Who are you really Mr Musk? A review of the book 'Elon Musk' by Walter Isaacson.

Elon Musk is unlikely to be introduced to anyone. However, I will briefly introduce Walter Isaacson.

1.Briefly about Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson is an American writer, journalist, and biographer known for his insightful and comprehensive works on influential figures from various fields. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and Literature from Harvard University and later attended Pembroke College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. Isaacson's career has been distinguished by his roles as a journalist, editor, and CEO of major media organisations. He served as the Chairman and CEO of CNN and as the Managing Editor of Time magazine, showcasing his proficiency in media management.

However, Isaacson is perhaps best known for his biographical works, which are characterised by meticulous research and engaging storytelling.

He is arguably the best biographer of our time. His biographies include Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo Da Vinci, Steve Jobs, among others. And now Musk.

2.Musk is not a hero from my fairy tale, but after reading the book it is less black and white.

Elon Musk is not my type of guy. I am certainly not his fanboy, or rather, I am not even fond of him. For me, his management style is (or at least was until now) a relic of the 1990s in my country, where people worked 12-16 hours at a time to build capitalism, neglecting themselves and loved ones. I can see for myself that when I founded my first company 15 years ago I cultivated this macho start-up founder style similar to Musk. And I came out of it badly as an entrepreneur. I lost a lot of very good people. In retrospect- I absolutely do not recommend it. I have a bad image of Musk to such an extent that I wouldn't buy a Tesla, even though I like the cars a lot and consider them a good value for money given their technological advancement. Especially when now in Poland they have stopped being treated as an exclusive commodity and are starting to be priced like other premium cars. And interestingly, here an anecdote- I read some time ago in the Polish press how awful and arrogant the customer service is in the Tesla showroom in Warsaw. And here is a quote from the book: Elon never believed in sales and marketing, he believed that if the product is great it will sell itself. What do you think about it?

3.Musk has Asperger's and has lived through his tragedies

But now let's look at Elon a little more humanly. This man grew up with an abusive father. He grew up in a difficult country at a time of transition (South Africa post apartheid) where violence became part of everyday life. He escaped all this to Canada, where he had to start from a much lower (the lowest?) social position. He made it. And then, after all the financial and life successes, like his first exit and his first million dollars, his first child dies - after two weeks of life. His relatives say in the book that he howled like a wolf then. I, for one, have to admit that I didn't know this story before.

And Asperger's? It is a kind of autism. Musk has a problem with empathy because of it. This theme comes up many times in the book. His two ex-wives speak plainly: marriages fell apart because of it. He could not find a CEO for Tesla.

At the same time, relatives and friends say in the book that Musk, if he is relaxed and happy, is the nicest person in the world. He has the incredible joy of a child to enjoy the world.

Finally, a fact from the book: At Musk's first company Zip2, where he worked with his brother Kimbal, they got into such a fight that one bit the other and a doctor had to be called in for a tetanus shot and stitches. Kimbal says in the book: "I love my brother very, very much, but I am not able to work with him."

Is Elon Musk a happy man?

4.What I learned from the book, main takeaways:

Musk is unbelievably stubborn. He resembles Steve Jobs in this. It verges on mental health syndrom. But he wins on this.

Musk's stubbornness gives people faith in the project. Even the improbable ones-and those few he has managed to realise. In his persistence and determination, Musk takes the baggage of fear off people's shoulders as to whether it will succeed.

Musk is incredibly frugal and focused on execution. Designing a car or a rocket is nothing compared to making it. Qualitatively and budget-wise. And perhaps that is why he has become a billionaire. He is obsessed with using materials from other, cheaper industries. For example: his engineers have used ordinary ventilation systems in rockets, upgrading them accordingly. Price ratio: 1:10. In car manufacturing: the same.

Musk is incredibly protective of his products. He is even disliked by engineers because of this. But his suggestions are often game-changers.

He has a feel for the market. Quite incredible. But he doesn't know how to convince the really key people - in the example of his investment in AI, the key scientists eventually walked away from him.

He is able to convince investors at key moments. In 2008, Tesla and SpaceX were on the brink of bankruptcy Musk managed to raise capital. After colleagues first. But when you have colleagues like Peter Thiel, with whom you did PayPal...Then you have finally and a lot of VCs. If it hadn't worked out at that point, we probably wouldn't have heard of Musk today.

Finally, the most important thing: Musk understands quite extremely well the relationship in product development between engineering and UX. Design is not just about aesthetics. People buy products for design. Design and usability come together. Musk is probably even more focused here than Jobs. Is he right?

5.Is the book objective?

No book is fully objective. But as Isaacson is: this book is meticulously researched. Sometimes I had the impression while reading that it was all too much so. Lke for Musk's fanboys/girls. But after reading that I didn't, that a character who arouses so much emotion should be really well documented. So the book is objective as much as the author can be objective. But my subjective feeling tells me that the author likes Musk. And he kind of doesn't go into the less convenient facts e.g. why SpaceX made money from government contracts and the de facto privatisation of the space programme by the Obama administration.

1. Is Musk a brilliant engineer as he loves to portray himself?

After reading this, I believe all the more that Musk is not another Tesla or Edison. He is not a brilliant inventor. But he is an unbelievably skilled technologist. He is able to see the application of science where great minds do not see it. Not always accurately, sometimes he even makes big mistakes, but he can. You may or may not like him, but there is genius in that.

7.Who is this book for?

The book is very long and detailed. It is not for everyone. It should definitely be read by founders (a good thing to do) and product managers (probably 'a must' here). The rest of you- to choose from.

My rating: 7/10

A very good conversation with Walter Isaacson by Lex Fridman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGOV5R7M1Js&t=1952s