If you marvel at the myth of computer industry created by world-renowned entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, then the next person will probably refresh your definition of myth. He is only 42 years old, but he has made brilliant achievements in the most popular and cutting-edge fields in the world today: he is the founder of the world’s largest online payment platform; He made the first commercially successful electric car; He is also the first private boss in the world to successfully launch a rocket. He is elon musk, the founder of Tesla, an electric car manufacturer, and Space X, a space exploration technology company.
Musk’s entrepreneurial experience is ups and downs and colorful. The famous Iron Man, which is widely circulated in the market, was adapted from him, and he himself made a guest appearance in the second film of the Iron Man series. Although the truth of this statement remains to be verified, just like this superhero, Musk’s wonderful life is full of dazzling high technology. Not only that, but his success in business operation is the envy of his peers. Some people think that he is a new legend after Jobs, while others say that he may be the next person to change the world.
Start with the internet
On June 28th, 1971, Musk was born in South Africa. My father is an engineer in South Africa and my mother is a Canadian. Musk learned software programming when he was 10 years old. Two years later, he successfully designed a game called "Blastar" and sold the software for $500, earning the first pot of gold in his life.
This child, who was called a "genius" by people around him, went to Canada at the age of 17, and his final dream was the United States, because he thought it was a place where "anything is possible". In 1992, after studying at Queen’s University for two years, Musk left Canada and transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in economics and physics. When he graduated, Musk considered three areas that he most wanted to get involved in. In his view, these three areas will profoundly affect the future development of mankind, namely the Internet, clean energy and aviation. Now, it seems that these three ideals were all realized when he was under 40 years old.
In 1995, he went to Stanford University to study for a master’s degree in materials science and applied physics, but he dropped out of school after only two days. After that, he stepped into the internet field.
After dropping out of school, he and his brother jointly founded the Zip2 project, an online content publishing software developed for news organizations to help national online media cooperate with localized businesses. Soon, this creative project won the favor of several enterprises. In 1999, Compaq acquired Zip2 with $307 million in cash and $34 million in stock options. In the same year, Musk founded X.com, an online financial payment company. In 2001, X.com completed the acquisition of Confinity Company, and the new company was renamed PayPal. In October 2002, eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion, and Musk’s 11.7% stake in PayPal earned him $328 million. Today, PayPal has become the world’s largest online payment company, which is highly sought after by hundreds of millions of users around the world.
These two successful transactions made Musk famous and famous, and he became a billionaire and star entrepreneur. But just when people expected Musk to dig the next Internet gold mine, he chose another way. This time, he founded two miracle companies, Tesla and SpaceX.
"Upstream" Tesla
If Detroit is given a chance to start all over again, I believe that everything of Tesla will be what this bankrupt automobile city hopes to develop into: cooler, more environmentally friendly and more advanced.
Founded in 2003, Tesla Motors, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, is currently a star enterprise in the United States. The ModelS all-electric car produced by the company was listed as the best-selling luxury car in the United States, and was also rated as the safest car in the United States. Some media regard Tesla as "the apple of the automobile industry" and think that it represents a bright future for the development of the automobile industry.
The original Tesla company was not founded by Musk. At that time, Musk only invested $6.3 million in Tesla and became the chairman. Later, due to the unsatisfactory research and development, the two founders left, and Musk officially took over.
Musk said that his initial success rate was "less than 50%". But despite this, he still has confidence in Tesla. He believes that the traditional thinking about the electric vehicle market is one of the reasons why people have not discovered Tesla’s potential. He said that no one doubts that clean electricity is the future development direction, but the biggest uncertainty lies in the timetable of the historical process, that is, the time and speed of this transformation.
For this reason, in the entrepreneurial story of Tesla electric vehicles, Musk played more like the role that Jobs played in Apple: a preacher. He constantly explained the concept and spirit of Tesla to the media and the public, constantly convinced people that electric vehicles are the near future, and constantly responded to media attacks on Tesla. He also used the extensive influence of his circle of friends. In 2008, the first Tesla Roadster, the world’s first mass-produced electric roadster, was put on sale. Hollywood stars Tom Hanks, George Grugni and Schwarzenegger bought it one after another, and Silicon Valley tycoons such as Larry Page and sergey brin also helped. Musk mobilized all forces to push Tesla into the public’s sight.
Of course, in addition to strong publicity and public relations, the key factor to promote Tesla’s development is still technology. After solving the key technical problems such as high-capacity battery and high-performance motor, Roadster has been able to accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 3.6 seconds. At that time, it took 4.4 seconds for the Porsche 911 to reach the same speed. Looking back, Tesla’s success and stable battery system are the core of technology. Later, Tesla once transferred some key technologies of batteries and motors to help promote the electric vehicle revolution.
In 2012, the first ModelS rolled off the assembly line, and then ModelX came out. The more practical Model S is undoubtedly more successful than Roadster. In 2013, the global sales of Model S models are expected to reach about 21,000. On May 8, 2013, Tesla released its first-quarter financial report, achieving a net profit of $11.2 million. This is the first time that Tesla Motors has achieved quarterly profit since its listing in 2010. Since then, the company’s stock price has been like a runaway horse, rising from $55.7 to $90 in three trading days. At present, Tesla’s total market value exceeds 6 billion US dollars.
Tesla can gain a firm foothold and move forward steadily in the adverse waves that many electric vehicle companies have fallen, which is not unrelated to Musk’s precise positioning of Tesla. Musk said that he doesn’t think Tesla is competing with other electric vehicles for a small piece of the consumer market, but with fuel vehicles such as BMW or Lexus. Its real opponent is the entire traditional automobile industry system. At present, Tesla’s odds in this contest are hard to say, but what is certain is that Tesla is on the right track.
"Retire on Mars"
Among the three areas that Musk wants to get involved in most, aviation technology may be the one that fascinates him the most. "When other children look at the moon and sigh how far it is from the earth, Musk will say that its average distance from the earth is 384,400 kilometers," said his mother, May Musk, who described Musk as a child. When eBay threw an olive branch to PayPal, Musk realized that the time had finally come to realize his space dream. In June 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, a space exploration technology company, with his childhood dream.
SpaceX is mainly engaged in rocket business with reusable technology. In Musk’s vision, he hopes that the rocket can return to Earth after completing the space mission, thus reducing the cost of space flight. However, the wish is beautiful, but the reality is cruel. In 2008, after three failed launches, the Falcon 1 launch vehicle developed by SpaceX has exhausted the money that Musk earned from the sale of PayPal. That is, in the same year, Tesla encountered an unprecedented development bottleneck. The double crisis made Musk almost bankrupt.
But even so, Musk insisted on the fourth launch. He even said that "the fifth launch is also in preparation, and the plan to manufacture the sixth Falcon 1 has been approved." At that time, Musk had fallen into debt, and he knew that if he failed again, the consequences would be unimaginable. Therefore, it can be said that he made this decision with a burning heart.
As a result, a miracle appeared, and Falcon 1 successfully entered the preset orbit in the fourth launch test. The whole United States was shocked. People who scoffed at Musk’s idea of developing the cheapest transport rocket were surprised to find that the Falcon 1 launch vehicle used a partially reusable launch system, and the cost of launching once was only 6.7 million. At that time, the relatively cheap Pegasus rocket (a small launch vehicle launched from the air) cost 25 million dollars at a time. Musk’s vision became a reality.
Since then, SpaceX has won rocket commercial contracts from all over the world at a low price, and it has also won the recognition of the US government. It received a $1.6 billion order from NASA)16 and a $900 million deposit from other customers.
"Only four organizations in the world have mastered the technology of satellite launch and recovery, namely, the United States, Russian Federation, China and Musk," reporters said of this technology madman. Musk’s space dream continues, constantly creating one miracle after another. A few days ago, some media reported that Space X’s "Grasshopper Project" has successfully developed a cutting-edge technology that can make rockets take off safely and land vertically. Next, his goal is to reduce the launch cost to 1/10 of the commercial space launch market at that time, and he plans to develop super-giant rockets for interstellar migration in the future, because he firmly believes that the future survival hope of mankind depends on whether it can be moved to that red planet. Facing the eyes of doubt and ridicule, he said firmly, "I want to retire on Mars, which is a suitable place for retirement."
Creativity is infinite and enthusiasm is immortal.
Including the soaring stock price of Tesla electric vehicles, the outstanding performance of Musk’s companies this year has undoubtedly made Musk the most dazzling star in Silicon Valley. Because of this, he is called "the best entrepreneur in history", "the most inspirational entrepreneur" or "super idol". Looking back at the ups and downs of Musk’s entrepreneurial history, it is not difficult to find that high vision, bold vision and determination to put all your eggs in one basket are the greatest secrets of the legendary entrepreneur’s success.
According to Reuters, Musk always causes strong emotional fluctuations among people he works with. His colleagues either love him or hate him, and there is no centrist. However, even those who were fired by him, or those who called him heartless, have to admit that they admire his vision and willpower very much.
Darrell Silly, former director of market operation and sales of Tesla, said that Musk’s ability to remain calm in times of crisis is almost close to the non-human level. "His tolerance for risks is beyond imagination. When I was intolerable to the harsh environment, he was calm. "
It is with this enthusiasm that Musk has come all the way to today. As the British "Guardian" said, if someone puts forward such strange ideas as Martian immigration, the usual practice is to find an excuse to leave this madman’s company, or to politely smile and cater to this unrealistic fantasy of the space nerd, but if the object is Musk, it will have to be taken seriously.
Max Levchin, a friend who founded PayPal with Musk, said that Musk is like a "sword dancer in the dark". Every time he has a crazy idea, he always wants to make it at no cost. What’s terrible is that this wizard of science and technology entrepreneurship always seems to have a steady stream of new inspiration. He told the media that Tesla Motors will produce self-driving cars in the next three years; He talked about interstellar travel and immigration many times and said that he would shorten his trip to Mars to three months. Recently, he announced the "super high-speed rail" plan, which takes only 30 minutes to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco … and it has stunned people again and again. However, despite the constant doubts from the outside world about Musk, we might as well look forward to it, given that he has so many successful records of turning whimsy into real applications.