Book Review | Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

I read Elon Musk’s biography and honestly took much longer to complete this book than I would have liked. But as resolved, here is my review of the book in the format referenced from the farnam street article. And I would like to reiterate, this review is not for you if your sole purpose of reading is entertainment, but if you like to draw lessons, expand horizons or try and build a skill using the book, then you are in the right place to know if this book is for you.

What is the book about as whole?

This book is about Elon Musk and his businesses. His purpose in life and the mission of saving mankind that he has set upon himself to achieve. The book dwells into the history and upbringing of Elon and each of his businesses and attempts telling the story behind what we see today in the form of SpaceX, Tesla, Hyperloop, Gigafactory, SolarCity and idea of space Internet.

What is being said in detail and how?

The book covers specific challenges in time, that were faced by Elon and each of his companies. The writer through various anecdotes, writes about the relentless criticism that Elon faced from media, the ridicule and disbelief that came from all walks of the industry and the continuous threat to existence each of his businesses have faced and continue to face till date.

He writes about the contribution of Elon’s childhood struggles into giving him resilience. There are stories and examples of the relentless work and sacrifices his employees have put in to make Tesla and SpaceX what they are today. Elon’s biggest strength in his journey has been his ability to convince and hire the best employees for his companies and also raise money each time from investors to give survival funding to one of his dying companies. His business acumen and belief in Vertically integrating all his companies through the unified field theory, without relying on external suppliers have proved critical in his success.

One of my favorite lines from the book explaining Elon’s lack of empathy is

“He seems to feel for the human species as a whole without always wanting to consider the wants and needs of individuals”

Did the book raise or answer any pertinent questions?

1) The book raises questions about the existence of humanity and the future we have as a species. There is so less being done to save humanity that even the ones who are making an attempt are being scoffed at.

2) It made me think about the skills we need and how no one ever teaches “raising money” as a skill in Bschools.

3) I also want to ask Elon if he ever thinks about the fate of his empire and businesses after him. If he is preparing someone to have the same quest and passion to save our species? If he knows his lifetime isn’t enough to accomplish all that he wants to and if he is ever scared of all this going waste after him? His vision is to make humans an interplanetary species which is a combination of making inter planet travel affordable and making Mars inhabitable. Will he have time to do both?

How did the book affect me?

My biggest lesson from this book is on Elon’s ability to handle stress gazillion times more than other humans can. His ability to thrive in stress and get addicted to it to the extent that he seeks more ambitious goals everyday and had said in an interview that “I would like to die on Mars”. So even throughout reading this book, I learnt and practiced having higher thresholds of stress. The fact that my stress or goal is so infinitesimal compared to his was reason enough for me to go on.

Another learning for me was the insight into the mechanical innovation both Tesla and SpaceX brought to its customers. Little facts like the battery packs placed at the central bottom of every Tesla car to ensure lower center of gravity and more power rekindled my interest in physics and how it can be used for simple yet profound innovation. It suddenly made real the innovation that was obscure and unreachable for me.

Last but not the least, was this specific paragraph about the impactful skills of today’s times.  And I quote from the book “You should Have a pretty broad engineering and scientific background. You should have some leadership training and a bit of MBA training or knowledge of how to run things, organize stuff and raise money”!!

Honestly the book is really dry and lacks in storytelling, but even if I can remember this one thing about stress from this book, I would consider it as justice to the time I spent on this book.