1) You read about an entrepreneur:
- What surprised you the most? I was surprised by the diversity of Musk's entrepreneurial endeavors. I knew he started Tesla and SpaceX, but had no clue that his wealth began with Zip2 and PayPal.
- What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? I like that Musk puts time and money into green project even when they are not the most profitable innovation and projects like electric cars and solar panels.
- What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? The fact that he condones slave labor. Some materials for his Tesla cars come from the Democratic Republic of Congo which allows child labor, something he is supporting financially.
- Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? In the first two companies he started, he was replace with others as CEO and lost control. Since then, Musk has made sure to have complete control of his companies so that no one can take power away from him.
2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? Musk is really able to adapt his ideas and expand them. Originally, SpaceX was suppose to send mice to space, but now his aspirations include building a new ecosystem on mars. He seems to be working up to this as he just sent astronauts to the International Space Station for the first time in decades.
3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. The beginning of the book tried to weave between the past and present. While it was somewhat understandable, it was poorly done in my opinion.
4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
- What steps are in between your recent success with the International Space Station and the colonization of Mars?
- Can you not afford decent wages for your workers? Are you $12 billion poor?
5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? Musk is no stranger to hard work. I think he believes in it much more than I do though. He spent days and nights at the office, and taught himself complex programming. I also work hard but this seems to be extreme. Undoubtedly the world is a better place with hard workers like this but I wouldn't want to aspire to it.
Hi Jane! Which book did you read? I found it very interesting based on the information you were able to get on Elon Musk since I had no idea, he started with PayPal. From the information I can tell he’s a very smart man with many great idea but I believe he cuts corners and has a weak moral understanding for people.
ReplyDeleteHi Jane, I read one other post from one of our group members that read the same book as you. Seems like there is such thing as working hard and working too hard! Elon Musk sounds like he pushes the envelope on that one. It's really sad to hear about the slave labor. I'm sure he has his fair share of people that will not purchase the brand because of this. Is this a book he wrote himself or was it written by someone else?
ReplyDelete