The conqueror in Elon Musk
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do~ Steve Jobs.
2300 years ago a young man named Alexander embarked upon a journey to subdue the world. People laughed him off in the beginning, bowed down to him after he vanquished the most powerful king in those days-Darius. He was stopped by another crazy man named Chanakya, who had vowed to destroy the emperor of India single-handedly. Yet, Alexander had done enough to inspire men across generations. It is no wonder that Justine Musk found her conquering hero in Elon Musk.
Born in South Africa to a middle-class engineer, Elon was a geek from a very young age. From developing computer games at a tender age, Musk founded software startups called Zip2 and PayPal. Although he sold the former and was ousted from the latter, any other human being would have put his guns down after such a successful stint as a software engineer. Furthermore, he could have pursued a life of luxury with the fortunes he made out of the two ventures. Yet, there was another side to Elon- his love for science fiction and his dream of interplanetary space travel. Last but not the least, it is his phenomenal Alexander like drive which keeps him going despite a turbulent personal life.
Hawthorne to Palo Alto and fro
Nevertheless, Elon Musk became a butt of cheese jokes when he decided to venture into Space technology. However, that didn’t deter him. What followed was the birth of SpaceX (Hawthorne) and years of persistent efforts to launch inexpensive, reusable rockets. We know that SpaceX has been phenomenal in this area and has launch contracts from the likes of NASA. However, profit isn’t the ultimate goal of SpaceX. It has a higher utopian goal of launching mankind to mars, in order to save it from the impending doomsday, owing to climate change. Note that musk is damn serious about his dream. This is the sole reason why even though SpaceX is a huge success commercially, Musk is unwilling to go public since it could hamper his dream of taking mankind to Mars.
Also read: Apollo Mission Anniversary: Remembering Edwin Aldrin
However, even though transporting mankind to Mars is one way to save it, conserving ecology in the current scenario is equally important. Thus followed Tesla motors (Palo Alto) with its electric car and SolarCity with its affordable solar panels step in. After a host of controversies, failures and a near-bankruptcy situation, Tesla has risen to be a titan in the automotive industry, thanks to Musks’ resourcefulness and a bit of fortune. As they say, fortune favours the brave.
Concluding thoughts
Ambition shows you the path to success, but the drive is what gets you through it. There are millions who nurture great ambitions like owning start-ups, harnessing solar energy, building eco-friendly vehicles, travelling to Mars, but it takes the drive of Alexander, will power of Chanakya, the creativity of Steve Jobs, the technical know-how of Bill Gates, all packed in one as Elon Musk for you. We don’t know whether Elon will be successful in his pursuits of interplanetary travel, going all-electric, all solar etc. What is important is that these pursuits are driving great technological revolutions across all the three industries viz. space, automotive and solar. This reminds us of Mahatma Gandhi’s words which Elon Musk lives by:
Hesitating to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders progress~Mahatma Gandhi
