
Elon Musk
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– Unabridged
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A remarkable man in possession of limitless curiosity and intellect, Elon Musk makes a fascinating subject.
Tech reporter Ashlee Vance has shadowed him for a year to bring us an engaging and deeply personal account of the man who wants to send us into outer space.
South African-born Elon Musk is the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity. Musk wants to save our planet; he wants to send citizens into space, to form a colony on Mars; he wants to make money while doing these things; and he wants us all to know about it.
He is the real-life inspiration for the Iron Man series of films starring Robert Downey, Jr. The personal tale of Musk's life comes with all the trappings one associates with a great, drama-filled story. He was a freakishly bright kid who was bullied brutally at school and abused by his father. In the midst of these rough conditions and the violence of apartheid South Africa, Musk still thrived academically and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he paid his own way through school by turning his house into a club and throwing massive parties.
He started a pair of huge dot-com successes, including PayPal, which eBay acquired for $1.5 billion in 2002. Musk was forced out as CEO and so began his lost years, in which he decided to go it alone and baffled friends by investing his fortune in rockets and electric cars. Meanwhile Musk's marriage disintegrated as his technological obsessions took over his life....
Elon Musk is the Steve Jobs of the present and the future and for the past 12 months he has been shadowed by tech reporter Ashlee Vance. Elon Musk is an important, exciting and intelligent account of the real-life Iron Man.
- Listening Length13 hours and 23 minutes
- Audible release date28 April 2016
- LanguageEnglish
- ASINB01EI4XQSG
- VersionUnabridged
- Program TypeAudiobook
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Product details
Listening Length | 13 hours and 23 minutes |
---|---|
Author | Ashlee Vance |
Narrator | Fred Sanders |
Audible.co.uk Release Date | 28 April 2016 |
Publisher | Random House Audiobooks |
Program Type | Audiobook |
Version | Unabridged |
Language | English |
ASIN | B01EI4XQSG |
Best Sellers Rank | 1,579 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 5 in Biographies of Science & Technology Leaders 6 in Biographies of Business Leaders 42 in Business Biographies & Memoirs (Books) |
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 January 2019
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An interesting read for me, considering I never went in depth into what Musk has accomplished (to be fair, I came to this book because I find Tesla cars sexy and thought ‘well, why not read this, at least I’ll know more about the man’).
I’m kind of sitting on the fence about this book. I liked learning about how Musk’s companies came to be, the problems encountered along the way, how things were at times one inch from just failing, but worked out in the end, out of both luck and determination. In a way, it’s a positive ‘lesson’: that sometimes things fail, but it shouldn’t prevent you from fighting for them and taking risks, because they just may succeed as well.
I also appreciated that the author interviewed other people, employees, ex-employees, friends, ex-partners, etc., and that he made them part of the whole: people without whom Tesla Motors or SpaceX wOuld’ve never been able to take off, engineers and mechanics and designers whose role was absolutely not negligible. Since a large part of the book was focused on these companies, acknowledging more than just one actor was a good thing to do.
I would’ve d liked it to go more in depth about how exactly things worked out, when it comes to the science/engineering part. Elon Musk seems like he knows his stuff, too, and has learnt over the years what he didn’t know and made him shoot for impossible deadlines at first (now I guess they’re just improbable, hah), and… I don’t know, I expected something more detailed in that regard. Maybe less of the business aspect, and more about the engineering the way Elon Musk himself goes about it?
Also, for a biography, I think it didn’t go to the bottom of things either when it comes to the man, and lacks a certain detachment. Musk doesn’t come off as a very empathetic person, to say the least, and while objectively I understand his drive, humanely the way he treats his employees is, well, not great at all. So I would’ve been interested in seeing more reflecting about this: coming from him, but also coming from the biographer. There -is- something wrong in the way all these visionary projects have come to be, and it was pretty much glossed over. (In short, was the harshness really needed, does innovation has to come to such a price, and would things have tanked with just a bit more empathy?)
This was instructive, and I kind of liked it, so 3 stars… But while I know more about Tesla Motors, SolarCity and SpaceX, I don’t feel like I know -that- much more about Musk himself now.
insightful stories and details about his companies and the struggles to get them off the ground
very inspiring and great book
Highly recommend to any Elon fan
Insight in to not only a gifted brain but the ability of Musk to see the advantage of bringing together the greatest brains and putting every penny of his fortune to the betterment of mankind through science and simple logic if you have the foresight of brilliance.
Elon if ever proof was needed this book is proof that he is a gift to Humanity. May his God Bless him.☺
Prior to reading the book, I thought that my knowledge of Musk was pretty good. However, I still found there was a new surprise on every page.Vance has done well to capture a story of the billionaire's background, from bullied schoolboy to minimum wage worker, right through to him becoming one of the most pioneering minds of a generation.
It is an honest and fair portrayal of both his family and business life, a pleasure to read and delves just enough into the areas of interest in the subject's life.
Anyone looking for some inspiration should definitely buy this book!
Through extensive interviews and firsthand exposure to Musk, the author portrays a vivid account of who he is, what he has achieved, and how. He treads the line between fanboy and sceptic with skill, resulting in what I found both entertaining and informative.
If you have any interest in Musk this is for you, and if you don’t you probably definitely should read it! Musk is many things, but one thing he isn’t is going away any time soon!