Monday, June 8, 2020

13-Reading Reflection

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the quest for a fantastic future / Ashlee Vance

·       At first, I thought this was going to be a book about the inside life of Elon Musk, where he had a say on what was said about him. I later noticed that this book was written with help of people who worked for him and their opinions on how it was. At the end, he did cooperate with the book a lot.
·       As soon as he got out of college, he was already a millionaire. That is something I think anyone would look up to. He sold his business, Zip2 for 307 million dollars, and did not stop there. His drive for creating and moving forward in different industries is phenomenal and hard to even fathom. He took many risks and most turned out well for him.
·       I did not admire his reluctance to be a part of this book and his negativity toward it at first. As a person who people look up to, you would expect them to be able and want to share their experiences and thoughts on how they manage their lives and businesses.
·       He did encounter a fall, when zip2 was fairly new, he became broke after purchasing an office for it. The company then soon strived and got him out of this monetary situation.
2) He has many competencies, including thinking big and having goals that he believed in. He was a risk taker and it got him extremely far in life. He created a video game as a young boy (aged 12), which made him $500, this just shows how early he started.  
3) I was honestly confused at first because the dinner scene with Musk was very descriptive, and I did not quite understand why. I later learned that this was done intentionally for the reader to feel as if they were there with him.
4)  Questions I would ask:
·       What would you suggest doing to start my own business?
·       What is the smartest way to think of a product that will be needed and sold?
I would ask these questions to see his point of view. He knows about business and would give good advice based on his experiences.
5) Honestly, I think he is naturally smart, but his definition of hard work has helped him become the person he is today. The different ways he invested in companies and thought out each product, as well as the way he treats his employees shows the level of hard work he expects.

4 comments:

  1. Hey Sophia,
    I haven't read this book yet but seems very interesting. I like how it includes the voices of people who worked for Musk because to me thats how you truly see how a person is. I will definitely add this to my list of reads!

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  2. Sophia,
    Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Elon Musk's story! I personally did not read this story but loved how you described the story and gave us such a good overview of the specific details of Elon Musk's story. I think we both made similar observations when it came to the competencies that our entrepreneurs shared like work ethic and risk taking. I think as an entrepreneur you cannot be scared to fail and you have to be all in. Entrepreneurs are go-getters and adapt to change.
    Thanks for sharing,
    Morgan Mowery

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  3. Hi Sophia!

    I also did my blog on Elon Musk. He’s definitely an odd character and I think that’s probably why he didn’t want to be a part of the book in the beginning. He’s probably uncomfortable around people. He was bullied and didn’t have a lot of friends so he turned to books. He’s really such an incredible entrepreneur. I really admire him for all of his work for the planet.

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  4. Hi Sophia! Thank you for sharing. I did not read this book but I think you gave really good insight. I liked how you chose questions that would give you more insight on how he thinks about his business ventures and his entrepreneurship ideas. I found it really interesting how he "started off" really young when he developed a video game. Thank you for sharing!

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