From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter.
When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.
His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.
At the beginning of 2022—after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth—Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,” he said.
It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground.
For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?
Not reading this book is like growing up without watching ‘Star Wars.’
Why read it:
- Listen to the story of Elon Musk told by a person who was his shadow for two years.
- Understand what ultimately led Elon Musk to wealth and success.
- Ponder the ideas of saving humanity as a species.
About the author:
Walter Isaacson is an American historian, journalist, writer, and politician. He served as the Chairman and CEO of CNN. He was also the editor of Time magazine. In 2005, as the Deputy Governor of Louisiana, he supervised the spending on the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. In 2009, President Obama appointed him as the Chairman of the United States Agency for Global Media. He is the recipient of the 2012 Gerald Loeb Award for his book on Steve Jobs. In 2012, he was included in Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
