Day 39: Musk

You know, for all the hate and talk about him being dumb on pretty much every social platform on the internet, the guy’s gotten a LOT of shit done. For all the shit that he gets, accused of being brutal, being an ass or whatever the hell else, I mean the media just goes crazy and so do the people. The latest was Twitter of course but before that with Tesla and SpaceX, the cloud was upto capacity with criticism from people like Neil Armstrong to the guy on Mad Money to every other guy on the street, saying it would never work. And this wasn’t just at the inception of the company but it just went on forever and you can still find places on the internet where this happens.

Yes, after 3 failed attempts SpaceX became the first privately owned company to send a liquid-fuel rocket into orbit, and yes that helped solidify a contract with NASA. After exhausting every last dime on that 4th attempt, they badly needed the money that the contract would get them.

There were all of these companies that had solidified their influence with NASA, with the government. They got all the better launch spaces, they had more resources and all that, but yes, SpaceX was cheaper. And of course, they wanted to make reusable rockets.

What’s interesting to me though is this: Around the time that these NASA veterans were making their point loud and clear, is when Elon secured hundreds of millions of dollars in federal loans. For both, Tesla and SpaceX.

For all the talk of Asperger’s and being shy, or not being great with people, he seems to know his way around.

When we watch him do interviews, to me he doesn’t strike as the best orator. And yet, here we are. Securing billions of dollars now, not his money. What is it about this guy, what exactly are his skills when it comes to people?

Now, I mean, he’s made a name for himself, he’s valued at a shit ton of currency, has a lot of “connections”, has really good people working on his side. But back then. He found all the right people, he got them to do what was deemed by the majority to be impossible. We might say they were outcasts but he convinced so many people in the government too. Yes, not all that was done solely by him, but they did all represent, ultimately, him. He wasn’t an American, he had this different accent.

How did he even find these people?

… Just a random thought in the middle of the day.