Elon Musk: free spirit or victim of a tough childhood?

I couldn't resist grabbing the Musk biography by Walter Isaacson. The author had direct access to all negotiations and the freedom to publish the biography without further authorization from Musk. This gives the reader detailed insights into some of the most important entrepreneurial processes without being lulled into hero worship. It is a read that allows the reader to participate in the entrepreneurial struggle from the front row and still leaves room for their own insights.

Psychobabble

However, when it comes to clarifying the motives behind Elon Musk's decisions, the author is too happy to reach into his childhood psychobabble.

He believes that Musk bought Twitter because his difficult childhood triggered an unresolved desire for recognition.

In his childhood he was “bullied by his classmates. But now he could own the playground.”

Billions of people around the world could rightly claim to have had a tough childhood.

However, only one of those credited with a tough childhood revolutionized the car industry, co-developed several leading AI companies, became the backbone of space travel and built his own satellite and internet infrastructure.

In this respect, childhood reflexes seem interesting, but not a sufficient explanation for entrepreneurial creativity on a global scale.

Global Kick-Ass Mission

What is an additional reason?

Elon Musk says that he wanted to buy Twitter because he saw democracy in danger.?

This is the central mission, which he repeatedly formulates in different nuances.

He is particularly concerned with contributing to a balance in the public debate by enabling all the different camps to meet on one platform and mitigating the drift into separate platforms for each opinion camp.

The point here is not whether this mission is right or wrong, but that a clearly formulated mission gives entrepreneurs an enormous boost in terms of internal and external impact.

This mission gives Musk the strength to fight his way through the complex personnel, technical and financial restructuring of X and then to develop further exciting business models.

At Tesla, too, the repeatedly formulated mission of making the planet less dependent on finite resources is part of a magnetic brand that has turned customers and shareholders into enthusiastic fans. Even many of those who hate electric cars find Tesla sexy.

What mission do you base your work on?

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