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Elon Musk. How The Billionaire Ceo Of Spacex And Tesla Is Shaping Our Future

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South African born Elon Musk is the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity. Musk wants to save our planet; he wants to send citizens into space, to form a colony on Mars; he wants to make money while doing these things; and he wants us all to know about it. He is the real-life inspiration for the Iron Man series of films starring Robert Downey Junior.

The personal tale of Musk's life comes with all the trappings one associates with a great, drama-filled story. He was a freakishly bright kid who was bullied brutally at school, and abused by his father. In the midst of these rough conditions, and the violence of apartheid South Africa, Musk still thrived academically and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he paid his own way through school by turning his house into a club and throwing massive parties.

He started a pair of huge dot-com successes, including PayPal, which eBay acquired for $1.5 billion in 2002. Musk was forced out as CEO and so began his lost years in which he decided to go it alone and baffled friends by investing his fortune in rockets and electric cars. Meanwhile Musk's marriage disintegrated as his technological obsessions took over his life ...

Elon Musk is the Steve Jobs of the present and the future, and for the past twelve months, he has been shadowed by tech reporter, Ashlee Vance. Elon Musk- How the Billionaire CEO of Spacex and Tesla is Shaping our Future is an important, exciting and intelligent account of the real-life Iron Man.

392 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2015

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Vance Ashlee

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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
Profile Image for Tayla.
42 reviews5 followers
March 25, 2020
What a man! This is an incredible book of Elon and his vision! Very inspiring with lots of detail about Elon’s upbringing, rise to success, downfalls both personal and business. Would definitely recommend!
7 reviews1 follower
May 21, 2019
Why musk has achieved so much, this book tells it all. Motivating!!!
Profile Image for Shadira.
775 reviews15 followers
May 5, 2022
The book captures the life and achievements of South African interpreter and innovator, Elon Musk, the brain behind series of successful enterprises such as PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX and Solarcity. The real-life inspiration of the Iron Man Series, Musk wants to be the saviour of the planet, send people into space and set up a colony on Mars.

Bullied in school and scolded tremendously by his father, Musk was actually a brilliant student and his life story is nothing less than a drama packed film. Ashlee Vance’s brilliant description of Musk’s character, simple language and neat choice of words indeed makes this book a great read.

A book that is smart, light on its feet and possesses a crunchy thoroughness. . . . Mr Vance delivers a well-calibrated portrait of Mr Musk, so that we comprehend both his friends and his enemies. It's a book with many ancillary pleasures. Mr Vance brings us up to date on the states of green energy and space launches. He also veers away from his subject just often enough, offering profiles of the frequently brilliant people who work alongside Mr Musk. The best thing Mr Vance does in this book, though, is tell Mr Musk's story simply and well
Profile Image for Frédéric Bonin.
217 reviews2 followers
January 17, 2020
This book was given to me as a Christmas present. Prior to reading it, I was vaguely aware of Elon Musk as the guy behind Tesla and that was it. I did not know Space X nor Solar City. To my surprise this book was awesome. So much corporate drama, vision and excitement! Whether you take away from this book that Elon Musk is a genius or an asshole, he has certainly lived a crazy life and achieved impressive feats! If you like start-up stories and larger than life characters this is a must read.
Profile Image for Lorie.
25 reviews
April 4, 2021
While I agree that Musk is a genius and has done a lot of great things with Tesla, SpaceX and so on - this book is just advertising for him.

I wanted to learn more about the person and not the too detailed descriptions of the launches of SpaceX.
3 reviews
July 19, 2023
Very much inspiring. But not very clear idea about Elon. May be Elon does not have enough time to share his struggle of life. The writer did great job interviewing Elon's surroundings.
Some people in our society behave differently. It does not mean they are crazy. They thinks differently. May be they have super power and every human being has this power. They just need to discover it.

And Elon has discovered his power. He made history and human race will remember him for some ages.

Great Book. I love it and I'll read it again.
Profile Image for Rathna.
2 reviews
January 13, 2020
Such an inspiring tale of the man who is at the forefront of innovation and business, propelling the needle of human quest into exciting and unexplored but pressing charters that this earth absolutely needs. Elon Musk's vision for mankind to be an interplanetary species is nothing short of a fantasy, but man is out to prove anyone who disbelieves wrong. Ashley Vance's narration clearly comes through exceptional.
73 reviews1 follower
March 11, 2020
As a fan of popular science, science fiction and space exploration and cosmology I have long known about Elon's enterprises. I'm particularly interested in future successes of next stages of SpaceX endeavours. At last it was time to read his biography in full. I admire his entrepreneurial talent and creative mind and sheer determination and focus in making it all happen. Good luck and I will be watching SpaceX's space.
11 reviews
July 23, 2019
Elon Musk, the man behind PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla Motors and Solarcity, each of which is revolutionizing mankind and life as we know it. This book is highly detailed in technical aspects in some chapters, which could be hard to follow, however it also provides an insight into Musk's mind, his thinking and his mission on this earth.
92 reviews3 followers
August 16, 2019
Elon Musk is not merely thinking out of the box, he is thinking out of the planet. He is really the Engineer of engineer. He has really redefined audacity and courage. His idea to transform humans as interplanetary species will be certainly one of the boldest. Good biography to get insights about the life of Elon Musk.
Profile Image for Anisha.
6 reviews1 follower
July 13, 2019
I found it in too detail good for people who want that sought of , but for me, it was more than required
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews

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