27A - Reading Reflection 3

I read Elon Musk Tesla, SpaceX, and the quest for a fantastic future.

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

a. What surprised you the most? I was surprised mainly with his early years as an entrepreneur, mostly his days at Zip2. I didn’t realize that was his first company. The second big surprise to me was that he did not create Tesla but merely invested in the company at first before taking over as the CEO.

b. What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? His non-stop work ethic seems to be out of this world. Almost everyone in the book that was interviewed spoke about this.

c. What did you least admire? Although his work ethic is to be admired, there are times when he expects everyone to work the same way he does. One example from the book that I did not agree with was when he called one of his senior leaders who was at the hospital during the birth of his child and berated him – telling him he needed to get his priorities in order.

d. Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? Elon has encountered much failure with both SpaceX and Tesla. With SpaceX he almost ran out of money to the point that he could not make payroll if he didn’t come up with funds in less than a week. This was due to all the failures they encountered trying to launch their first rockets.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? Elon has exhibited many competencies we attribute to entrepreneurs. He built his first video game and won the competition at the age of 12. He is extremely disciplined when he has his mind set on a goal. He is not afraid to take chances – some more extreme than any of us will ever encounter. He accepts failure and moves on, most of the time getting stronger. He learns from mistakes, so he doesn’t make the same ones again.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. One part that confused me was early on when they spoke about their mother and father taking them on adventures in the airplane. It sounded like they had a great family upbringing only to find out his parents got divorced and Elon considers his upbringing horrible. For the most part he blames his father and being bullied at school.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why? I would ask the following two questions:

a. If you could do it all again, what would you do differently?

b. What was the most valuable lesson you have learned on your journey so far?

I would ask these questions because they provide insight into learnings I could use on my own journey.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? I would expect Elon to say there’s no such thing as hard and not hard work - all work should be hard or it is not worth doing. I share this opinion to some degree. I believe in working hard and big dreams are not easy to achieve. However, I would not treat my employees the way he does at times and expect them to devote their life to me and my ambition over their families or friends.