Have you as a child ever wondered about venturing into space or driving a high-tech futuristic car? Or built rockets for exploration and colonising planets like Mars? Well, there is one guy who did and took his childhood passions seriously. He is an American entrepreneur, co-founder of PayPal and Tesla and now the founder of the very famous company SpaceX. Author, journalist Ashlee Vance has tried to map his life through this Biography. This New York Times Bestseller entails the story of how Musk has evolved into the person he is today and how this billionaire CEO is shaping our future.
The biography, “Elon Musk ” is a recount of Elon’s childhood, his personality of being a recluse, often being misunderstood as socially awkward. His brilliance and perseverance of tirelessly working to satiate his curiosity to know about new things. While kids his age were busy playing, he was reading encyclopaedias. The book deftly gives us a glimpse of Elon’s difficult childhood by talking about his parents separation and the days with his father. However, it gives explicit details about his career and life as a mission to venture into space and new technology. Ashlee Vance describes how Musk has dedicated most of his energy to inventing a future that would give way for the Golden Age of Science Fiction, Artificial Intelligence, and the possibility to colonise Mars.
It is interesting to know that Elon is way too committed to his mission. He can work as long as 20 hours a day. The biography gives intricate details of Elon’s perseverance and his earlier ventures like Zip2 and PayPal. It was not always a smooth ride for him all along. Elon was thrown out of his own company PayPal, but that didn’t deter him from finding new pastures. In 2002, he founded SpaceX with the goal of making Space Exploration simple for all. Soon, in 2003, Elon Musk also co-founded the electric car company, Tesla with the aim of accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy. It is quite revelling to know his entire professional journey.
The book not only talks about his career but also gives us an insight into his personality. The book tries to let the reader find this out by giving instances about his relationship with colleagues, employees, and life partners. The book talks about his ever-famous temper and his controlling nature, which can be summed up by his ex-wife remark “This is Musk’s world, and we are just people living in it”. Overall, this book is an inspiring good read for people ranging from teenagers to adults. His story is an empowering and motivational journey that can help many people to realise their potential and look forward to life just like Musk does.
