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Elon Musk by Alex Thaler

Elon Musk is a serial entrepreneur who has founded multiple companies focused on revolutionizing industries like space travel, electric vehicles, and renewable energy. He was born in 1971 and earned dual degrees from UPenn before founding his first company Zip2 at age 24, which was acquired for over $300 million. He later co-founded PayPal, which was bought by eBay for $1.5 billion. Currently, Musk is the CEO of both Tesla Motors and SpaceX, where he also serves as CTO, and Chairman of SolarCity. While balancing leadership roles at multiple companies, Musk strategically allocates his time through asynchronous communication like email and focuses on high-level involvement where it can have the biggest impact

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ELON MUSK ACHIEVING IMPACT AND HARMONY WHILE ADDRESSING THE WORLD’S MOST CHALLENGING PROBLEMS BY ALEX THALER March 28, 2013
Brief timeline of Elon’s life Born in 1971 (He‟s 41 now) At age 12 creates computer game and sells for $500 Completes dual degree at Penn for undergrad: Business (Wharton) and physics majors First company, Zip 2, acquired for >$300M by Altavista Creates X.com, which was later renamed Paypal and bought by eBay for $1.5B Founded SpaceX in „02 He is currently CEO and CTO Co-founded Tesla Motors. He is currently CEO and product architect. Also created concept for SolarCity, where he is currently Chairman of the Board.
Professional accomplishments: revolutionizing industries Inspiration for Iron Man – Jon Favreau, movie director
Integrating the four domains • Very focused vision • Musk Foundation • On multiple boards • Joined Giving Pledge • Five children • Tesla • SpaceX • SolarCity Work Home Self Communi ty Strategies for integrating the domains “I do love email. Wherever possible I try to communicate asynchronously. I'm really good at email.” Typical week: • Monday: He‟s at SpaceX in Los Angeles • Tuesday and Wednesday: Tesla in Palo Alto, Calif. • Thursday and half of Friday: Back at SpaceX • Remaining half of Friday: At Tesla Design Studio, which is adjacent to SpaceX • Weekends: With family
Lessons from Elon’s story 1. Have a strong vision and don’t let anything get in your way of pursuing it • Elon has focused on three goals: advancing the internet, space travel, and energy efficiency. 2. Know the level of interaction necessary to make an impact. • With SolarCity, Elon helped with the initial idea and found strong managers to grow the company. As chairman, he only spends ~2 hours a month on calls and one board meeting a quarter. The company CEO had this to say: “Elon is a phenomenal genius,” says Rive. “So when he gives you the time and you lay out the plan, he can quickly identify the hole in the plan… this is the true definition of quality vs quantity. .. you can fix whatever potential pot-hole you might run into, just in a ten minute discussion with Elon.” • With SpaceX, he is the CEO and CTO, with large day to day responsibilities • With Tesla, he at first hired another CEO, and stepped in when the company was in trouble in „08 3. Use different forms of communication to optimize your time • Elon uses e-mail as one of his preferred forms of communication 1 2 3
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