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

1. ELON MUSK
ACHIEVING IMPACT AND HARMONY WHILE ADDRESSING
THE WORLD’S MOST CHALLENGING PROBLEMS
BY ALEX THALER
March 28, 2013

2. 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.

3. Professional accomplishments:
revolutionizing industries
Inspiration for Iron
Man – Jon
Favreau, movie
director

4. 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

5. 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

6. Any questions?