| ELON MUSK Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future Ashlee Vance New York: Ecco/HarperCollins, May 2015 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-06-230123-9 | ||||
| ISBN-10 0-06-230123-3 | 392pp. | HC/FCI | $28.99 | |
I started out not liking this book. In its opening pages, Ashlee Vance's Elon Musk veers from over-the-top denigration to hagiography about Musk.1 (See the Errata page for examples.) However, the author's description of Silicon Valley's dot-com boom and bust (pages 10-14) is excellent, as is the summary of Musk's recent business activities that follows it. All indications are that Elon Musk is among the most innovative businessmen in America's long history of innovation — ranking with Thomas Alva Edison, George Washington Carver, Alexander Graham Bell, and Robert Hutchings Goddard among others.
It is true, of course, that in the early going Musk was the focus of denigration from all sides. This is the standard treatment an innovator gets from the naysayers ensconsed in the fortress of the status quo — until the innovator proves them wrong, quite often by demolishing the fortress. Vance, therefore, can be forgiven that he went in thinking Musk was probably just another Silicon Valley dreamer.
There were, to be sure, ample reasons for thinking Musk might not succeed in his business ventures. He was trying to do not one but several things that according to the conventional wisdom were very difficult. They were difficult, and they remain so. But the conventional wisdom on change amounts to a long succession of achievements that were deemed to be very difficult or even impossible, until they were achieved. Perhaps the best assessment of Musk with respect to SpaceX comes from executives at Barber-Nichols, quoted in the footnote pp. 197-8:
"It could be very frustrating to work with Elon. He has a singular view and doesn't deviate from that. We don't know too many people that have worked for him that are happy. That said, he has driven the cost of space down and been true to his original business plan. Boeing, Lockheed, and the rest of them have become overly cautious and spend a lot of money. SpaceX has balls." – Footnote, Pages 197-8 |
I'd subscribed to a lot of this type of thinking until that first visit to Musk Land. While Musk had been anything but shy about what he was up to, few people outside of his companies got to see the factories, the R&D centers, the machine shops, and to witness the scope of what he was doing firsthand. Here was a guy who had taken much of the Silicon Valley ethic behind moving quickly and running organizations free of bureaucratic hierarchies and applied it to improving big, fantastic machines and chasing things that had the potential to be the real breakthroughs we'd been missing. – Page 14 |
There were, to be sure, ample reasons for thinking Musk might not succeed in his business ventures. In addition to the several formidable challenges he had taken on, he shunned the spotlight in those early years. Also, he was and still is a stern taskmaster, setting tight schedules and demanding a great deal of his employees. In dealing with the outside world, he seldom tones down his opinions when he feels competitors or suppliers have made mistakes or failed to deliver on promises. These traits invite criticism and make it harder for his friends to defend him.
But Vance, a longtime journalist with Bloomberg Businessweek, discarded his doubts when he saw what Musk had actually accomplished. His book is an even-handed treatment of Musk's life and career, covering the flaws and failures as well as the triumphs. It is the result of extensive interviews with colleagues, competitors and family members of Musk — and with the man himself, once he granted Vance access.2
In reading the book, I wished Vance had included more dates to give me a better idea of when things happened. I also wished for an index; the lack of one is, I think, the principal defect of the book. Endnotes are provided, but a separate list of recommended books would be a good thing. Vance also made more than the usual number of minor errors in the text. (I also found the asterisks used to mark footnotes annoying; their tiny size had me backtracking from each footnote to locate the passage it refers to in the text. But that is obviously not the fault of the author.)
There are a number of books about Elon Musk. This is the first one I have read. I can recommend it unreservedly, despite its defects. I cannot say it is definitive. But no book written today could be, since so much of Musk's story has yet to happen.
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