13A – Reading Reflection No. 1
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ashlee Vance
What surprised me the most about him was his upbringing. He was bullied a lot as a kid for his genius and creativity. I most admired that he learns everything he can about any business he is going into (reading college-level textbooks on rocket science and engineering). I least admired his family ethics and the way he treated his ex-wife. Elon encounters plenty adversity and failure, just look at how many rockets he blew up in trying to launch his first one. He overcame the adversity by realizing its just part of the journey, and that a lot can be learned from failure.
Competencies:
Elon was very good at noticing the world going online. He predicted how important the internet was going to be. He helped make Paypal and survived the dot-com bust.
Confusion in the reading:
The author went into great detail about all the technical and engineering failures Space X had in its first few years while they tried to launch the rocket. So much rocket science and engineering confused me a bit.
Questions for Elon:
1. What do you eat for breakfast?
- it's important to get your day started and anything else I would like to know about his is already online, plus, what he eats in the morning to start his day would give me further insight on who he is. Is he a make a shake and go kind of person, or is he a make some eggs and coffee kind of person, or does he have a chef who does it all?
2. Where do you see the worldview on veganism heading?
- Elon's' main goals are to colonize other planets and to live on this earth sustainably. The animal food industry is a huge contributor to global warming, I wonder if he plans on doing something about it.
Hard Work?:
Elon states that he cannot expect anyone else in his company work harder than him. So if he is to expect a lot out of his employees, he must first set the example. I fully agree with this and hope to one day have an all-glass office in the middle of my company so everyone can see how hard I work and understand that I am no hypocrite when I demand them to work just as hard.
Hi Cristian,
ReplyDeleteI also did my reading review on Elon Musk and like you, I admired his work ethic. I like the questions you chose to ask him since they are more about his personal habits and beliefs versus the more technical stuff you can find online. Wanting to learn who a person is based on their eating habits says something about you too - that you like to get to know people on a more personal level. I also like how your second question aligns with your product idea. Getting celebrity endorsement or arousing public interest would be super beneficial to your cause. Thank you for sharing.
Tess
I read Shoe Dog, and also noticed that Buck seemed to always want to be best informed and do his research, like you said Elon also did with learning about businesses. My least favorite thing about him was also to do with the way he was with his family. There seems to be some common themes among entrepreneurs. I like that one of your questions in a way related to your unmet need and solution.
ReplyDeleteHello Cristian,
ReplyDeleteI also read about Elon Musk, and found him to be an extraordinary person. I very much admire his vision and, when coupled with his crazy work ethic, he seems to be almost inhuman. I found your write-up of him to be very interesting, and I very much enjoyed your questions to him. They were very out of the box and specific and yet, I feel like these questions would reveal some interesting things about who he is as a person. Awesome job!