Seriously, I am such a big fan of Musk. He is challenging every status quo. Big oil companies and auto manufacturers have been stalling the progress of electric cars since decades. Musk went ahead in spite of the tall odds. He's a Tony Stark of our age.
Why is there only one Elon Musk?
41–50 of 180 posts
Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
+ Possibly the worst train company in existence
I'm confused. Virgin has trains?
In the UK, yes, they operate a couple of rail franchises.
Personally I've always found them far and away the best company - but they have the misfortune of running "cross country" routes, which go through every bottleneck in our rail system :D
Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?
#43A few others who come quickly to mind: - John Carmack - id software and Armadillo Aerospace - Jeff Bezos - AWS, Kindle, Blue Origin, and the Long Now Clock - Larry and Sergei - Google, Android, Google Glass, self-driving cars, etc. I'm sure we can think of others.
Richard Branson with Virgin Galactic which predates SpaceX in the space race.
James Cameron and ocean diving
Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?
#44This post reminds me of that old joke: Husband: I am the head of the household! I determine our family's position on all of the major economic, political, and social issues of the day! Wife: I decide the little things, like where we'll live, what we'll eat, and where the kids go to school. As much as I admire the dreams and accomplishments of Elon Musk, I have trouble getting past the idea that he failed to maintain…
Having not been able to maintain my own marriage, I think its more complicated than that. But the quality Musk has that almost no one in his position has is the willingness to risk it all for the dream. Musk himself almost went broke on SpaceX and Tesla. Most billionaires are into preservation of capital in a big way.
That. Why do so few people win 7 in a row in craps? Becausethe odds are against you. Most don't get rich by risking it all. Of those that do, 1 in a million 'make it work' i.e. get lucky.
Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?
#45This post reminds me of that old joke: Husband: I am the head of the household! I determine our family's position on all of the major economic, political, and social issues of the day! Wife: I decide the little things, like where we'll live, what we'll eat, and where the kids go to school. As much as I admire the dreams and accomplishments of Elon Musk, I have trouble getting past the idea that he failed to maintain…
Having not been able to maintain my own marriage, I think its more complicated than that. But the quality Musk has that almost no one in his position has is the willingness to risk it all for the dream. Musk himself almost went broke on SpaceX and Tesla. Most billionaires are into preservation of capital in a big way.
> Most billionaires are into preservation of capital in a big way.
This is surprising to me from a behavioral economics stand point. Seems like billionaires would know they've very nearly maxed out their utility function in terms of material stuff. I'd think it would be very worth it to them to risk a billion dollars (which, remember, is something like the cumulative life's work of a thousand human beings) on mere personal glory or hubris.
Are you speaking from personal experience, or is there some conventional wisdom or data I should know about?
Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?
#46I'll take your one Elon Musk and raise you one Richard Branson: http://www.virgingalactic.com/ http://www.virginearth.com/ http://www.virgingreenfund.com/ + Massive, continued, success in countless other markets (+ set a few personal world records)
From my unresearched perspective, the difference is that Musk (admittedly) is pursuing crazy ventures because he's passionate about them -- and oftentimes for no other reason. He apparently originally expected that SpaceX would be broke by the time he had managed to get to Mars. Branson seems to be deeply rooted in a business-first approach to creative innovation. "Yeah, we'll do it, but if the market accepts it."
So... brash, impulsive, and often luck-based ambition vs. careful, calculating ambition.
I'm not sure if we really need to value one over the other. The fact that Musk threw caution to the wind I do not believe is really a virtue - it just weaves a more interesting tale after the fact.
Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?
#47This post reminds me of that old joke: Husband: I am the head of the household! I determine our family's position on all of the major economic, political, and social issues of the day! Wife: I decide the little things, like where we'll live, what we'll eat, and where the kids go to school. As much as I admire the dreams and accomplishments of Elon Musk, I have trouble getting past the idea that he failed to maintain…
A good marriage can be way more complicated than putting rockets into space.
Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?
#48I'll take your one Elon Musk and raise you one Richard Branson: http://www.virgingalactic.com/ http://www.virginearth.com/ http://www.virgingreenfund.com/ + Massive, continued, success in countless other markets (+ set a few personal world records)
From my unresearched perspective, the difference is that Musk (admittedly) is pursuing crazy ventures because he's passionate about them -- and oftentimes for no other reason. He apparently originally expected that SpaceX would be broke by the time he had managed to get to Mars. Branson seems to be deeply rooted in a business-first approach to creative innovation. "Yeah, we'll do it, but if the market accepts it."
Yes and no. (Mainly no)
It is unquestionable that Rb has pursued many different avenues despite there being little to no obvious commercial benefit. I do concede that you could argue it is just in the name of building his own profile, but for example did you know he started a charity aged 17, the Student advisory centre where he used to personally give advice over the phone (apparently still running) and that he started mates condoms[1] (UK based). He is also the one behind the eldars[2] (http://www.theelders.org/) and countless other projects including helping african communities establish sustainable business (to name just one).
1: http://www.mates.co.uk/mates-expert/history/ 2: http://www.theelders.org/about
Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?
#49This post reminds me of that old joke: Husband: I am the head of the household! I determine our family's position on all of the major economic, political, and social issues of the day! Wife: I decide the little things, like where we'll live, what we'll eat, and where the kids go to school. As much as I admire the dreams and accomplishments of Elon Musk, I have trouble getting past the idea that he failed to maintain…
Are we really going to start analyzing a man's marriage now? This is not a tabloid. :/
Re: Why is there only one Elon Musk?
#50I assume that we're taking Elon Musk's "Tony Stark"-ness in this context to mean electric cars, space travel, and solar power. To the best of my knowledge he is neither an alcoholic nor a superhero, though I did just look up his marital history on Wikipedia and with assistance from Google Images I have to award 8 Tony Starks out of 10 on that one.
In all seriousness though, are we sure not one of those other 1,225 billionaires is "pursuing major advances in technology with a childlike wonder about the world’s potential"? When I hear about Elon Musk I tend to draw a different conclusion from the author of this piece: not that he is one of a kind, but that there are many more like him out there. I'm not sure which of us is right, quite possibly the author and not me - sometimes seeing X suggests 'generally ¬X' (http://www.overcomingbias.com/2013/03/when-seeing-x-suggests...).