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Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
by Ashlee Vance

Summary
There are few industrialists in history who could match Elon Musk's relentless drive and ingenious vision. A modern alloy of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs, Musk is the man behind PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and SolarCity, each of which has sent shock waves throughout American business and industry. More than any other executive today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast fortune to inventing a future that is as rich and far-reaching as a science fiction fantasy.

In this lively, investigative account, veteran technology journalist Ashlee Vance offers an unprecedented look into the remarkable life and times of Silicon Valley's most audacious businessman. Written with exclusive access to Musk, his family, and his friends, the book traces his journey from his difficult upbringing in South Africa to his ascent to the pinnacle of the global business world. Vance spent more than fifty hours in conversation with Musk and inter- viewed close to three hundred people to tell the tumultuous stories of Musk's world-changing companies and to paint a portrait of a complex man who has renewed American industry and sparked new levels of innovation--all while making plenty of enemies along the way.

In 1992, Elon Musk arrived in the United States as a ferociously driven immigrant bent on realizing his wildest dreams. Since then, Musk's roller-coaster life has brought him grave disappointments alongside massive successes. After being forced out of PayPal, fending off a life-threatening case of malaria, and dealing with the death of his infant son, Musk abandoned Silicon Valley for Los Angeles. He spent the next few years baffling his friends by blowing his entire fortune on rocket ships and electric cars. Cut to 2012, however, and Musk had mounted one of the greatest resurrections in business history: Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity had enjoyed unparalleled success, and Musk's net worth soared to more than $5 billion.

At a time when many American companies are more interested in chasing easy money than in taking bold risks on radical new technology, Musk stands out as the only businessman with enough dynamism and vision to tackle--and even revolutionize--three industries at once. Vance makes the case that Musk's success heralds a return to the original ambition and invention that made America an economic and intellectual powerhouse. Elon Musk is a brilliant, penetrating examination of what Musk's career means for a technology industry undergoing dramatic change and offers a taste of what could be an incredible century ahead.


Reviews/Previews
For anyone interested in technology, entrepreneurship or the price of greatness, Ashlee Vance's new book, "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future," is a tremendous look into arguably the world's most important entrepreneur. Vance paints an unforgettable picture of Musk's unique personality, insatiable drive and ability to thrive through hardship. The book bursts with telling anecdotes and quotes that illuminate who Musk is. - The Washington Post

"Exhaustively reported . . . this work will likely serve as the definitive account of a man whom so far we've seen mostly through caricature. By the final pages, too, any reader will sense the need to put comparisons to Steve Jobs aside. Give Musk credit. There is no one like him." - The New York Times

Really good biographies stand out in two ways. First, they provide lots of zesty stories that haven't been told before. Beyond that, they explain all the zigzags and false clues of a prominent person's life, in a way that makes the total picture come into focus. . . it's clear that this new Musk bio delivers the goods in both respects. . . Ashlee Vance provides a wealth of insights about how this tech titan operates. - Forbes


Excerpt
Fairly long excerpt from Bloomberg on the beginnings of SpaceX:

In late October 2001, Elon Musk went to Moscow to buy an intercontinental ballistic missile. He brought along Jim Cantrell, a kind of international aerospace supplies fixer, and Adeo Ressi, his best friend from Penn. Although Musk had tens of millions in the bank, he was trying to get a rocket on the cheap. They flew coach, and they were planning to buy a refurbished missile, not a new one. Musk figured it would be a good vehicle for sending a plant or some mice to Mars.

Ressi, a gangly eccentric, had been thinking a lot about whether his best friend had started to lose his mind, and he’d been doing his best to discourage the project. He peppered Musk with links to video montages of Russian, European, and American rockets exploding. He staged interventions, bringing Musk’s friends together to talk him out of wasting his money. None of it worked. Musk remained committed to funding a grand, inspirational spectacle in space and would spend all of his fortune to do it. And so Ressi went to Russia to contain Musk as best as he could. “Adeo would call me to the side and say, ‘What Elon is doing is insane. A philanthropic gesture? That’s crazy,’” said Cantrell. “He was seriously worried.”


The group set up a few meetings with companies such as NPO Lavochkin, which had made probes intended for Mars and Venus for the Russian Federal Space Agency, and Kosmotras, a commercial rocket launcher based in Moscow. The appointments all seemed to go the same way, following Russian decorum. The Russians, who often skip breakfast, would ask to meet around 11 a.m. at their offices for an early lunch. Then there would be small talk for an hour or more as the meeting attendees picked over a spread of sandwiches, sausages, and, of course, vodka. After lunch came a lengthy smoking and coffee drinking period. Once all of the tables were cleared, the Russian in charge would turn to Musk and ask, “What is it you’re interested in buying?” The big windup may not have bothered Musk as much if the Russians had taken him more seriously. They viewed Musk as a novice when it came to space and did not appreciate his bravado. “One of their chief designers spit on me and Elon because he thought we were full of s---,” Cantrell said. Team Musk returned empty-handed.

In February 2002 the group returned to Russia, this time bringing Mike Griffin, who had worked for the CIA’s venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and was just leaving Orbital Sciences, a maker of satellites and spacecraft. Musk was now looking for not one but three missiles and had a briefcase full of cash, too. They met with Kosmotras officials in an ornate, neglected, prerevolutionary building near downtown Moscow. The vodka shots started—“To space!” “To America!”—and, a little buzzed, Musk asked point-blank how much a missile would cost. Eight million dollars each, they said. Musk countered, offering $8 million for two. “They sat there and looked at him,” Cantrell said. “And said something like, ‘Young boy. No.’ They also intimated that he didn’t have the money.” At this point, Musk had decided the Russians were either not serious about doing business or were just determined to part a dot-com millionaire from as much of his money as possible. He stormed out of the meeting.

The team went out into the snow and dreck of the Moscow winter, hailed a cab, and drove straight to the airport. The Russians were the only ones with rockets that could possibly fit within Musk’s budget, and they were too difficult to deal with. “It was a long drive,” Cantrell said. “We sat there in silence looking at the Russian peasants shopping in the snow.” The somber mood lingered all the way to the plane, until the drink cart arrived. “You always feel particularly good when the wheels lift off in Moscow,” Cantrell said. “It’s like, ‘My God. I made it.’ So, Griffin and I got drinks and clinked our glasses.” Musk sat in the row in front of them, typing on his computer. “We’re thinking, ‘F---ing nerd: What can he be doing now?’ ” At which point Musk wheeled around and flashed a spreadsheet he’d created.

“Hey, guys,” he said, “I think we can build this rocket ourselves.”

Read the whole excerpt here.

Any one else really excited about this biography? I've always known about Musk but only recently have I started to become really fascinated with him and his history with PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla, thanks mostly to this recent Wait But Why article. After reading the excerpt and some of the reviews, I'm really looking forward to this book now.

 

[SummitAve]

I'd be more excited but a biography seems a bit premature. I want the whole life or at least most of it from a biography.

 

[Kaladin]

This is the first book of it's kind, right? I'm sure there will be many more over his lifetime, but I am very interested.

I have admired Elon Musk's inventive mind even if his inventions are outside of my price range for the most part.

 

[demon]

I was just looking up books on Musk the other day and saw that a biography is about to come out. I'm probably going to read it some time. He's a fascinating guy and he'll probably be one of the most important figures of the 21st century in terms of technological advancement.

 

[Ultryx]

I'm in.

 

[gutshot]

This is the first book of it's kind, right? I'm sure there will be many more over his lifetime, but I am very interested.

I have admired Elon Musk's inventive mind even if his inventions are outside of my price range for the most part.

The first one that Musk participated in, I believe.

 

[subrock]

Got my copy yesterday. Cant wait to dig into it on the weekend.

Looking forward to more posts in this series too: http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html

 

[gutshot]

Got my copy yesterday. Cant wait to dig into it on the weekend.

Looking forward to more posts in this series too: http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html

That's awesome. Be sure to share your thoughts in here.

And yes, can't wait for more WBW posts on Musk.

 

[subrock]

That's awesome. Be sure to share your thoughts in here.

And yes, can't wait for more WBW posts on Musk.

first chapter down and I really like the tone. The author seems to have a nice ability to mix in some reality with the legends.

 

[subrock]

Almost finished and its been excellent. A lot of stuff I wasn't paying attention to as it happened so I wasn't sure quite how close to the edge they were. I watched Revenge of the Electric Car so I had glimpses of the Telsa side of things, but knew pretty much nothing about SpaceX.

The author does a really good job of keeping a consistent timeline and keeping the tension high for most of the middle chapters. It was quite hard to put down yesterday.

The Musk quotes are pretty funny. I almost don't know if this book required them. Most of them are "it was fucking awesome" or "and that fucking sucked" (he quips at the beginning how many "fucks" would be in the book). I'm sure the access to the man himself was helpful mind you.

 

[Concept17]

Bought. Looking forward to it.