Assignment 13A - Reading Reflection No. 1

1. I read Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance.
• What surprised you the most?
• I was surprised to see him compared to Steve Jobs, who has a prominent role with both Pixar and Apple. This was mostly surprising to me because I have an esteemed view of Steve Jobs, being an iPhone user of seven years and a strong advocate for its technology/simplicity. I haven’t thought about the commonality between the two entrepreneurs until this book pointed it out not me (probably because I haven’t personally been exposed to his products); after all, Musk has commandeering three industries with Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity.
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? 
• As we talked about this week, tenacity was the thing I admired the most about Elon Musk. In the wake of the recession in 2008, both his companies, Tesla and SpaceX, were losing funding. Instead of giving up, he scraped together financing for the two the day before payroll was due. 
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? 
• Elon Musk was known for talking a big game. This is what I least admire about him because I believe that actions speak louder than words; in this case, his innovations should speak for themselves. 
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? 
• Elon Musk has faced failure. As previously mentioned, he was losing his investments in Tesla and SpaceX; he went from a millionaire to living on a friend’s couch as he tried to get these start-ups going. Musk has a problem with SpaceX primarily as it was competing with Lockheed Martin. He overcame this adversity and failure by promising innovative things and doing everything in his power to follow through on them. 
2. What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?
• There are many competencies that Musk exhibited including imagination, drive and previous entrepreneurial experience. Musk’s imagination allowed him to move from one successful venture to another, his unwavering drive made him successful in his ventures (especially in the wake of adversity), and he was able to build upon his entrepreneurial experience with Zip2 and PayPal. For instance, from Zip2 he learned that it’s easy to lose control of your company and vowed to stay CEO for any future ventures. Today, he remains the CEO of Tesla. 
3. Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
• An overarching part of the reading that was confusing to me was how Musk jumped back and forth between ideas. For instance, he divorced his wife but later go remarried despite lengthy prenuptial agreement settlements. He also mentioned wanting PayPal back after making the decision to sell it. Entrepreneurs tend to need to be decisive, but he does not appear to be and that was personally confusing to me. 
4. If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why? 
• The two questions I’d ask are as follows: 
• Tesla sales are down despite it being the first largely successful electric car. What are the next steps to recovery? 
• Why would you go from one venture to another? For instance, Mark Zuckerberg stayed with Facebook, instead of selling back in early the 2000s and it is now the most lucrative social media platform. 
• I would ask these questions because they would let me understand what Elon Musk is motivated by. Is it the ability to create a lasting impact? Is it money? For instance, Musk mentioned wanting PayPal back; does he have regrets? It will also allow me to understand more about how to deal with failure, and that is valuable insight considering the number of entrepreneurial ideas that fail yearly. 
5. For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?
• I think Elon Musk valued hard work. He once told an employee that it was not okay to miss the SpaceX launch for the birth of his child. That paints a good picture of his work ethic and values. I share a similar opinion; I value hard work and discipline and believe it pays off in the long run. That being said, I do not think that missing your child’s birth for work is appropriate (but I could see myself postponing starting a family if I had a business venture underway).