In ‘The Entrepreneur on the Heroic Journey’ (1997), Dwight Lee and Candace Allen write that entrepreneurs are heroic figures of society whose accomplishments are worth celebrating. Taking this perspective, I believe that Elon Musk is certainly an entrepreneur who should be considered a “Modern Hero” due to his ingenuity and drive to realize a fantastic future. His greatest contribution, I think, is that he has given people hope and renewed faith in what technology can do for mankind.
In our current times when it seems fashionable to castigate entrepreneurs and those who have earned a fortune, it is nonetheless hard to read Ashlee Vance’s biography of Elon Musk and not to be in awe of his accomplishments. Elon Musk perfectly matches Lee and Allen’s description of our modern day heroes: individuals who shape society by serving the people and adding value to society through their entrepreneurial activities.
According to Lee and Allen, a hero travels through three stages.
1. The first stage of the modern entrepreneurial hero is a venturing away from the world of accepted norms.
The hero asserts “There is a better way, and I will find it!” Deviating from familiar social norms and customs, he travels into unknown territory while risking failure and loss for some greater purpose or idea. That is exactly what Elon Musk did several times in his life. First, as a teenager when he dropped out of the University of Pretoria to leave South Africa for Canada. For someone who has an early inclination toward computers and technology – Musk had taught himself the BASIC programming language at the age of 9-10 and created homemade explosives and rockets – South Africa was like a prison. Although he did not know back then what exactly he wanted to achieve in Canada, his curiosity and intrinsic desire to leave an everlasting impact on the world led him to the United States. His daydreams at Queen’s University and the University of Pennsylvania usually led him to the conclusion that the Internet, the Renewable Energy, and the Space industries were the areas where he could make a huge impact. Back then, Musk already vowed to pursue projects in all three. This was in 1994 when few could’ve predicted the many ways in which the Internet would change people’s lives, when the last successful American automobile startup (Chrysler) dates back to 1925, and when the American aerospace industry was dominated by only Boeing and Lockheed Martin. A vow like this was surely considered super-crazy. Musk pushed himself, characterized by energy, vision and bold determination into the unknown.
2. In the second stage, the entrepreneurial hero sacrifices himself for a vision or dream he has, putting his own comfort at stake.
The two Internet companies he founded were Zip2, the Web’s first yellow pages, and X.com that would eventually merge with Confinity to form PayPal. The second stage of the entrepreneurial hero is his overcoming of hardships and challenges.
With just $28,000 invested in Zip2, Musk seemed to never leave the office and slept on a beanbag next to his desk. He would take showers at the YMCA and when Heilman, an early Zip2 employee, would come into the office at 7:30 or 8:00 AM he would give him a kick so Musk would wake up and get back to work. Musk’s slavish devotion to the success of his startups is best expressed when he told a VC investor,
“My mentality is that of a samurai. I would rather commit seppuku than fail.”
Zip2 would eventually be taken over by Compaq Computer for $307 million and would earn Musk $22 million for his 7% stake in the company.
Musk’s second start-up was X.com which was an initial attempt to create an online bank. During his internship at the Bank of Nova Scotia, he found out that “bankers are rich and dumb” and that this provided a massive opportunity to disrupt the industry. Realizing that money is nothing but an entry in a database, Musk thought that he could enter the industry with relatively little investment. This could however not be any further from the truth. The regulatory issues they were facing seemed insurmountable and several of the early employees of X.com soon left the company after believing that Musk’s vision to disrupt the banking industry is unrealistic. One other X.com employee said,
“There were a million laws in place to block something like X.com from happening, but Musk didn’t care.”
Despite such issues, Musk held on and secured a banking license, FDIC insurance and formed a partnership with Barclays.
Musk had also faced many other misfortunes in the two companies that he founded soon after he left X.com: Tesla and SpaceX. In 2008, he was almost broke while divorcing his first wife – fearing he had been wasting almost all of his $180 million he earned from the sales of PayPal to eBay. SpaceX had just enough money for its fourth Falcon 1 launch, and possibly the last launch of SpaceX. Tesla had still not delivered on its promise to produce its Roadster and needed a government loan at a time when other automobile and financial corporations were also struggling. In Musk’s words:
“I remember waking up the Sunday before Christmas in 2008, and thinking to myself, ‘Man, I never thought I was someone who could be capable of a nervous breakdown.’ I felt this is the closest I’ve ever come, because it seemed… pretty dark.”
3. In the third stage, the heroic entrepreneur returns to the community with his product, service, or new process.
Having been just days or weeks away from bankruptcy for both Tesla and SpaceX, Musk had eventually survived and created the first successful car company since Chrysler in 1925 and was now competing with Boeing, Lockheed Martin, the Russians and the Chinese in the aerospace industry. Tesla has since delivered the Roadster, the Model S, X and is planning to deliver the Model E which will have a starting price of $35,000 by late 2017. Tesla is on its way to alter the automobile industry. SpaceX had produced rockets that can return back safely on earth which significantly lowers the costs of sending rockets into space. Elon Musk’s reward for increasing benefits to society are his profits and his wealth that he could only have accumulated when people value his products enough that they are willing buy them.
he is my hero personally. cos of his contribution to the new age of distruption
Yes, and for giving us hope in technology again. :)
He's one of my heroes too. Thanks for the post.
Thank you for your comment @capitalism. :)
I could never think of anyone who has literally stolen almost $5 billion dollars from the taxpayers of the US a hero... I would consider him to be the greatest huckster of all time no matter what products he brought to market. If his products were so good the private markets would have supported his ideas. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html
Hi @joelbow, thank you for your comment. I am familiar with the article, and think it's not right to say that he has 'stolen' money from taxpayers. The people who have stolen the money are the politicians. The rest of us, entrepreneurs and normal citizens get to work under a system of law that has been maintained by the politicians. If I get jobless and receive welfare, would you consider me a thief?
A big corporation receiving billions of free money that was taken from ordinary people by government is most certainly theft... the welfare system isn't really a relevant comparison... a more valid comparison would be the big banks receiving trillions in free money from the Federal Reserve so that they could stay solvent after they made bad business decisions which decimated their balance sheets. Big business always gets government to do what they want after lobbying (or more accurately bribing) them to do what they want. The ordinary person has no chance against the banksters and big business. I could provide so many examples of how corrupted the system has become.
I agree with you that our system has become corrupt. Nonetheless, I think the bankers and big businesses that use politics for their personal gains are acting very rational. Within such a system, it would be quite foolish of them not to play the game. I would prefer to lay the blame on the political class. That's one of the reasons why I have become an anarchist: not because I am against big business, but because I know that a society without government will eliminate big business privileges granted by government.
I agree on the point that the corrupt system and the political class are at fault for the mess that we now are in... I would also say that it is misguided to make people like Musk heroes since they played the corrupt system to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us. There are many others who are worthy of being recognized for their business successes without receiving largess from government. f you want to promote Voluntaryism don't use Musk as a poster child for the cause.
I really respect and look up to people who take bold actions to make bold changes in human society. Elon Musk is definitely one of these people up there with the likes of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Sergey Brin etc.
http://fundersandfounders.com/how-elon-musk-started/
Is a nice infographic that shows Elon musk's journey from beginning to today. I have to agree that looking at his history, the person that I can compare him to the most is the fictional character Tony Stark.
Ha, that's a great infograph. Very detailed. Did you read Ashlee Vance's biography of Musk? That one gave a very interesting perspective of the psyche of the man.
I haven't but I will definitely check it out, thanks for the tip!
Hi! I am a content-detection robot. This post is to help manual curators; I have NOT flagged you.
Here is similar content:
https://chhaylinlim.wordpress.com/2016/05/
Hi, little @cheetah bot, this post is an edited version of what I wrote before on my personal blog. I am currently in the process of bringing some of my content from my personal blog to Steemit. I would encourage anyone to also read my wordpress blog if you are interested in my writings next to my Steemit blog. :)
When I first joined Steemit I asked in chat about bringing content of mine from other sources over here. I was told it was okay but I'd need to be real sure I stated that it came from another place and that the original was mine. I may even need to be able to demonstrate the content is mine. I've held off doing so to avoid what you just encountered.
Musk is greater than Steve Jobs. No doubt.
Disagree. Musk is a thief.
Big fan of Elons. More of us need to think outside of the norm.
@chhaylin, I agree that Elon Musk is a rare creature. His (first) ex-wife, the Canadian writer Justine Musk, wrote a fascinating post answering a question on Quora: How can I be as great as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk or Sir Richard Branson? https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-be-as-great-as-Bill-Gates-Steve-Jobs-Elon-Musk-or-Sir-Richard-Branson
Thanks for the article. Another of yours that has resonated with me. Musk is a bit of a shining light to me also. Technology was meant to set us free from the drudgery of human survival and at least he seems to be putting his money where his mouth is.
However for me hero wise Elon Musk is still a capitalist first. His technological innovations are not going to be applied to the masses, only those 1st worlders who can afford it (I get paid a good salary in the UK and can't afford a Tesla!).
To me Bill Gates's work combating global preventable fatal disease is just as, if not more worthwhile, but unfortunately not as sexy. Cheers.
I've been following Musk for a while. Maybe 10 years or more. He does base a lot of what he is doing on morals that he developed by reading a lot as a kid back in South Africa. Some have mentioned that he is looking at the bigger picture and what needs to be done within the existing systems to make way for a new technology based inter-planetary civilisation based on renewable energy. Working in renewable energy myself, I do agree with this end goal. He understands that it takes a process, and he is doing that process. Great post @chhaylin.
I'll be the Devil's Advocate @chhaylin @gabbans @capitalism @sweetsssj - ELON MUSK IS NOTHING BUT A THIEFREPRENEUR.
What exactly does he create that is of value WITHOUT having to take money from taxpayers?
If you have to take from taxpayers, you are actually stealing - albeit "legally"...
Elon Musk would NOT be able to create his projects without government intervention - which means he is not truly an entrepreneur. He is a thief.
Great article - I will be writing an article on how people can approach life in accordance with Elon's principles - I hope you check it out!
Elon Musk on Twitter: Hyperloop pod run by team WARR — Steemit
Great article! Without going into the debates below, I just think the man will definitely leave a trace on Earth (or beyond!), for the good, and inspire many of us =). Thanks for this post @chhaylin
Great analysis of Musk!
Still think he is a hero even after the more dubious "private @ $420" and "Shortsellers Enrichment Commission" both of which I found hilarious and heroic. Seems that some things may be changin, but I believe he will never compromise on the Mars vision.