I’m trying to be unbiased here, Mark and Martin from my reading deserve some credit for the initial creation of the company and vision but I’d agree that they have very little to do with where the company is now.
Elon does play a big role, I don’t like his grandstanding and arrogant behaviour as much as the next person but to suggest otherwise would be foolish, I’m not sure how far beyond just his money and determination that contribution goes but it’s there.
It is however also foolish to not mention people like Jb Straubel, Franz von Holzhausen and many others when talking about Teslas success, if there’s one thing Elon is good at it’s getting talented people excited about hard problems.
One of the many problems with Elon is that he actively supports his portrayal as the lone technical genius who does most of the work instead of a guy who is very good at motivating (or sometimes threatening) talented people into working 80 hour weeks and also has a bit more technical understanding than the average CEO
One of the many problems with Elon is that he actively supports his portrayal as the lone technical genius who does most of the work instead of a guy who is very good at motivating (or sometimes threatening) talented people into working 80 hour weeks and also has a bit more technical understanding than the average CEO
This is the crux of it. Fanboys treat him like he does it all. Is he an educated person who has a far deeper knowledge of his company’s works than most CEOs? Unarguably, yes. He’s good at getting investors and he’s good at extracting work from employees. That’s what he does. He’s not here to save the world, he doesn’t build cars or spacecraft. He’s plainly here to be successful and make money, and if he could do it making something like an iPhone competitor or whatever it would be no different to him.
Thank you for posting a nuanced comment on this topic.
Elon Musk strikes me a lot like Steve Jobs, a micromanager that is terrible to work for but gets shit done. Seeing him flail around with twitter definitely makes me question how he was successful with Tesla. He isn’t afraid to take risks, but I wonder what or who was able to counter balance him at Tesla to make that more successful. Maybe his ego was just not as big then.
I’m trying to be unbiased here, Mark and Martin from my reading deserve some credit for the initial creation of the company and vision but I’d agree that they have very little to do with where the company is now.
Elon does play a big role, I don’t like his grandstanding and arrogant behaviour as much as the next person but to suggest otherwise would be foolish, I’m not sure how far beyond just his money and determination that contribution goes but it’s there.
It is however also foolish to not mention people like Jb Straubel, Franz von Holzhausen and many others when talking about Teslas success, if there’s one thing Elon is good at it’s getting talented people excited about hard problems.
One of the many problems with Elon is that he actively supports his portrayal as the lone technical genius who does most of the work instead of a guy who is very good at motivating (or sometimes threatening) talented people into working 80 hour weeks and also has a bit more technical understanding than the average CEO
This is the crux of it. Fanboys treat him like he does it all. Is he an educated person who has a far deeper knowledge of his company’s works than most CEOs? Unarguably, yes. He’s good at getting investors and he’s good at extracting work from employees. That’s what he does. He’s not here to save the world, he doesn’t build cars or spacecraft. He’s plainly here to be successful and make money, and if he could do it making something like an iPhone competitor or whatever it would be no different to him.
Thank you for posting a nuanced comment on this topic.
Elon Musk strikes me a lot like Steve Jobs, a micromanager that is terrible to work for but gets shit done. Seeing him flail around with twitter definitely makes me question how he was successful with Tesla. He isn’t afraid to take risks, but I wonder what or who was able to counter balance him at Tesla to make that more successful. Maybe his ego was just not as big then.