1) You read about an entrepreneur:
- The most surprising thing I found about Elon Musk was his bold vision for the oil-free car industry at such a young age. Mr. Musk has been pondering some of the most difficult problems of our species since he was a student. He also dreamed of humans colonizing various planets, which brought forth the creation of SpaceX. All of these ideas/solutions are crazy for anyone to ponder, let alone a young man still in schooling.
- Obvisouly, Elon Musk has many entrepreneurial skills to admire, but for me personally, I truly admire his passion and vision for the future. Elon Musk is truly one of the boldest to ever come out of Silicon Valley and his technology is literally shaping our future before our very eyes. Elon Musk's creation of Tesla and SpaceX are truly special, and they show that hard work and passion can truly change the world.
- However, Elon Musk does bring a bit of unadmirable qualities, such as his profound, blinding confidence in his various creations. I believe Mr. Musk over-promises about the future when speaking about his various companies. Additionaly, Mr. Musk does project a sense of supreme superiority to any critic who questions one of his ideas.
- Elon Musk persevered through many different hardships throughout his life. The first one being his removal as CEO of the company he started, ZIP2. The second during 2008 when Tesla and SpaceX were on the verge of bankruptcy. In regards to Musk's CEO removal, he stayed on board with the company and stuck to being chief technology officer. In regards to keeping both Tesla and SpaceX afloat during the 2008 financial crisis Musk had to sell off various assets, as well as land a NASA contract for SpaceX and raise more money from investors for Tesla.
2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?
- Elon Musk exhibits extreme passion and determination when pursuing any new business venture or project. He also has the ability to juggle two highly demanding companies, both of which faced immediate bankruptcy a few years ago. Lastly, he also has the ability to channel various amounts of knowledge and direction into any project with a flip of a switch.
3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
- There wasn't much that confused me about this biography, but the confusing part of the biography was about SolarCity and its relation to Tesla. I understood that Tesla also makes solar panels and batteries but I did not understand why they were separated companies.
4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
- How do you personally measure your own success?
- How do you constantly keep innovating?
Why: I would ask Elon Musk the first question to gain insight on how to properly navigate a personally fulfilling and successful career. I would ask the second question just based on my own curiosity for how one continues to innovate year after year.
5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?
5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?
- Elon Musk views hard work as the key for any entrepreneur to be successful in their pursuits. Elon Musk is his own testament to the benefits of hard work and perseverance. I share the exact same opinion of this belief.
Hi David! I enjoyed reading your blog post for this assignment. Although I read about a different entrepreneur for this assignment, I thought your post was detailed and allowed me to obtain a better understanding of Elon Musk. I especially liked the questions you developed for your answer to question 4. For my assignment, I read about Coco Chanel, and also developed my questions out of curiosity. Specifically, I was curious about her innovations within the fashion industry. Overall, great post!
ReplyDeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good post. I have been following Musk's exploits from afar for years and I know very little about him. What seems to be apparent is his drive and strong work ethic. I do not necessarily share his vision for the future (colonizing Mars for example) but to each is own. Your questions to him would be an interesting read. From what I hear, if he is not careful he could burnout (pun intended).