Jessica Easto (editor) - Rocket Man: Elon Musk In His Own Words (In Their Own Words)

Copyright 2017 by Agate Publishing, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without express written permission from the publisher.

Rocket Man is in no way authorized, prepared, approved, or endorsed by Elon Musk and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of his past or present organizations.

References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the editor nor the publisher is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

Rocket Man: Elon Musk In His Own Words

ebook ISBN 13: 978-1-57284-790-3

First printing: February 2017

B2 is an imprint of Agate Publishing. Agate books are available in bulk at discount prices. For more information, go to agatepublishing.com.

What Im trying to do is to minimize future

existential threats or take whatever action

I can to ensure the future is good. I didnt

expect these companies to succeed. I thought

they would most likely fail.

ELON MUSK, JANUARY 2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

E LON MUSK WANTS TO CHANGE THE WORLD.

If researching this book has taught me anything, its that Musks unapologetic, unbridled ambition unsettles (or enrages) people at least as much as it inspires them. And yet it would be difficult to argue on objective grounds that the depth and breadth of his work are not changing the world in important ways.

Musk knew from an early age that he wanted to leave his home in South Africa for the United Statesin his words, the greatest country thats ever existed on earthin order to be in the best position to make a difference. In college, he decided the fields that were most likely to impact the future of humanity included the internet, space travel, and sustainable energy. Since then, hes been working to improve them one by one.

When eBay purchased PayPal (Musks second internet company) in 2002, he walked away with a cool $180 million and promptly started pouring it into a seemingly insane venture: SpaceX, a private company that aims to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets. Musk taught himself rocket science, became the companys chief designer, and set out to take the first step toward making life multiplanetary: reducing the cost of space travel. In the 14 years since then, Musk and his SpaceX team have transformed the way rockets are manufactured, reduced the cost of launches by millions of dollars, earned lucrative contracts from both commercial and government entities, and achieved numerous space-travel milestones, including the ability to launch and land (and hopefully reuse) an orbital rocket booster stage. The companys eyes are now set on Mars.

Meanwhile, in 2004, Musk joined the newly created Tesla Motors and made the companys mission to accelerate the worlds transition to sustainable energy by making fully electric cars that are practical, fun, fast, beautiful, and available to everyone. First came the Roadster, which proved that an electric luxury sports car with suitable range could exist. Next came Model S, a luxury sedan, and then Model X, an SUV, both of which have been designed with safety as a top priority (Model S is the highest-scoring of any vehicle ever tested). When Tesla announced the long-awaited mass-market Model 3 in March 2016, it received close to 400,000 reservations in only two weeks.

Along the way, Tesla has revolutionized the manufacture of one of the most complex commercial products on earth, continuously innovated and improved notoriously complicated battery technology, gone toe-to-toe with the automotive industry and Big Oil, and invented and built practical systems for electric charging and power storage via Tesla Energywhich Musk hopes to build upon with the acquisition of SolarCity, a solar panel and installation company hes backed and advised since its creation in 2006. Between SolarCity, Tesla Energy, and Tesla Motors, Musk believes he has created a complete solution for all elements of sustainable energy: creation, storage, and transportation.

Musk is a maverick and a visionary, one with the rare ability to identify and navigate problems of almost incomprehensible scale and complexitydespite high barriers of entry and the risk of almost certain failure. Deeply involved with every aspect of his companies, he is primarily an engineer by desire and an entrepreneur and businessman by necessity. In the words of Bill Gates, Theres no shortage of people with a vision for the future. What makes Elon exceptional is his ability to make his come true.

Despite all of this, critics insist that Musks companies are not successful: they dont make money; they dont meet their deadlines; their products are unsafe, untested, or unreliable; their ambitions are fundamentally flawed; and their CEO is a crazy, callous egomaniac who will not stop until he crushes his companies under the weight of his own hubris. Ill let Musk defend himself against these claims in his own words, but for now, its worth noting that while scrutiny is certainly merited, the medias fixation on Musks failures is often baffling, especially in light of his long list of accomplishments.

The truth is that even if all of his ventures folded today, Musks efforts have already accelerated humanitys progress toward sustainable energy and multiplanetary civilization. Hes exceeded expectations so many times that its easy to forget the world in which he started, one with zero viable electric vehicle programs and outdated domestic launch vehicles that could no longer transport humans to space. With the sale of hundreds of thousands of Tesla Model 3s looming, other automotive companies are starting to take their own electric vehicle programs more seriously, most notably Chevrolet with its Chevy Bolt and Audi with its e-tron quattro. No aerospace company is closer to orbital rocket reusability than SpaceXor to cost-effective rocket development, for that matter. A top executive at United Launch AllianceBoeing and Lockheed Martins space technology partnership and SpaceXs main US competitorresigned in 2016 after admitting that ULA couldnt compete with SpaceXs launch costs.

In 2015, Musk cofounded OpenAI, a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that artificial intelligence remains an open-source technology so that everyone has access to its benefits. Teslas patents are also open source, which makes them available to anyone who wishes to benefit from them and under-scores Musks mission-driven, not money-driven, motives. Perhaps one of the more admirable (or inexplicable if you are on Wall Street) aspects of Musks character is that he seems unconcerned with financial gain. That might be an easy stance for a multibillionaire to take, but Musk came close to bankruptcy after pouring most of his personal funds into SpaceX and Tesla during a rough time for both companies in 2008. Instead, as youll see, he seems unambiguously dedicated to contributing solutions for the betterment of humankind and to ensuring that the future of humanity is a bright and inspiring one.