Elon Musk as himself was a genius. Managing SpaceX and Telsa with even other companies at the same time is not an easy task. There's an inquisitiveness in almost every persons' mind that how he handles such load of work and with so many ups and downs, and remain in the dominant position.
Just like so many people, even I had that question. To know such things, one needs to peek into his life. Well, this book was a way of doing that.
The book describes the life of the man who has faced almost every situation that a person can think of. From the toughest times to the times of relief.
Being from a rich family from South Africa, he could have inherited his family's property and get into the business but, no, he had something more in his mind. A will to do something great.
As growing up he faced many difficult situations. Getting bullied by his peers, a sociopathic father, and above all, the task to convince the investors that he can do what he says.
Its naturally pretty difficult to convince your investors that your new venture is truly a place to invest which can bring any change; this task becomes even more difficult when you are aspiring to deliver something that no one has ever done and seems impossible and more importantly, silly to the general public. Even after all that, Elon paved his way through the crowd. The crowd not of competition, but untrust. He developed a trust around himself which makes everyone feel today that, "If he's saying something, he can do it." His theoretical ideas don't take much time to come into real life.
After all, being safe from the Russians and also having insecurity from his competitors like Boeing and Lockheed, who had strong political ties and money; isn't easy.
Although, besides all the praise and pride, there are some major scrutinies too. The most famous of them is, 'He's too strict.' Well, that's true though. But according to the writer, the companies wouldn't have seen such exponential growth without that behavior. That might be a wrong statement altogether. If going through the Muskian ideology, everything is possible. And there are a couple of examples too. Take the McLaren project. Bruce McLaren, the genius Kiwi, who raced for Cooper for seven years in the first years of his career, accomplished some great milestones. But it wasn't until 1963 when he made his company McLaren and raced in the F1 Grand Prix and numerous races including Le Mans where he defeated another legendary Ford racer, Ken Miles. 8 World Constructors' Championships and 12 World Drivers' Championships and is regarded as one of the greatest racers of all time. His behavior and attitude were calm and funny, not strict, yet he chased success.
Of course, Elon and Bruce are incomparable due to their different fields and timeline, but fame and success is something which depends on one's attitude, and not time.
What I am impressed is with Ashlee, that, he risked his family stability and his job to cover the story of Elon Musk and dig deep into his life and tell the entire ordeal to us.
In a nutshell, this is a great book to read, if you want to know about his success story.