13A - Reading Reflection No. 1

The book I chose was Elon Musk written by Ashlee Vance.

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

• What surprised you the most?

A lot of things surprised me, but especially how interesting his family is, like his grandfather who took his kids on adventures around the world on his plane. Also the fact that Elon moved across country by himself when he was only 17 and didn't even have a place to stay for certain. I was also surprised that he had been thinking of tackling issues such as solar energy and space ever since he was little.

• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

I really admire that he dreams big, and to him, pretty much anything can be achievable with the right amount of work. He's incredibly driven and he wants to help further the human race. He also isn't afraid to go into industries that he has little experience in.

• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

I think the way he deals with situations and people a lot of the time could be improved. It's important for someone in his position to be a strong leader but he has such an unwillingness to be wrong and he's definitely treated a lot of employees harshly, and set unrealistic goals, and this has affected his companies.

• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

Elon encountered a lot of adversity. He was kicked out of his own company twice. He was told he would fail many times, and expected failure, especially with SpaceX. I think the main thing was that he didn't give up and even when he failed he kept looking forward. 

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

Elon has an extremely high work ethic, and he doesn't back down from a challenge. He unites all of his companies into one common goal, which is is to secure a good future for humanity. After reading this book I definitely consider him to be more of an engineer than a businessman. He is very intelligent and can rapidly absorb new information if he wants to learn something for a new venture.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

Nothing was really confusing to me, but there were some parts of the reading that had contrasting opinions, just because the author had interviewed so many people who had different stories of what happened and how Elon acted in certain situations.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

How drastically do you think the world will change in my lifetime?

Do you think AI will overall be beneficial for humanity?

How would we ensure survival for the first humans to colonize mars?

Who were role models that you looked up to growing up?

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

Elon Musk definitely believes in working hard. Many of his employees who were interviewed said he works "20 hours a day." In my opinion, working as hard as Elon might be necessary to achieve what he has achieved, but I don't think many people could stay sane doing what he does. I think you need to have a balance to be happy.