Why Elon Musk is a Genius

Elon and his brother Kimbal created Global Link Information Network, which was an online publishing company and would be renamed Zip2. The company would receive a $3 million investment from a firm and Zip2 changed its business strategy. During this venture Elon became Chief Technology Officer and the venture capital firm brought in some different to be the Chief Executive Officer. Compaq purchased the company and Elon made $22 million from the deal. Because of disagreements with investors Elon vowed never to give up the CEO role again.

While doing an internship at the Bank of Nova Scotia, Elon discovered a way to make money off of debt. When he approached the bank with his findings they rejected his proposal and Elon chose to start X.com. X.com became one of the first fully digital banks. Competitors formed PayPal.com and the two companies became rivals. Five months into forming X.com co-founder Harris Fricker attempted a coup. Fricker wanted to be CEO of X.com or he and the talent would leave. Elon told him to leave. After Fricker left Elon had to essentially start again. PayPal continued to be a competitor to X.com and was a recognized and widely used brand but they were short on money. X.com while smaller did have capital and the two companies merged. Elon wanted to keep the X.com name, but ultimately the employees wanted to go by Paypal. While on his honeymoon his employees convinced the board to replace Elon with PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel as CEO. After Elon was ousted as the CEO he continued to invest in PayPal. eBay offered to buy PayPal and after taxes Elon made $180 million. Two companies and both companies were ultimately taken over by other people.

Elon had plenty of money and decided to pursue his interest in space travel and formed SpaceX. Elon invested $100 million into SpaceX to ensure that he would remain as CEO. Elon was determined to make space travel happen, but the road to building a successful rocket was slightly out of reach. The first three rocket launches resulted in explosions, but finally the forth launch was successful. This success was the only reason SpaceX did not fold. With the successful launch SpaceX was able to get a $1.6-billion deal with NASA for missions to the International Space Station.

Elon had a desire to design an electric car. Tesla's Model S was the first electric car that Elon designed. Musk had many problems with the Model S and after redesigning several times was still not performing as promised. Finally, the car was produced, but each car cost the company $132,000. They had projected the cost of the car to be $68.000 and the actual car cost $200,000 and so once again Tesla was facing bankruptcy. Elon has always been able to find a dollar when it was necessary to keep his company alive. Instead of giving up he has always found a way to stay afloat.

Elon Musk is a mess of a leader and yet he continues to push through whatever roadblocks to succeed. In recent months Elon has made personal choice that make you wonder if his initial question to biographer Ashlee Vance was true. His question to Vance, "Do you think I'm insane?" I personally think that while a genius he leaves a lot to be desired as a human.

Did you like this example?

917

48