Review of
Elon
Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future,
by Ashlee Vance ISBN 9780062301239
The life and
achievements of Elon Musk are similar to what many readers of the original Tom
Swift Jr. book series fantasized about their careers. In fact, some of Musk’s
achievements were the subject of books in the series.
Like so many
people that are incredibly successful, Musk had an unusual and difficult
childhood. He was mercilessly bullied in school and experienced little in the
way of male parental nurturing. Rather than use this as an excuse for failure,
he channelled those frustrations into a vision, drive and intelligence that
just may change the course of human events.
Like most
people that are successful, Musk has experienced a bit of luck, but as the
great baseball man Branch Rickey often said, “Luck is the residue of design.”
Without question there has been a lot of design in Musk’s professional success.
By themselves, the development of the Tesla line of cars or the SpaceX line of rockets
could make him a historically significant figure. The potential of the combination of the two to change the
course of human events is extraordinary.
Unlike so many
others that achieve great wealth, Musk is not content to simply bask in the
glory and enjoy it. He is constantly pouring the money back into new projects
and grandiose ideas for spectacular advances in technology and how humans do
things. He is a difficult person to work with and for, yet as the histories of
other tech titans indicates, that is probably a precondition for his level of
success. Therefore, this story of his life and achievements needs to be ended
with the simple phrase “So far.”
This book is an
excellent biography of an extraordinary man, loaded with more vision and talents
than he will be able to express and realize in his lifetime. Yet, unlike nearly
all other people, if he achieves even a fraction of that, he will go down in
history as one of the world’s greatest drivers of new technology.
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