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Elon Musk: Renaissance Man

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“Optimism, pessimism, f*** that--we're going to make it happen.” - Elon Musk

Elon Musk is the founder, CEO, and CTO of SpaceX, CEO and chief product architect of Tesla Motors, cofounder of Paypal, and chairman of SolarCity. In this book, you'll find Elon's incredible story alongside quotes with relevant context and insight into his philosophy on life.

Elon Musk is a modern-day fusion of Henry Ford and Isaac Asimov.
One of the most successful and renowned entrepreneurs in the world, he’s an unstoppable force in multiple industries.
If Musk glances at your business, your product, or your engineers, watch out… he’s about to ruin your day.


"There is nothing inherently expensive about rockets. It's just that those who have built and operated them in the past have done so with horrendously poor efficiency." - Elon Musk

"We are used to things improving every year; we are used to having a better cell phone next year than this year; a better lap top. We are even used to some basic things, like we expect more from your car in next year’s model than last year’s model. But this is not the case in space; reliability and cost - those are the fundamental parameters of transportation - have not improved... We got to the moon, but have never done anything better since. I'm disappointed that we have not made more progress since Apollo. I don't even see a plan that says we're going to do better than Apollo to exceed that goal." - Elon Musk

"If we can be one of the companies that makes it possible for humans to become a multi-planetary species, that would be the Holy Grail. It sounds a bit crazy but it's going to happen, and only if people build the means to do so. We're making progress toward a greater philosophical goal while building a sound business." - Elon Musk


"The reason for me to do it is not because I saw a huge market opportunity. It was clear that we were not going to see electric cars from major car manufacturers. The industry was operating under two false premises. One, that you could not create a compelling electric car. And two, that no one would buy it. Now that we’ve become profitable, we expect that other manufacturers will get into the electric car market... [but] the response thus far has been slower than I’d like." - Elon Musk

“I don’t like patents, personally. When I was first starting out developing technology, I got lots of patents, and thought this was a good thing, and then I sort of discovered that a patent was really like buying a lottery ticket to a lawsuit. I was like, I’d rather not buy those tickets. You look at sort of the battle between Apple & Samsung, who is really winning there? The lawyers are winning certainly, but neither of those two companies. And, in the case of Tesla, I thought, ‘Well, would Tesla ever sue some other car company if they were using our patents, to try to make them stop making electric cars?’ We would never do such a thing, so why pretend that we would.” - Elon Musk



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130 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 21, 2015

21 people are currently reading
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About the author

Nathaniel Oliver

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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
Profile Image for Pascal Wagner.
114 reviews39 followers
August 16, 2015

This book was like a Wikipedia article showered with quotes related to Elon musk. Don't waste your time on this book. It's much better to read Ashley's version of the story behind Elon. 

This author made it sound as if starting a space company, PayPal, and an electric car company was ridiculously easy. 
Profile Image for Héctor Iván Patricio Moreno.
467 reviews22 followers
February 9, 2021
Releí este libro para ver por qué me pareció bueno la primera vez y por qué en ese entonces admiraba a Elon Musk. Habla muy bien de él, lo idelaiza y presenta coasa que yo creo que son imposibles en cualequier humano, sólo habla de lo bueno que tiene presentándolo como un genio de la tecnología y de los negocios y un filántropo que quiere que la sociedad progrese. Ahora simplemente no lo creo, aunque aprendí varias cosas de las citas y de lo que es un innovador y un engeniero como se quiere hacer ver.

Short and informative

It would be great that this book was larger but although is short is inspiring knowing about a man that is making a difference in the society, but it also prevents of the consequences of such commitment and pursuits.
Profile Image for Gisle Gaasemyr.
2 reviews
April 18, 2015
Elon Musk is an extremely fascinating man, but this book about him is unfortunately quite poorly written. About half the book consists of quotes by Musk. At times this works, but at other times it's awkward and breaks up the flow of reading the book. The same quotes are also reused in different chapters.
Profile Image for Chandru CS.
374 reviews11 followers
January 23, 2019
Great!!!

Good one from the author... Really enjoyed while reading this book !!! Will definitely recommend this book to all my friends!!!
36 reviews2 followers
April 8, 2015
quick read, instructive and inspiring

Elon Musk is probably one of the most remarkable technology and business leaders of our times, and this book does a great job in compiling his main personality traits, achievements and quotes. Highly recommended.
242 reviews
June 1, 2015
This is a short book. Worth an hour or two of your time if you like pithy Elon Musk quotes and hero worship. Otherwise skip.
1 review
June 28, 2015
A high level sunmary

If you want the quotes of elon then this book is fine. It gives you basic idea of what he is about
1 review
September 15, 2015
Bueno, pero corto. Desarrollado desde una óptica distinta, haciendo foco en citas para describir su vida. Se nota que no hubo ningún tipo de contacto con el protagonista.
Profile Image for Ruben.
18 reviews18 followers
September 5, 2015
It's an ok book. It just compiles some citations from Elon Musk and intertwines them with a simple biography about his business life. Nothing you can't find on wikipedia.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews

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