27A-Reading Reflection No. 3

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ashlee Vance

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

What surprised me the most is that the author created PayPal, well at least X.com which eventually became PayPal. I thought it was so interesting that he created something that tons of people use today and may not know. I most admire how the author openly said that your degree does not matter, and that college does not give people what it takes to be truly successful. He stressed that innovation and creation were the primary factors that resulted in his success and other people who became incredibly successful. Something that was not necessarily bad but Elon got two bachelor’s degree in business and in physics which is very impressive and then eventually went on to go to Sandford and get a PHD in physics. This is awesome but I did not like the idea that he said college is pretty useless in a lot of ways, which I agree with, but went on to get such a high degree of education. Some of the failures he experienced included not getting a job at Netscape, at first his Paypal product was rated as one of the 10 worst business ideas, and things like rockets exploding on launch. He just kept pushing and finding ways to be innovative.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

I noticed that the author was very innovative. He was so diverse in his knowledge and what he was pursuing whether it was electric cars or asking the Russians to sell him a rocket so he could send mice and plant to mars. I think that it was very interesting to see his technological, science, and business abilities.  

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I was struggling to understand how he struggled as CEO at Zip2 which was one of his first endeavors.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

If I was able to ask him two questions it would be what is the next business opportunity I can take on given my knowledge and resources and the second would be what should I invest money in that is going to blow up.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

I think that the entrepreneur’s definition of hard work is to actually be brave and willing to put effort into your ideas. I feel like given twice in a row he tried to launch a rocket and both exploded attest to this statement.