Elon Musk – Tesla, SpaceX & the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Lesson 1. Introduction.

The 21st-century sensation, Elon Musk, is known to most as the PayPal guy, the Tesla guy, the Mars guy, and more recently, as the guy with hilarious tweets. In this book, the details of his life have been thoroughly researched and beautifully portrayed to us in the words of Ashlee Vance. 

Elon has been a subject of many conversations and debates. But, he is still hugely misunderstood and misrepresented by many. The biography by Ashlee Vance seems to have reduced this number by quite a lot. It dives deep into his life, right from his childhood to his future dreams, and from his unconventional business ventures to his two wild marriage stories.

Elon has been reluctant in sharing his world behind the doors to Vance at first. But Vance somehow did convince him to get ready without having absolute control over the books, like he seems to have over almost every single thing in his life. Vance interviewed his old friends, colleagues, partners, and family, and has portrayed Elon from various angles and it is pretty close to what he is like.

Lesson 2. Family & Personal Life.

We get a close look at most of Elon’s family history and current affairs, while still just peeping through some closed doors. Elon, the elder among his siblings, his brother Kimbal and sister Tosca were the children of Errol and Maye Musk. He was born in South Africa and also had his early education there. Elon’s father, Errol Musk, was an engineer and belonged to a well-established South African family. 

Maye was a model and a dietician. Her family had a vast background in North America, which would later be beneficial to Elon for moving to Canada, and later to the USA. Their family relationships can be described as mediocre at best, given that Errol and Maye separated when the children were young. 

Elon’s connection with his father somewhat sneaks from under the light. Elon and his siblings indicated rough parenting on Errol’s side, but they have denied revealing much about the matter. This left space for numerous questions and interpretations. While Errol did provide the best possible education and a good life to his children, the emotional connection was not so good. Elon never let his children meet Errol.

The cousins of Elon on Maye’s side, the Rive brothers – Lyndon, Peter, and Russ were close friends of his throughout his childhood. Elon describes them as the guys who liked to blow things up, which was pretty accurate given how they later blew up the Solar Energy industry with the SolarCity project. 

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