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What Fuels the Rocket Man?
A theory of Elon Musk.
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hen people compare Elon Musk to Steve Jobs, they mean it as a compliment. Musk is not yet a household name, whereas Jobs is the most iconic entrepreneur of his generation.
To Musk, though, it just might be an insult.
Sure, the Tesla and SpaceX chief has politely demurred at the comparison, calling Jobs “way cooler than I am.” But after reading Elon Musk, Ashlee Vance’s new biography of him, I can see how Musk might have meant that as a backhanded compliment. Being cool has never been Musk’s aim. From the start, his earnest goal in life has been—and I’m not exaggerating here—to develop the technologies he deemed most crucial to the future of humanity. (Surprise: MP3 players and smartphones didn’t make the list.) As preposterous as that sounds, he might actually be doing it.
At 43, Musk has helmed at least three companies that could fairly be said to have upended their respective industries. PayPal did it to payments, Tesla to cars, and SpaceX to space travel. SolarCity, whose board he chairs, is among a handful of startups threatening to do the same to electric utilities.
Forget Jobs: Vance places Musk in the pantheon of history’s great industrialists, alongside Edison, Ford, and Rockefeller. Some critics have chided the veteran Businessweek columnist for his apparent hyperbole. Those critics are, of course, just the sort of people whose conventional wisdom Musk has made a career out of defying. The electric car was dead; against all odds, Musk’s Tesla revived it—and built one of the great vehicles of all time in the process. The space race was over; Musk’s SpaceX reignited it. The residential solar power industry was moribund; thanks in part to SolarCity, it’s booming.
[center]
[/center]
hen people compare Elon Musk to Steve Jobs, they mean it as a compliment. Musk is not yet a household name, whereas Jobs is the most iconic entrepreneur of his generation.
To Musk, though, it just might be an insult.
Sure, the Tesla and SpaceX chief has politely demurred at the comparison, calling Jobs “way cooler than I am.” But after reading Elon Musk, Ashlee Vance’s new biography of him, I can see how Musk might have meant that as a backhanded compliment. Being cool has never been Musk’s aim. From the start, his earnest goal in life has been—and I’m not exaggerating here—to develop the technologies he deemed most crucial to the future of humanity. (Surprise: MP3 players and smartphones didn’t make the list.) As preposterous as that sounds, he might actually be doing it.
At 43, Musk has helmed at least three companies that could fairly be said to have upended their respective industries. PayPal did it to payments, Tesla to cars, and SpaceX to space travel. SolarCity, whose board he chairs, is among a handful of startups threatening to do the same to electric utilities.
Forget Jobs: Vance places Musk in the pantheon of history’s great industrialists, alongside Edison, Ford, and Rockefeller. Some critics have chided the veteran Businessweek columnist for his apparent hyperbole. Those critics are, of course, just the sort of people whose conventional wisdom Musk has made a career out of defying. The electric car was dead; against all odds, Musk’s Tesla revived it—and built one of the great vehicles of all time in the process. The space race was over; Musk’s SpaceX reignited it. The residential solar power industry was moribund; thanks in part to SolarCity, it’s booming.
Read More.
