13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

The “biographies/autobiographies” that I choose was Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ashlee Vance. The reason why I choose this book was due to my recent interest in Elon Musk as a person as he seemed to be not only done to Earth yet very outlandish at times. It seems as though (mostly recently ) he is self-aware of the image he has amassed on the internet which is ironic as less than a decade ago I feel no Elon Musk had no real internet presence whatsoever. One the thing that I learned that I liked the most about Musk was that from an early age he was always on the prowl for the next big idea. He knew early on that human needed to do two things to alleviate our dependence on oil/fossil fuels and for humans to travel the cosmos. The big idea behind it was that oil and fossil fuels are finite and once we discover an energy source that can produce the same energy whilst also being renewable would make human future proof. While also seeing the stars a destination rather than an observation. Another thing I can relate with Musk was from an early age we both expressed our entrepreneurial tendencies as when I was younger I would sell candy. When Elon Musk was a lad he made a video game and sold it 500$ even though both ventures are vastly different it proves that he and I share similar qualities. What least admire about Musk is his attitude the opening pages of the book starts with Musk seemed both controlling yet interested in the creation of his biography as he only agreed to it when he was strong-armed by the author. Elon faced many challenges on his journey to become a billionaire as when he was in college he released zip2 to which he would sell for a profit of 22 million. The use that same money to create x.com which would later be known as PayPal and sell that to eBay for billions. At this point, Elon could have stopped a retired yet he ventured on to achieve his goal of space travel and took the biggest risk of his lifetime SpaceX. One thing that confused me wasn’t really a critic but rather the idea that Musk wanted to continue pursuing his space dream after becoming a billionaire which has to do in part with his heavily motivated character and determined attitude but personally I would have stopped after I had made a billion dollars. One question I would Elon Musk was what kept him motivated on days that he felt uninspired and unwilling during the days that he felt that he should give up. Because we know what he thought about in college that motivated but what motivated him as a billionaire. “What important issues will affect the future of humanity?”