. To copy his SpaceX project, two things required- huge amount of Funds and Knowledge of Process. SpaceX project can only be afforded by Government and no one else. So, he has never applied patent for SpaceX, as to apply for it required to submit things to government.
Hires the Best Breed
The following image shows a brief compilation as to those who were working with him & made PayPal develop great products are from companies like YouTube, LinkedIn, Slide, Geni, Square, Kiva, Yelp and so on.
‘Reading' as an answer
Most of us say ‘it's not a rocket science'. This shows that Rocket Science is difficult to do, the task at your hand is very easy to do. When someone asked Elon Musk "How did you build a rocket on your own?" Elon humbly replied "I read books". Such is the reading and learning attitude of Elon Musk. We just read and leave the things, he practices reading and created something big.
Many Failures before Fame/ The dark days
The success saga is not a fairy-tale. He has probably seen the world biggest nightmares in business as well as on personal fronts. His SpaceX launches failed for the consecutive 3 times, BBC reported Tesla a big failure. Banks who backed the financial support to Solar City business, now backed out due to sub-prime crisis. His marriage failed and got divorced.
Dream not to settle, but to change
Many of us dream of a well settled life. Job, family, property, name and fame is the list of most of us. Elon Musk says, "When I was in college, I wanted to be involved in things that would change world. . ." he softly adds "Now I am". Today he has changed the world atleast 5 times through Zip2 Corporation, PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, and Solar City. He has already laid foundation to many other projects which would further change the world. He has started projects like Hyperloop (world's fastest mode of communication after planes), Open AI (he says the biggest threat to mankind is Artificial Intelligence), Boring Company (underground transportation), and Neuralink. He sails forward finding out every pinch of problem present in world for solving it.
Thinks Big, Aims greater
Most can't think of this answer. Elon Musk says "I would like to die on Mars..." Elon Musk dreams to start a colony on Mars. He aims at transporting 1 million humans to Mars by the year 2030. He joking adds "I would like to die on Mars; just not on Impact."