The path to the richest man of Elon Musk, the Silicon Valley Iron Man

A month ago, the acquisition of Elon Musk, founder of American Space Exploration Technology and CEO of tesla, and Twitter, an American social media company, broke into the public eye. During this period, there were ups and downs, and his extreme pull with Twitter once again put the Silicon Valley Iron Man at the forefront of public opinion.

On April 14, 2022, American entrepreneur Elon Musk proposed to acquire social media company for $43 billionTwitter. Previously, Musk acquired a 9.1% stake in Twitter for $2.64 billion. Before Musk attempted to acquire Twitter, he accepted Twitter's invitation to join its board of directors. In response to Musk's acquisition proposal, Twitter's board of directors announced the launch of the "Poison Pill Plan", approvingProspective shareholders purchase additional stocks in the event of a malicious acquisition to dilute Musk's shares. But then on April 25th, Twitter announced its acceptance of Musk's acquisition proposal, and Musk ultimately achieved the acquisition for $44 billion. Former Twitter CEO Jack DosifaThe tweet expressed support for this acquisition case, stating that 'Elon is the only solution I trust'.

In this issue, EBC takes you closer to the legendary life of Elon Musk, the Silicon Valley Iron Man.

Musk's N-side

1. It's both a genius and a devil

Elon Musk was born in 1971 and is a renowned entrepreneur and engineer. He dares to be clear headed, and if he cannot finish his work in front of him, he can only wait for the fate of being fired. The way in which talent is recruited is also different from that of ordinary people. According to Maslow's Law of Needs, employees' needs are generally first money, then personal interests, and finally emotions and ideals. However, at that time, Tesla was facing financial difficulties, so he chose the appropriate group through reverse thinking. He targeted academic bullies who had low material pursuits but had a spiritual cleanliness habit, or you may not have a high education, but you need to have the ability and have the ability to be imaginative Imagination that is not bound by dogma, in the early stages of entrepreneurship, he even personally selects cleaners from various service industries and selects the best ones from them. He has established an iron rule for employees, and those who can enter the company must have the possibility of becoming the top 10% of the entire team, while those who are at the bottom will be eliminated. The cycle continues, and the average level of the team continues to improve. Employees are afraid of his coldness and decisiveness, but more importantly, they respect and appreciate his abilities.

He has sponsored countless Mars Society activities, and his only requirement is to help him introduce aerospace industry leaders and accumulate connections for him.

When faced with Martin Eberhard, the first generation Tesla founder who had once supported each other, when irreconcilable conflicts arose, he directly sought out a new CEO and notified Martin, who was unaware, after the board meeting. Musk believed that life was so short that he couldn't bear endless grudges. Therefore, once he found that conflicts were irreconcilable, he would not hesitate to take action and cut them off, without worrying about being blamed.

Just like Apple's 1997 advertisement: Crazy People. They are independent, they are rebellious, they cause trouble, they are out of place... Only those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world can truly change it. And Musk is such a person.

2. Do things with ideals

He is a person who pursues ideals and loves, and the twists and turns of his life may not even be able to be written in TV dramas. As he said, "I may not be so ordinary, but my extraordinary aspects may only manifest when I get old. I think people can choose to be extraordinary

He is indeed different from most people. He believes that the first consideration for doing things is not profit, but whether it is worth it. We often say that the prosperity of the world is profit, and the bustling of the world is profit. But he is more concerned with whether it is worth it or not, and the things he loves and benefits humanity are all in his consideration. He hopes that the enterprise has a pursuit beyond profit. I hope that what I do can have a profound impact on people's lives. Either I don't do it, or I want to do it historically

We often marvel at the birth of Alipay, which has changed people's consumption habits, and even has cross era significance. As early as 1999, he sold Zip2 company, founded online bank X.com, and competed with a financial company Confinity to compete for customers. In 2000, he merged this company and renamed it Paypal. This is the earliest online payment, and Alipay appeared in our vision five years later.

The picture shows the founders of PayPal, Peter Thiel and Musk

This tough and bold genius, like Iron Man, always goes through a lot of twists and turns. He likes to imagine, wondering where humans should go if the Earth were to be destroyed. So he started frantically trying to make rockets. When he pursued his lover, he said he would take her to his house to see if he was building rockets. Who would believe him? He actually saw the materials and drawings he browsed through, and he did it, despite several failures, But in the end, the rocket was successfully launched in 2010.

His success is not casual. You can say that he has a high IQ, after all, he is a person who started reading the Encyclopedia of Great Britain at the age of eight and completed six months of courses in three days. However, what is terrifying is that excellent people still work so hard. He spends almost all his time and energy on meaningful things. In addition to building Tesla and rockets, he also runs eight companies simultaneously. He is the most efficient billionaire in Silicon Valley, even using a watch to go to the bathroom, and his time is divided into five minutes.

Musk was well aware of what he wanted and did not engage in internal friction. After obtaining a dual degree in physics and economics, he applied to Stanford University to pursue a doctoral degree in physics. However, after only two days of study, he dropped out because he felt that the progress was too slow. After dropping out of school, he immediately threw himself into work, learning while doing. Although he doesn't have a background in computer science, he self-taught programming and code writing. No matter how difficult the task is, he can quickly learn to do it well. He has always been a person who dares to think and do.

Now, the new energy vehicles we drive, the high-speed trains we ride, the human brain internet we are creating, including the Mars Migration Project... Musk's life experiment is to bring his dreams into reality.

3. Refine everything into steel, and take a deep dive

Many successful people's original families are healthy and loving, and Musk possesses exceptional intelligence and diligence. You may think that such a life is also very successful and smooth, thinking that he is favored by heaven. In fact, Musk's father's private life is chaotic, and there is such a detail in his mother Mayer's autobiography, Young Musk would use all his strength to kick his father's calves when his father attacked his mother. In childhood, Musk protected his mother in this way. His mother was independent, brave, and resolute, while in adulthood, Musk was focused, determined, and resolute, mostly through his mother's healing. But if a wild goose leaves a mark, he will still be influenced by his childhood father's violence. Although extremely intelligent, he has prominent personality flaws and is too self centered. His unsound personality also leads to his inability to handle intimate relationships, which makes him even more lonely.

He faced bankruptcy several times, miraculously overturned against the wind several times, and the normal AllIn invests money, but he always believes in what he creates. In order to build a rocket and work all night, the rocket launch failed three times. He sold his house and car and borrowed money from various places, but he didn't give up. Finally, he waited for the dawn and the rocket was successfully launched on the fourth attempt. But he didn't stop here either, but continued to explore and began trying to recycle rockets, make them soft land on water, and on ships.

Musk's Five Major Investments

1. PayPal

In 1999, Musk and his brother co founded the online bank X.com. In 2000, X.com merged with Infinity, and in October 2002, PayPal was acquired, but he was the largest shareholder holding 11.7% of the shares. Later, he no longer held shares and used the proceeds of the sale to invest in SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity and other companies.

2. SpaceX

I don't know what giving up is unless I get stuck or die. "This is Musk, the Iron Man, with his love for dreams and his passionate pursuit of technology. He is fully committed to innovation and deeply loves everything he creates. It is this love that keEPS it moving forward on the path of technological innovation, creating one miracle after another. The uncertainty about the future led him to create SpaceX. Musk always believed that according to the pace of human destruction on Earth, it will be difficult for humans to survive in decades, and the future of humanity must be in outer space. This may seem fanciful to others, but Musk persisted as a career.

In 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, a sky exploration technology company, with the mission of innovating sky technology, including developing spacecraft to send humans to Mars and other parts of the solar system. On May 31, SpaceX's Dragon successfully carried two astronauts to heaven. This success is a huge leap for manned spaceflight, but for Musk and his SpaceFor X, perhaps it's just a small beginning.

3. DeepMind Technologies

Artificial Intelligence (AI) company was established at the end of 2010, and Musk was one of its main angel investors. It was acquired by Google in 2014. DeepMindMost of Technologies' research focuses on deep reinforcement learning, combining deep learning with reinforcement learning.

Musk's investment in DeepMind Technologies is not about making money. He is worried that artificial intelligence will surpass humans, so he hopes to keep up with the speed of technological development behind artificial intelligence.

4. Tesla Motors

Musk was not a founding member of Tesla, but he led its early round of financing as early as 2004. In 2008, Musk was promoted from a member of Tesla's board of directors to CEO, although he still served as the CEO of SpaceX. On June 28, 2010, Tesla launched its initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq, with ordinary shares initially open to the public at a price of $17 per share. In November 2021, Tesla's stock price peaked at $1243 per share, and as of now, the trading price of Tesla's stock is in the range of $700 to $800.

As of April 2022, Elon Musk owns 244 million Tesla shares worth approximately $171.7 billion. Elon Musk remains the company's largest individual shareholder, with significant control over the company's long-term plans and operational goals.

5. The Boring Company

Musk founded the company called The Boring in 2017Company's infrastructure and tunnel construction company. The reason for the establishment of the company is that traffic is poor, but there is no need to drive on the ground - traffic difficulties can be solved by using miles of land below the road. The company's goal is to reduce tunnel excavation costs while improving production efficiency.

What makes Tesla special

Tesla is different from other projects, and its equity incentive approach to Elon Musk is also unique. The reason why Musk became the world's richest man is closely related to Tesla.

1. Different modes

Create a hardware that can be continuously upgraded for Tesla. This business model means that Musk must come up with a perfectly integrated centralized ITArchitecture refers to the solution of "vehicles built around computers". Its advantage is that as a consumer, the car can be driven frequently, even without being outdated at all. That is to say, Tesla in the garage is not defined by a certain year, but by the software version. For many consumers, this sounds very cool! Speaking of this, you may be wondering, doesn't Musk want to sell more new cars to make money? Because pure electric vehicles are different from traditional fuel vehicles, their mechanical structure is relatively simple, the working environment of components is not so harsh, and the maintenance needs are also very low. We can even say that without after-sales revenue, the entire industry chain of the traditional automotive industry cannot make money. There are currently 1.33 billion traditional fuel vehicles on Earth, and if these vehicles want to continue operating, they need to be repaired and maintained. Think of Tesla again, their million mile batteries are almost on the ground, and their lifespan can even reach twice that of traditional gasoline powered cars, but maintenance costs are much lower.

Can Tesla still make money after the big cake of after-sales shrinks? Of course, and they are one of the most profitable car manufacturers in the world. So, how did Musk do it?

The answer to this question is not difficult: the current car market is only a year old70-90 million units, and Tesla's expected future sales can reach 20 million units per year, which is a 25% market share and unparalleled share. And Tesla not only sells cars, but also software, operates charging stations, sells home charging, vehicle insurance, solar panels, and energy storage systems. These products all require software, and software is devouring the world with high profits. Overall, Tesla has built its own high profit ecosystem, and as long as you purchase one product, you may be tempted to choose other products.

Due to the continuous decline in battery and manufacturing costs, Tesla can ensure sufficient competitiveness and profit margins, and innovation in manufacturing and battery technology is not something that competitors can easily replicate. This is also Tesla's super moat. Even if you just want a car and don't care about other services or peripheral products, Tesla is still worth buying because from a long-term holding perspective, it has advantages in both cost and experience.

If the trend of electrification is irreversible, Tesla is facing a supermarket with 1.33 billion cars. This supermarket alone may be enough for Musk to eat for decades. Vehicle related data collection and entertainment services will become new profit cows in the future, and Musk may be able to increase the profit margin to 90% in the future.

2. Integrating Internet Thinking

Tesla is both an internet company and a high-tech company. New energy itself is the direction of future technology development. Tesla is a high-tech product based on the internet, loaded with functions such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and autonomous driving. Setting aside its driving capabilities, Tesla can be regarded as an interactive high-tech product. Tesla's top priority is user experience. The initial positioning was comfortable and natural. Tesla pursues the best performance, more beautiful appearance, and more comfortable experience regardless of cost. Reverse thinking, using the mindset of building a good car to create a thrilling feeling for electric vehicles, is Tesla's brilliance.

3. New energy and new technologies are the mainstream of the future

Corresponding to Tesla's rise is the decline of traditional American car giants. In today's era of advocating technology and innovation, traditional automakers have clearly lagged behind in their investment in innovation and new technologies, so it is also a matter of time before they are surpassed.

The rise of Tesla is the result of innovative thinking and the continuous pursuit of high technology for the future. Following the example of others, it is difficult to embark on a path of innovation with a red sea mindset. Only by opposing public thinking, improving one's own innovation ability, calming down, settling down, and doing what one should do with all one's might, can enterprises take a longer journey.

Musk once wrote a paper on "The Future of Energy Stations" in university. The paper describes a pair of huge solar panels floating in space, each 4000 meters long, emitting energy to Earth through microwaves, while the antenna used to receive energy is 7000 meters long Musk believes that solar energy will definitely be widely used in the future, and solar roofs are an important step for Musk to achieve his goals.

In October 2019, Tesla launched the third-generation solar roof. The third-generation solar roofs have achieved groundbreaking integration of photovoltaic buildings, allowing solar modules to directly become real roofs. They have also been specially designed with customized accessories, vents, and skylights, bringing a more technological visual experience. Not only can it meet the daily electricity needs of households, but it can also sell surplus electricity.

epilogue

Someone once asked, how can one become someone like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates?

Here is a quote from Elon Musk's ex-wife Justin: "Extreme success requires extreme personality. Such success comes at the cost of other sacrifices, and extreme success is different from what you think is' success'. You don't have to be like Elon Musk to live a wealthy and high-quality life. Your probability of happiness is higher than the probability of becoming a great person

Success cannot be replicated, but what we can learn is the spirit of perseverance, the courage to choose wisely, and the inability to get everything. As ordinary people, we may be far from the halo, but we can work hard and be very close to happiness.