Book Review
Elon Musk - By Walter Isaacson
By: Chris Ramsburg
Over the years, there have been at least a dozen or more biographies written about Elon Musk. The most recent is by author Walter Isaacson. He has written well-regarded biographies on Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Henry Kissinger. In his latest biography on Elon Musk, he had 100% access since 2021 to shadow him and interview anyone with business or personal ties to Musk.
“To anyone I’ve offended, I just want to say, I reinvented electric cars and I’m sending people to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?" - Elon Musk, Saturday Night Live, May 8, 2021
A quirkiness of mine is that I like to categorize people by considering whether I would want to drive to Florida with them. Would I like to drive to Florida with Elon Musk? The answer is NO, but he is one fascinating individual. Musk is a businessman and investor known for his key roles in space company SpaceX and automotive company Tesla. Other involvements include ownership of X Corp., formally Twitter, along with The Boring Company, xAI, Neuralink, and Open AI.
Elon Musk has something called “The Algorithm”. It only pertains to Musk’s business life and not his personal life. While his personal life has been full of triumphs and turmoil, Musk has lived it out in his “demon mode”. You will have to read his biography to discover more about his “demon mode”. It is as interesting as “The Algorithm”.
Isaacson summarizes his research on Musk with this: “Sometimes great innovators are risk-seeking man-children who resist potty training. They can be reckless, cringeworthy, sometimes even toxic. They can also be crazy. Crazy enough to think they can change the world”.
After reading the book, Elon Musk does seem a little crazy. His experiences help us understand how a little craziness keeps us creative in today’s business world.
