Elon Musk - Success story

Elon Musk

Summary

Elon Musk, born in South Africa in 1971, is a founder and CEO of the much acclaimed Space Exploration or SpaceX company, co-founder and CEO of Tesla Inc, Co-Chairman of OpenAI, and founder and CEO of Neuralink. Earlier, he was the co-founder and chairman of SolarCity, Zip2, XCom. His estimated worth (as of 2017) is USD 15.2 billion. Elon Musk became a multimillionaire in his late 20s when he sold his start-up company, Zip2, to a division of Compaq Computers. Musk made headlines in May 2012, when SpaceX launched a rocket that would send the first commercial vehicle to the International Space Station.  

Early successes

Taking interest in computers from age 10, he taught himself computer programming at age 12. At that very young age he became an entrepreneur by selling the code for a Basic-based video game –Blastar - that he had developed, to a magazine for $500.

After receiving two bachelor degrees in physics and economics, he joined a Ph. D course, only to leave it just after two days, to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams.

In 1995, he and his brother started ZIP2, a software company with a meagre US$2000 they took from their father. They developed an internet based city guide for the newspaper publishing industry and they obtained contracts from New York Times and Chicago Tribune. 

In Feb 1999, Compaq acquired ZIP2 for US $307 million in cash and $34 million in stock options. Elon Musk received US$22 million towards his 7% share in ZIP2.

That was the beginning of a long story of his ventures into Space, Solar Power, Electric Cars, hyperlooping, artificial intelligence, and so on. At every stage, he made a quantum jump into newer and riskier ventures. Here is the remaining story.

Success Stories

In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company, with US$10 million from the sale of Zip2. One year later, the company merged with Confinity, which had a money transfer service called PayPal. The merged company became Pal in 2001.  In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for US$1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk received US$165 million towards his 11.7% share in PayPal.

In 2001, Musk conceptualized "Mars Oasis"; a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars, in an attempt to recapture public attention and interest in space exploration.

After two failed visits to Russia in 2001 and 2002 to procure Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles that could send payloads into space, he realized that it would be far more economical to start a company to build affordable rockets than to buy ICBMs from the market.

In May 2002, Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies or SpaceX, investing US$100 million of his early fortune -  with the long-term goal of creating a "true spacefaring civilization." SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles with a focus on advancing the state of rocket technology.

In a period seven years time, SpaceX designed the family of Falcon launch vehicles and the Dragon multipurpose spacecraft.

In September 2008, SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket became the first privately funded liquid-fueled vehicle to put a satellite into Earth orbit.

During 2006, SpaceX was awarded a contract from NASA to continue the development and test of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft in order to transport cargo to the International Space Station. This was followed by a US$1.6 billion NASA contract on December 23, 2008, for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the Space Station, replacing the US Space Shuttle after it retired in 2011.

On May 25, 2012, the SpaceX stunned the world by berthing its Dragon vehicle on the International Space Station (ISS), making history as the first commercial company to launch and berth a vehicle to the ISS.

SpaceX is also one of the two companies awarded a contract by NASA, intended to develop capability to transport a US astronaut by 2018.

On 22 December 2015, SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of its Falcon rocket back at the launch pad, demonstrating the possibility of reusing rockets and thus lowering cost of space exploration. This first stage recovery was replicated several times in 2016.

SpaceX is both the largest private producer of rocket engines in the world, and holder of the record for highest thrust-to-weight ratio for a rocket engine.  

Musk believes  that multiplanetary life may serve as a hedge against threats to the survival of the human species.

Musk's goal is to reduce the cost of human spaceflight and  to send humans to Mars' surface within 10–20 years. His vision is to  establish a Mars colony by 2040, with a population of 80,000. Musk stated that, since Mars' atmosphere lacks oxygen, all transportation would have to be electric (electric cars, electric trains, Hyperloop, electric aircraft). This thought, probably, motivated him to invest in Tesla electric cars.

Tesla

Tesla, Inc. (originally Tesla Motors) was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Musk’s substantial investments in Tesla made him its chairman, and he took an active role in the design of Roadster electric car.

Following the financial crisis in 2008, Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect. He still holds those positions.

Tesla Motors first built an electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster in 2008, with sales of about 2,500 vehicles to 31 countries. Tesla products now include  its four-door Model S sedan, Model X SUV, and electric powertrain systems to Daimler  and Toyota, who eventually became long term investors in Tesla.

Musk believed in building a compact Tesla model that would cost less than US$30,000l, and building and selling electric vehicle powertrain components so that other automakers can produce electric vehicles at affordable prices without having to develop the products in-house.  

It is reported that his annual salary is just one dollar, and like Steve Jobs of Apple and a few others, the remainder of his compensation is in the form of stock and performance-based bonuses, which signifies his confidence in his investment ideas.

SolarCity

Musk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity, which was then co-founded in 2006 by his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive. SolarCity is now the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States. The underlying motivation for funding both SolarCity and Tesla is to help combat global warming.

Hyperloop

On August 12, 2013, Musk unveiled a concept for a high-speed transportation system that involved pressurized capsules riding on an air cushion through reduced-pressure tubes. This system is envisaged to be used between the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Musk assigned a dozen of his engineers from Tesla and SpaceX to his hyperloop project, and they worked for nine months, establishing the conceptual foundations and creating the designs for the transportation system, that would reduce transportation costs between cities substantially.

In June 2015, Musk announced a design competition for students and others to build Hyperloop pods to operate on a SpaceX-sponsored mile-long track in a 2015–2017 Hyperloop pod competition. It appears that the competition is reaching its final stages, and we must be proud that an Indian team has also been short-listed as finalists. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/hyperloop-india-team-including-keralites-make-it-to-the-finals-of-space-x-hyperloop-challenge/articleshow/59375614.cms)

OpenAI

In December 2015, Elon Musk announced the creation of OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company. 

OpenAI aims to develop artificial general intelligence in a way that is safe and beneficial to humanity and make it available to everyone without a profit motive.

The Boring Company

On December 17, 2016, while stuck in traffic, the idea of boring a tunnel to remove traffic jam struck Musk. He formed 'The Boring Company', which began digging its first tunnel, a 30-foot-wide, 50-foot-long, and 15-foot-deep "test trench" on the premises of Space X's offices in Los Angeles in February 2017.

Neuralink

In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup company, to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence. The idea was centered on creating devices that can be implanted in the human brain, with the eventual purpose of helping human beings merge with software and keep pace with advancements in artificial intelligence.

At the same time, Musk has frequently spoken out about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, declaring it "the most serious threat to the survival of the human race". Musk had once remarked "There have been movies about this, you know, like Terminator – there are some scary outcomes. And we should try to make sure the outcomes are good, not bad."

However, there is no dearth of criticisms against Musk. Many are still his critics and skeptics. Criticism and skepticism seem to be part of one’s path to success. 

(I thank the following websites for the very interesting information on Elon Musk:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk

https://www.biography.com/people/elon-musk-20837159)

30.06.17: Personal Diary: Risk Taking – Story of Elon Musk

29.06.17: Risk Taking – Story of Elon Musk

‘Risk Taking’ is defined as the act or fact of doing something that involves danger or risk in order to achieve a goal. So, it is about taking a risk to achieve a goal, not just for the thrill of it - which might fall under adventure. Risk taking doesn’t necessarily mean doing things haphazardly, without applying one’s mind.

Generally, most people are averse to taking risks primarily because of fear; fear of losing something valuable, fear of the unknown, fear of failure, etc. It can also be due to our wanting the mental comfort of guarantee of the results or security. Or, for lack of self-confidence and inappropriate perception about one’s capabilities.

However, history has proved time and again that the successful people had always taken risks towards what they wanted to achieve in their life. They have learnt lessons from their failures. Also, for most people, success doesn’t just fall on one’s laps; they have to go for it – which might involve risks.

Some of the consequences of not taking risks are:

·         Unforeseen missed opportunities

·         We would never be able to overcome our sense of fear – whatever that be

·         Compromising on what one could want or what one could have achieved

·         Losing an opportunity to learn from our actions

·         Loss of self-confidence

I have marveled at some of the successful personalities for their ability to take risks. Of course, theirs were calculated risks, weighing the risk-reward relationship. To gain something, one also has to forego something. No pain – no gain.   That is why, whenever I come across information about such personalities, I make it a point to learn more about them and write about them. Knowing about them becomes my inspiration too.

In retrospect, I wondered whether I was a risk taker. Of course, yes. I took several small, but significant, risky decisions. I have gambled about the choices before me several times, and every time, they became life-changing decisions. To name only a few…

I ventured into my post graduation studies with just five hundred rupees in my bank account, not even speculating what I would do for the second month’s hostel expenses.

I ventured to forego my passion for science and became a banker, an area totally alien to me.

I agreed willingly to every workplace transfer between north and south of India and worked with people of different languages, cultures, and attitude. Calculated risk-taking used to be a part of my work culture. I had made mistakes and learnt valuable lessons from them.

I consciously gave up a lucrative banking career in search of opportunities in the wilderness of private sector, and then, consciously chose to work in an environment which offered no guaranteed regular income, that too, in a foreign land.

Having lived in many big and metropolitan cities and having been used to the best of comforts of life, I chose to live in a village environment for my retired days.

Every time, there was a hard choice to make.

Period.

Coming back to successful personalities, earlier I wrote about Richard Branson, his commercial ventures, philosophies, and successes. Here is another story I liked, about Elon Musk, known for his ventures into space exploration and developing solar power systems and electric cars. He is ranked 21^st in the Forbes list of the World’s Most Powerful People.

Read on about Elon Musk, in the next part….

Richard Branon, the British Entrepreneur, Founder of Virgin Group of Companies, the Adventurist and the Philanthropist

Richard Branson

Early life

Richard Branson was born in 1950 in Blackheath, London as the eldest to Eve Branson, a former ballet dancer and air hostess and Edwrd James Branson, a barrister. His grandparents and great grandparents had lived in Madras, India, and Richard Branson is believed to have 3.9% Indian DNA.  He attended the school until his age sixteen.   He is reported to have suffered from dyslexia and had poor academic performance as a student. His headmaster seemed to have told him on the final day of his school that he would end up either in prison or become a millionaire.  

Career

After leaving the school at his young age of 16, still struggling, he started his ‘Student’ – a youth-culture magazine, from a church – run by the students and for the students.  He sold $8,000 worth of advertising in its first edition, during 1966. The first run of 50,000 copies was distributed for free, after Branson covered the costs with advertising. He interviewed several prominent personalities of the late 1960s and advertised popular records in the magazine. It became an instant success.   By 1969, Branson was living in a London commune, surrounded by the British music and drug scene. It was during this time in 1971 that Branson had the idea to begin a mail-order record company called Virgin (a name suggested by one of his employees, as they were all new at business) to help fund his magazine efforts. He sold successfully music records under the name ‘Virgin’ to the less-popular stores. The company performed modestly, but made Branson enough that he was able to expand his business venture, adding a record shop in Oxford Street, London. With the success of the record shop, the high school drop-out was able to build a recording studio - Manor Studio - in 1972 in Oxfordshire, England. He then leased out the studio time to several budding artists (including a few controversial bands), of which Mike Oldfield’s album Tubular Bells became a best-seller. In the early 1980s, his novelty record ‘Baa, Baa, Black Sheep’ (singing as a sheep, baa-ing along to a drum instrument became a great hit in 1980s. Eventually, Virgin Music became one of the top six record companies in the world.

                                                          

                                                                        (Branson’s Manor Studio)

From there, it was a non-stop high-speed trajectory into several more business enterprises for Richard Branson. To mention the major ones:

1.       In 1982, Virgin purchased the gay nightclub Heaven.

2.      While he waited to travel to Puerto Reco, his flight was canceled. In the spur of the moment, he decided to charter a flight for his journey and offered to fly a number of stranded passengers for a very small fee to cover a part of the cost. He then formed Virgin Atlantic Airways in 1984. Subsequently, he started several other airlines companies, Virgin Express, Virgin Nigeria, Virgin America, Virgin Blue (since renamed Virgin Australia) and the unsuccessful Virgin Cola, and Virgin Vodka. Later, Branson also bought a 20% stake in the Malaysian’s Air Asia.

3.      In 1993, he won the franchise to run the train services for the former Intercity West Coast and Cross-country sectors of the British Rail. Virgin Trains was considered to be one of the riskiest businesses Branson had ever undertaken.

4.      In 1999, he launched Virgin Mobile

5.      In September, 2004, he announced the signing of a deal under which a new space-tourism company, Virgin Galactic, will licence the technology behind the Spaceship One – an initiative funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and designed by the legendary American aeronautical engineer and visionary Burt Rutan – to take paying passengers into suborbital space. The tickets are expected to be priced around £200000 and the venture will use Scaled Composite White Knight Two space-crafts. After several delays, in April 2013, the project made an impressive leap forward with the test launch of the first SpaceShip. However, in October 2014, his SpaceShip Two VSS Enterprise broke up in flight and crashed in the Mojava desert.

6.      His latest venture is into Virgin Fuels in search of cleaner, environmental friendly fuel, especially in view of rising cost of space fuels. In September, 2006 he pledged the profits of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains for research into environmental friendly fuel and his pledge is estimated to be in the order of US$ 3 billion.

7.      During July 2006, he sold his Virgin Mobile company to UK cable TV, broadband, and telephone company NTL/NTL Telewest for £1 billion. He then launched a new company, Virgin Media, with great fanfare, to integrate both the companies’ compatible businesses, and he owned only 15% in the new company.

8.      In 2006, in collaboration with some of the famous names like Deepak Chopra, Shekhar Kapur, Sharad Devarajan and Gautham Chopra, Branson formed Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation, an entertainment company focused on creating new stories and characters for a global audience.

9.      Branson launched the Virgin Health Bank on 1 February 2007, offering parents-to-be the opportunity to store their baby's umbilical cord blood stem cells in private and public stem-cell banks. On 10 January 2008, Branson's Virgin Healthcare announced that it would open a chain of health care clinics that would offer conventional medical care alongside homeopathic and complementary therapies, a development that was welcomed by the British Government.

10.   When Northern Rock, a British bank (formerly the Northern Rock Building Society) suffered a bank run during the credit crisis in 2007 (the first ever bank in the 150 years of British history to suffer bank run) and failed to find a commercial buyer, it was taken over as a public ownership bank in 2008. In Oct 2007, Branson’s Virgin Group’s attempt to add Northern Rock Bank to its fold was foiled due to the vigorous negative campaign (of tax evasion by Branson) by the Liberal Democrats in Britain. However, in 2012, Virgin bought Northern Rock and changed the name to Virgin Money.

11.    After February 2009, his Virgin organization sponsored the new Brawn GP car racing team which was eventually bought over by Mercedes Benz, Branson invested in an 80% buyout of Manor Grands Prix and renamed it Virgin Racing.

12.   In 2010, Branson became patron of the UK's Gorden Bennet 2010 gas balloon race, which had 16 hydrogen balloons flying across Europe.

13.   In April 2012 Virgin Care commenced a five-year contract for provision of a range of health services which had previously been under the aegis of NHS Surrey, the local primary care trust. By March 2015 Virgin Care was in charge of over 230 services nationwide.

14.   In July 2012, Branson announced plans to build an orbital space launch system, designated Launcher One. Four commercial customers have already contracted for launches and two companies are developing standardised satellite buses optimised to the design of LauncherOne, in expectation of business opportunities created by the new Smallsat launcher.  

15.   In August 2012, when the franchise for the West Coast Main Line, managed by Virgin Rail since 1997 came to an end, the contract was awarded to another group in a competitive tender process by the government. However, Branson complained unfair treatment in the tendering process, and, after considerable battle, the award to the other group was cancelled enabling Virgin Rail to continue to operate the West Coast Line.

16.   In September 2014, Branson announced his investment in a drone company 3D Robotics, seeing great potential in the drone business. 

                                                       

                                                                                 ... to be continued

Richard Branson, the British Entrepreneur, founder of Virgin group of companies, adventurist and philanthropist

Before I looked at the various achievements of Richard Branson I looked at some of his work and life philosophies. Behind every successful man or woman there are his or her beliefs, perceptions, ideas and philosophies that make him successful. Without a right attitude, one's knowledge, talents, and resources may not necessarily bring success.

Here are some of the quotes on ‘Attitude’ from Richard Branson that I liked most:

     1.      You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.

     2.      Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.

    3.      My general attitude to life is to enjoy every minute of every day. I never do anything with a feeling of, ’Oh God, I’ve got to do this today.’

    4.       My attitude has always been, if you fall flat on your face, at least you're moving forward. All you have to do is get back up and try again.

    5.       When I was four, my mother insisted I get out of the car and find my own way home. Although I got lost, I did find my way home. It taught me the value of independence at an early age.

    6.       Back when I was in school, few people understood dyslexia and what to do for it. My teachers thought I was lazy and not very clever, and I got bored easily... thinking of all the things I could do once I left school. I couldn't always follow what was going on.

     7.       The balloons only have one life and the only way of finding out whether they work is to attempt to fly around the world.

      8.       From a young age, I learned to focus on the things I was good at and delegate to others what I was not good at. That's how Virgin is run. Fantastic people throughout the Virgin Group run our businesses, allowing me to think creatively and strategically.

      9.       Fun is one of the most important - and underrated - ingredients in any successful venture. If you're not having fun, then it's probably time to call it quits and try something else.

     10.   A passionate belief in your business and personal objectives can make all the difference between success and failure. If you aren't proud of what you're doing, why should anybody else be? 

       11.   I think it's quite great to set yourself a big challenge, and then you've got another reason for keeping fit. 

       12.   My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them. 

     13.   I'm not the sort of person who gives up on things. The first time we crossed the Atlantic in the balloon, it crashed, and we went on and did the Pacific. First time we crossed the Atlantic in a boat, it sank, and we went on and got the record. So, generally speaking, we will pick ourselves up, brush ourselves down, and carry on.

      14.   On one of my last days at school, the headmaster said I would either end up in prison or become a millionaire. That was quite a startling prediction, but in some respects, he was right on both counts! 

      15.   Overcoming fear is the first step to success for entrepreneurs. The winners all exemplify that, and the hard work and commitment they have shown underlines what is needed to set up a business. 

      16.   Treat failure as a lesson on how not to approach achieving a goal, and then use that learning to improve your chances of success when you try again. Failure is only the end if you decide to stop. 

      17.   When I was a kid, I had a tendency to criticize. But when I did, my mum would whisk me off to the bathroom to stand in front of a mirror. Ten minutes, never less. To think about how criticism is a poor reflection on the one who criticizes. 

                                           .... to be continued

Richard Branson, the Entrepreneur, Founder of Virgin Group of companies, the adventurist and the philanthropist

Richard Branson

"I believe in benevolent dictatorship, provided I am the dictator." - Richard Branson

While reading a book titled “The Code of the Extraordinary Mind” by Vishen Lakhiani I learnt about the British Entrepreneur and founder of Virgin Group of companies, Richard Branson who has founded nearly 200 companies in more than 30 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, Asia, Europe and South Africa. After he quit his school at his age 16, his entrepreneurial projects started in the music industry and expanded into other sectors, making Branson a billionaire.  Branson is also known for his adventurous spirit and sporting achievements, including crossing oceans in a hot air balloon. He is also an acclaimed philanthropist. A brief mention about him and his philosophy to work and success in that book suddenly spurred me to research on him to know more details about this interesting personality.

I intend sharing what I learnt about him with all my blog readers. I hope you would be equally keen to know him. 

"I am not a person who looks back on my life with regret. I have always followed the motto: Life is best lived looking forward and looking up." - Richard Branson