- [Narrator] Elon Musk: Tesla, Space X,
and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
is an in-depth, extensively researched,
and balanced biography by Ashlee Vance,
a well-known business
and technology columnist
who has written for The
Economist, Business Week,
and the New York Times.
Described as "the Thomas
Edison" or the "Iron Man"
of our times, Musk is
painted as an eccentric
industrialist, both
inventor and businessman,
with insanely big vision,
the impressive capacity
to deal with stress,
and the often jarring,
but necessary capability
to squeeze the most out of his people.
To put the Musk oddity in context,
after the Silicon Valley implosion
in the turn of the millennium,
entrepreneurs and investors
started playing it safe,
often working on incremental improvements
whereas Musk never gave up
on his leap-forward visions
to the point where those closest to him
were following him around to make sure
he wasn't actually going insane.
From early on, even as a student,
Musk had determined that his life goal
would be to alleviate
our dependence on oil
and make us a multi-planetary species.
The former was a
necessity to make humanity
sustainable on Earth.
The latter was essential
to make us future-proof.
He saw it as an obvious
risk management strategy
for humanity in case
something happened to Earth.
Eventually, he succeeded on both fronts
but it was quite a bumpy ride.
After the sale of PayPal,
Musk had the liquidity
to attempt to turn his
dreams into reality.
He founded SpaceX in 2002 with a mission
to become the Southwest
Airlines for space.
Later on, he heard of a team
developing a fully electric car
and plowed much of his
money there as well.
Both startups were money pits,
but Musk was committed
to go broke while trying.
In 2008, he had to face
the ultimate choice,
which of his two babies to save?
He was running out of cash
and could only support
SpaceX or Tesla, but not both.
In the end, he accomplished
the unfathomable
during the heights of
the financial recession.
He scraped together financing for Tesla,
the day before, he wouldn't
have been able to meet payroll,
and he secured a large
government contract for SpaceX,
competing against the incumbent behemoths.
Musk brought two much needed things
to two very old school industries,
Silicon Valley thinking
and Apple-like design.
He dove right into
executing his big vision
and figured it out as he went along,
ignoring the status quo in order to
deliver step change improvements,
and he made sure the design
was an integral part of execution,
minimal, functional, and delightful,
whether he was building rockets or cars.
Musk was often seen as part
playboy and part space cowboy.
He talked the biggest game in town
but he also delivered no
matter what stood in his way,
perhaps a bit late, but
otherwise as promised.
In the process, he went
from multi-millionaire
to selling almost everything
and staying at a friend's house
but in the end it all came together.
The book recounts this
tightrope act blow-by-blow
to get a glimpse of what
it's like to be Elon Musk.
Of the people interviewed for the book,
whether they loved or hated Elon,
in the end, they were all
awed and inspired by him.
