Join me in Panglao, Bohol at Jing's Yoga & Wellness Studio for some Yoga classes. Book Online!

April 24 Wednesday: (Energizing Yoga) 10-11 am / (Slow Flow Yoga) 5:30-6:30 pm
April 25 Thursday: (Energizing Yoga) 10-11 am
April 26 Friday: (Energizing Yoga) 10-11 am
April 27 Saturday: (Energizing Yoga) 10-11 am / (Slow Flow Yoga) 5:30-6:30 pm
April 28 Sunday: (Energizing Yoga) 10-11 am

This is a special book to me for its subject (Elon Musk) and its biographer (Walter Isaacson). Elon is perhaps one of the most fascinating guys who ever walked on this planet and nobody writes better than Walter Isaacson.

Elon Musk
When was the last time a dyslexic person founded 5 of the world's leading companies in diverse industries and manages them all exceptionally well at the same time while being the richest man in the world? He popularized electric cars until it now is poised to ultimately replace combustion engines - with Tesla. He's not a rocket scientist, but he developed his own rockets and is serious about sending a man to Mars. He is one of the biggest manufacturers of solar panels. He bought Twitter so that people can exercise free speech. He pioneered online banking with PayPal. There is no stopping this guy! And unlike most billionaires, he's cool and smokes weed on a podcast - definitely not your stiff executive type on a 3-piece suit.

Walter Isaacson
I love writing and I love the writing style of Walter Isaacson. I read his book about Kissinger and I remember dissecting his long sentence into its anatomy to see why it worked so brilliantly. When I read his book, it's always with a dictionary. He doesn't really use high falluting words, but precise and accurate not-your-everyday-word to make his point. With his book, I expand my vocabulary and my writing improves.

Elon Musk and his biographer, Walter Isaacson at Vanity Fair

The Playground
Elon was bullied in school as a child growing up in the 2-fisted South AFrica. His father was worse - a horribly stern autocrat who showed no compassion or empathy to Elon's plight. Kimbal, his yougner brother, has always been right by his side.

“Adversity shaped me”
(p 8) Elon's character is largely shaped by his tumultuous relationship with his Dad. He can't help it, even though he is acutely aware of it. 'Not becoming his father' is a constant battle for him. He goes into roller coaster emotional swings from light to dark, intense to goofy, detached to emotional, including his dreaded 'demon mode'. Unlike most people, Elon thrives on pressure, catastrophies, tight deadlines and trauma. If there is no problem, he loses his bearing. He wants complete control - so instead of being on the board of Twitter, he bought Twitter.

Joshua and Winnifred Haldeman
(p 11) Elon got his daredevil character from his grandfather, Joshua Haldeman, Joshua was a hardcore adventurer - hobo, stowaway, cowboy, chiropractor, handyman, etc. He was against the Jew's control of money in the economy, and believed that governments should be ran by technocrats and not politicians. He took up ballroom dancing where he met his future wife, Winnifred Fletcher. They both learned to fly airplanes.

Disgruntled over his perceived control of the Canadian government, he took his family to South Africa, then an apartheid regime. He lost his life while flying. Elon was only 3 then and never knew his grandfather from whom he took much of his risk-taking genes from. Maye, Elon's mother, got the genes and passed it on to Elon.

Errol Musk
Errol was Elon's Dad - a wheeler/dealer and hustler who was also an engineer, politician and pilot. He was from South Africa and made money in the emerald business.

Their Marriage
Errol Musk and Maye Haldeman (Elon's beautiful Mom) dated as teenagers. They married and Maye got pregnant immediately, thwarting her plan to move out of a mistake - the marriage.

Lonely and determined
(p 16) On June 28, 1971, Elon Musk was born. He cried a lot, ate a lot and slept little. At 3, Elon's genius became apparent and was sent to nursery school where everyone else was much older. It was a mistake as Elon was tuning out. When Elon retreats into focused thinking (when his brain is computing), his sensory organs stop functioning - can't hear, can't see, etc. Elon didn't know how to make friends - he lived a very lonely life. He dreaded being alone. When he wanted something, he could not be detered - he was uncompromising. He could also be spacey, oblivious to what's going on. Elon was bad at picking up social cues, often believing that people mean what they say - he could read body language. He had no empathy - a character so vital in society.

The Divorce
(p 18) Errol was abusive to his wife. He hit her and called her "boring, stupid, and ugly". When Elon was 8, they divorced. Errol continued to give her a hard time. Maye raised the kids by herself in dire straits.

The move
(p 21) At age 10, Elon moved in with his father - big mistake! He realized then just how horrible his father was. 4 years later, Kimbal joined him. It's not clear why, but maybe because they needed a swashbuckling father then than an overworked, distracted and vulnerable mother. One time, Errol brought the kids to Hong Kong, left them in a hostel for 2 days with 50 dollars fending off for themselves.

A confederacy of cousins
(p 22) To be closer to her boys in Pretoria, Maye moved to Johannesburg where her sister also lived with her 3 boys (Peter, Lyndon, and Russ Rive). The 5 cousins would hang out and have fun with the consenting Maye who was less strict than her sister. They would go to concerts unsupervised and have close calls - stabbings, brawls, shootings, etc. Even in those early days, Elon displayed fearlessness in making difficult decisions - like telling off a bunch of bigger boys to keep quiet in a movie house. Elon would also be the most competitive.

The student
(p 23) Elon was a good student but nothing more. He was slow to finish class work. He'd rather play video games than put effort into something he found meaningless...like some school subjects. He loses himself in books sometimes going for 9-hour reading stretches. Being a know-it-all, he was annoying to the other kids. He showed fascination at interstellar travel at that early stage.

Existential crisis
(p 26) Maye used to take Elon to Sunday school, but he asked too many (sensible) questions, "People cannot walk on water!". He was in search of scientific explanations instead of defaulting to religious explanations. He began asking philosophical questions even science could not explain (What's the meaning of life?) - thus his teen-age existential crisis. He took refuge in the writings of Nietzsche but his confusion turned into despair. He doesn't reading that reading for a teen-ager. Reading science fiction saved the day for him - he actually got obsessed with space travel and A.I. This was the genesis for Elon's SpaceX company.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide
(p 27) Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy influenced Elon the most. It kindled in him the Simulation Hypothesis about reality. His take-away was to be smart enough to ask the right questions (instead of getting an answer from a wrong question).

Blastar
(p 27) The 2 brothers and the 3 cousins were avid players of Dungeons and Dragons. As a Dungeon master, Elon displayed gentleness and patience - not his default personality. They participated in a tournament and won, even though they were the youngest. Elon remarked that the contest Dungeon master was an idiot for being too obvious.

At 11, Elon got his first computer - a real treat during that time. During that time, educational programs weren't invented yet - only games. Elon played space video games and was good at it. He learned BASIC, Pascal and C++ programming. He entered and won programming contests. At some point, he developed his own computer games and monetized it.

Jekyll and Hyde
(p 31) At 17, due to Errol's abuses and wild mood swings, Elon left his Dad and left South Africa. Elon also took this from his Dad. Elon could be Mr. Cool one moment and turn dark and threatening the next. Errol applies his engineering to fruitcake theories like formulating randomness. Nobody understands him, but he believes in his own bullshit. Hearing Errol's mind-blowing rants was a mind-fuck for the kids/cousins. Elon exhibits a lot of Errols's dark side...he can't help it and is often reminded by his wife/s.

A one-way ticket
(p 32) Failing to immigrate to the US, Elon successfully moved to Canada. His father's parting words at the airport, "You’ll never be successful.”

Immigrant
(p 35) Elon arrived Montreal with $4000 and a list of his mother's relatives. He was surprised that in Canada, people don't just rob and kill you, unlike South Africa. He later moved to Saskatchewan for his cousin and then to Vancouver 6 weeks later. He found a job paying $18/hour, much higher than the usual $5/hour, but it was tough and risky.

Maye and Tosca
(p 36) Maye and Tosca soon moved to Canada as well, but settled in Toronto. Elon followed suit while Kimbal stayed in Pretoria to finish his studies. They all stayed in a 1-bedroom apartment. Times were hard and everyone worked menial jobs. Elon worked as an intern for Microsoft. At some point, they were able to move to a 3-bedroom apartment and purchase a computer for Elon. He had no friends or social life in Toronto.

Industrial relations
(p 38) Adressing his social handicap, he enrolled in 1990 at Queen’s where there were more girls. There, he met his lifelong friend, Farooq, who was half Pakistani and Canadian. Together, they would play board and computer games, discuss philosophical questions and explore obscure history. They were both lonely guys in search of a friend. At Queen's Elon struggles with Industrial Relations - dealings between workers and management.

Strategy games
(p 38) In video game playing, Elon was convincing in his negotiations and threats. He loved strategy games (board and computer) involving resource management, high-level tactical maneuvering, and supply-chain logistics. This is where he honed his tactical skills and strategic thinking for business - Elon was wired for war. Elon was good at reverse-engineering the rules of a strategic game so he wins every time.

Bank trainee
(p 39) Elon and Kimbal would call people that interested them the most from reading a newspaper. Usually, they get invited for lunch. It's also good networking where Elon was hired to be a part of a strategic team for Nova Scotia Bank.

Elon realized that banks are dumb and he was smarter. It was hard for him to work for someone stupid or someone not as smart as him. This paved the way for his creation of the online bank, PayPal.

Physics
(p 42) Elon found Queen's boring and moved to the University of Pennsylvania to study physics and business. He deemed them a good combination. Elon will apply engineering while working for himself. He made friends with Robin Ren, the only guy smarter than him in physics. At that early point, Elon would already be musing about travel to Mars, rocket propulsion, electric cars, and green energy.

Party animal
(p 43) Elon became friends with a party animal, Adeo Ressi. Adeo pulled him out of his geek shell into the wild world of partying. They rented a house that they used to host parties at $5/pax to a crowd of 500, paying the month's rent. Despite the party vibe, Elon wasn't immersed in it. He would be sober the entire time looking after things. He was still an outsider looking in even though it was his party.

Summer intern
(p 46) After UofPenn, ambitious students are usually drawn to Wall Street in NY or the tech-craze of Silicon Valley on the West. Elon didn't think bankers and lawyers make a real contribution to society so he chose the West - .com bubble, venture capitalists and instant wealth through technology. He worked as an intern where he indulged his passion for electric vehicles, space, and video games. In another company he applied to, he was able to solve a complicated problem that baffled the executives. He impressed all of them. Even though Elon could make dece t money developing video games, he didn't think it was the best use for his talents.

King of the road
(p 46) In the 70s, whiz kids could tinker with appliances and computers. But the 80s brought about sealed equipment - you couldn't open it up and tinker with it. Thus, in the 90s, the tinkers defaulted to software and coding instead of hardware. But Elon had a panache for both hardware and software - he was able to combine them both. Case in point was when he converted his BMW from 4sp to 5sp transmission just by reading, researching and logical deduction - but it broke down a few times.

Elon also observed that the robotic baggage-handling system of the Denver airport was a mess because it was overly automated and was more complicated than the designers thought. He was keen on noticing the engineering mistakes on systems he observed - and applied the lessons on his manufacturing wheter it's electric cars, rockets, or boring equipment.

The internet wave
(p 47) He thought deep about what can possitively influence humanity - and this would be his thrust. It boiled down to the internet, space travel and green energy.

Elon was on a rush about the internet - it would not wait until he graduated. He had to choose - PhD or the internet. Peter Nicholson of Scotiabank advised that the internet revolution was a once in a lifetime opportunity but the PhD will always be there.

Map quests
(p 51) Realizing the shortcomings of NyNex's vision of an online yellow pages, he and Kimbal decided to develop one themselves by merging the business directory with a map database - they were perhaps the first humans to do it on the internet (by today's standards, it's very common). They named their program Zip2 and had it patented. Mohr Davidow, a VC, invested $3M, gave Elon and Kimbal $30,000 each for a car and had their visas fixed. Elon bought his dream car, 1967 Jaguar E-type but it broke down every week. Not long after, the VC brought in the grown-ups to manage the company. Elon was pushed aside as a technology officer. He realized that he cannot do what he wants in the technology department unless he was also CEO. He should not give up control. Zip2 took off and newspapers, an unexpected market, became its biggest customers. At the end of the day, Elon felt that VCs and professional managers cannot make a great company because they lack the creativity and insight of the founders (like him).

Hardcore
(p 53) Elon was hardcore, working all day and all night, resting only to play video games. He also demanded the same from employees. He would correct his employees publicly or correct their 'stupid codes', oblivious about human connections and loss of loyalty. Time and again, he lack of the empathy gene got the better of him - like Steve Jobs. Kimbal was no exception to Elon. They both physically fought over strategy, names and slights. They would wrestle each other to the ground in full view of their employees.

The millionaire
(p 54) When Compaq Computeroffered $307 million in cash for Zip2, Elon walked away with $22M. His bank account grew from $5K to $22M in a wink - he was 27. He bought an 1800 sqf condo and a $1 million McLaren F1. In 3 years, from sleeping on an office floor, he now owns a million dollar car. He bacame a celebrity but it didn't really get inside his head. At the core, he wanted to build more companies.

Romance drama
(p 57) Justine Wilson and Elon met at Queen's when Elon was a sophomore. They dated. To Justine, Elon would not take no for an answer. They moved in together in Palo Alto before the sale of Zip2. Justine was anti-social - nobody seemed to like her...not Kimbal, not Maye, not Farooq, not Elon's friends. They would always argue or fight. When Zip2 was sold, Elon proposed.

The wedding
(p 58) The wedding was almost canceled because there was no lawyer to notarize the prenup. Getting married without the prenup worried Elon which sparked a fight on wedding night in full view of the family. Others were relieved thinking the wedding would be canceled. But it pushed through just the same.

An all-in-one bank
(p 61) Instead of living life as a gallivanting millionaire, Elon invested his Zip2 money into X.com, an online banking company that addresses all the shortcomings of NoviaScotia bank, where he previously worked as an intern. X would be his go-to name for his companies and even his kid.

Elon's hard-driving way to his employees nearly caused a rebellion where co founder and key people asked Elon to step down. Elon replies essentially that he was built that way - a given that cannot change. The rebels quit but Elon forged through, partnering X.com with Sequoia Capital and becoming the darling start-up guy in Silicon Valley.

Elon made a public announcement to launch X.com on Thanksgiving weekend, an insane deadline for him and everyone else. Everyone was pushed to the limit. Elon was a stern taskmaster. It was brutal. Engineers came home at 2 am and called to show up early for work. It produced resentment. But in the end, the deadline was met and the staff received joyous bonus on the ATM.

Elon introduced many innovations to the industry - simple interface, ease of signing (ask as few information as possible), members signing up friends, and paying through email.

Max Levchin and Peter Thiel
(p 62) Max Levchin and Peter Thiel were co-founders of PayPal, a fierce competition to X.com for peer-to-peer money transfer. Thiel was a cool risk mitigator while Elon was an intense risk-taker. In the attrition, both realized it was better to merge than kill each other in Mortal Kombat. At the negotiation table, looking serious, Elon said X.com owns 90% of the new business while PayPal gets 10%. It was so absurd peole didn't know what to make of the remark. Elon was just messing with them. While on his McLaren, Elon tried to impress Thiel by flooring the accelerator. The car spun around but no one got hurt. Elon thought he impressed Thiel as a risk taker. Thiel however, saw Elon as reckless. Elon was trying to scuttle the merger but his higher ups warned him not to. The deal went through with a 50-50 sharing, X.com being the merger name with PayPal was the brand. To show that adult supervision is no longer needed, Elon fired Harris to become the CEO.

PayPal
(p 64) PayPal's electronic payment system was a big success but Elon was unhappy. He wasn't contented developing niche companies no matter how successful. He wanted to develop new innovative industries by scuttling inefficient and archaic ones. What he had in mind was a social-media company with banking services (this was the genesis of Twitter, now X.com).

Elon teamed the engineers with the product managers - they work together. One gets to feel the impossibility of the other (like teaming architects and engineers - some engineers complain that architects like drawing fiction on a paper that cannot be built). But who leads the team? The engineers or the designers? For SpaceX, engineers led the team.

Arm wrestling with Levchin
(p 64) Thiel slowly faded from the action leaving Levchin to counter-balance Elon. After an argument on what OS to use (Elon wanted Windows while Levchin wanted Unix), Elon offered to settle the issue by arm wrestling. Resolving a software-coding disagreement by arm wrestling? That's Elon. He lost but still had his way.

The earnest Levchin didn't know what to make of Elon. Intense maniacal genius? Calculating risk taker or reckless craze? Goofball humorist? Elon was a picture of irony. But from time to time, he is impressed by Elon's sharpness and knowledge beyond what Levchin thought to be his expertise.

Street fight
(p 68) Levchin found Elon dismissive, to the point he thought about quitting. His friends rallied behind him, urging him to fight back with them behind him, as they all felt the same frustration. They plotted to dethrone Elon with Thief as the temporary CEO. This was carried out with the blessing of Michael Moritz and the board while Elon was on his honeymoon. Upon learing this, Elon sunk into deep sadness. He put all his money in PayPal, worked his ass off, and postponed his honeymoon, and in return, he gets sacked behind his back, not given the chance to voice his side. Elon promptly returned and reconvened his loyalists to strategize the next moves. Reid HoАman (a Thiel loyalist), out of respect for Elon, agreed to hear him out despite instructions of Thiel to everyone not to give Elon an audience. Elon was unable to reverse Hoffman. Elon gracefully stepped down as CEO and discouraged his loyalists to launch a revolt. Elon remained the largest shareholder and a board member - just no longer CEO. Elon rubs people the wrong way. In the last 3 years, he has been voted out twice. He tried to repair his relationship with Thiel and Levchin.

Risk seeker
(p 70) Elon's PayPal colleagues were unanimous that Elon was a risk taker which was unlike most managers who were risk mitigators. Elon thrived on seeking risk and see how far he can push it, sometimes with almost catasrophic results (like the McLaren incident). Elon displayed this again by playing poker with sharper guys. But he kept betting all and losing all. But in the one instance he won, he took the entire lot. This has been the hallmark of Elon's business behavior as exhibited in SpaceX and Tesla, contrary to Silicon Valley's best business practice. People came to a point wondering that maybe Elon understands risk better than anyone else.

In 2002, Paypal went public and Ebay bought it, earning Elon $250M. Elon talked to Levchin asking him why he turned against Elon in that coup? Elon patched things up with the coup plotters saying had he stayed, he'd still be slaving away at PayPal.

Malaria
(p 71) After the ouster, Elon took a long deserved vacation in Rio and South Africa with Justine and Kimbal. Upon his return to Palo Alto, he realized he caught malaria and came to hours of dying over a wrong prognosis. Had he died, PayPal would have collected $100,000,000 for a keyman life insurance.

Flying
(p 74) During his sabbatical after his ouster, Elon learned how to fly and eventually bought a Soviet military training jet where he played Top Gun. He learned aerodynamics experiencially. At some point, he got bored flying.

Red planet
(p 74) After recovering from malaria, Elon got fascinated with space and came to conclude that he can build a rocket. Dismayed learning that NASA had no plan to go to Mars, he attended a meeting by the Mars society and read manuals on rockets. He became public about his plans to colonize Mars and make humanity a space-faring species - the eye-roll of his friends and colleagues. Elon starts off with the goal (no matter how absured,eg colonize Mars) and then reverse the process on how to go about it.

Why?
(p 75) Building rockets to colonize Mars by a 30-year old enterpreneur was absurd. But Elon gave 3 reasons why:

1. technology doesn't spontaneously progress. I can stop or ever backslide. History taught us this. Elon would not have it that way if he can help it. He'll be the catalyst to make progress happen.
2. suvival of man and his consciousness. Earth could be hit by an extinction-level asteroid and that could be the end of the only intelligent life in this universe.
3. Elon is an adventurer and he cannot resist this adventure.

Elon passes off his vision (no matter how absurd)as a mandate from heaven.

Los Angeles
(p 76) Because the aerospace industry was in Los Angeles, Elon moved there from Palo Alto. He hosted many gatherings of rocket engineers. He toyed with the idea of sending mice to Mars, then sending a green house to Mars, and even went to Russia to buy rockets to go to Mars.

Russia
(p 79) Elon went to Russia to buy cheap rockets (decommissioned missiles) but nothing came from it. Instead, he decided he will build the rockets himself, send man to Mars and eventually colonize Mars. Man now becomes a multi-planetary species.

First principles
(p 80) Elon realized that the current mode of building rockets was enormously high compared to the cost of its raw materials - 50x more, giving it a high ïdiot index. This motivated him to design and build the rocket themselves.

SpaceX
(p 80) When Elon's friends knew that he was creating a rocket company, they intervened to discourage him, showing reels upon reels of exploding rockets. Elon was unwavering. Elon became the chief engineer since none of his choices could make it. His guiding metric was cost per pound of paylad to space. Thus he created the SpaceX company and announced to send an unmanned mission to Mars by 2010 - this was in 2002

Baby Nevada
(p 83) In May 2002, just as Elon launched SpaceX company, Justine gave birth to Nevada, their first born. At 10 weeks, he died. Elon shut down and refused to talk about it. He got rid of the baby's belongings so as not to see them. Elon's survival mechanism is to shut down his strong emotions.

Errol arrives
(p 83) When Nevada was born, Elon invited his father Errol to visit. But en route, the baby died. Errol could not be persuaded to return home so he pushed through to see Elon in Los Angeles. Elon asked his father to stay, even if it meant buying a home for him in LA. - to the chagrin of Kimbal. Things got weird. Errol was fancying his 15 year old step daughter so Elon bought Errol a yatch to live in. Meantime, Errol's young wife looked to Elon as the provider of her family - not Errol. It came to a point Elon asked his father to go back to South Africa - his extended family followed suit.

Tom Mueller
(p 86) Tom Mueller was a rocket enthusiast even as a boy. He worked for the aerospace company building rockets. Elon offered him a job at SpaceX as head of propulsion, in charge of designing the rocket’s engines. Playing it safe, Mueller asked 2 years salary on escrow if the company fails. Elon agreed but considered Mueller an employee instead of co-founder - Mueller wasn't risking enough to be co-founder.

Ignition
(p 87) Having hired a few rocket engineers, Elon bought property as headquarters in LA. He teamed together the designers, engineers and manufacturers - the 3 of them work seamlessly as one intelligence instead of 3 separate brains. Elon kept the risk takers - those who never say, "It's impossible". Elon and his team worked long hours and video-gamed until the wee hours. Elon would beat them all at the video games - he was alarmingly too good. Elon also designated names to the rockets and engines - cool names and not just prosaic letters.

Question every cost
(p 90) Aerospace suppliers would overcharge 10x more than auto parts but essentially the same parts. Elon kept the costs down. With his cost-obsession, he deemed it better to vertically integrate - to manufacture the parts in-house instead of sourcing them outside. Quoted parts for $120,000 would cost $5000 if manufactured in-house. Other equipment for car-wash was repurposed for rocket fueling. At some point, SpaceX was making 70% of its materials in-house.

He questioned the requirements laid down by NASA and the military in developing rockets - who made the law, why, etc. His only boundary was the law of physics. Everything else was merely 'recommendation'. His engineers were made to question all specs.

Have a maniacal sense of urgency
(p 91) Elon sets unrealistic deadlines even when they weren’t necessary. Mueller would not say no but will simply explain why if it didn't finish on schedule. This maniacal deadline obsession brings out the best in people but if the schedule is clearly impossible, it demoralizes the people - it's a double-edged sword and Elon doesn't realize this. Even if impossible deadlines were not met, the process still took faster than industry standards at a much lower cost.

Learn by failing
(p 91) Elon's rockets and engines were designed iteratively - not building flawless designs but finding out what flaws there are and fixing it fast. They were pushed until they broke - now, they know the limits.

Mojave Desert was too bureacratic for a test site. Elon found an ideal site in Texas. They celebrated the first firing of a Merlin rocket there by serving $1,000 bottle of Rémy Martin cognac on paper cups.

Improvise
(p 93) Elon would encourage off-beat fixes instead of opting for the usual expensive replacements that could take months. Sometimes it fails, but it motivated the engineers not to be afraid to experiment with unorthodox fixes.

Gwynne Shotwell
(p 95) Elon doesn't like to share power. He will inspire, bully and frighten colleages, but not be cozy with them - except Gwynne Shotwell. She was hired in at SpaceX in 2002, became president and is the longest running employee. She is direct, outspoken and assertive but stays in her lane without crossing the line with Elon. She was a cheerleader, extrovert and good with people. She found SpaceX sales people a bunch of losers who didn't know how to sell its services. At 40, she was reluctant to take the VP of Business Development because SpaceX was just a startup and had a mercurial boss. But she accepted because SpaceX had the potential to turn the industry around. Shotwell knew how to deal with Elon because her husband suffered from autism-spectrum disorder commonly called Asperger’s - something Elon had. This means you have no clue about people and no clue how people will respond to your honest but harsh words - no PR whatsoever, no empathy. Shotwell tends to the wounded. She listens hard to Elon and more importantly, she tries to decipher Elon's spoken intentions.

Wooing NASA
(p 96) In 2003 together with Shotwell, they went to the Defense Department to sell a tactical communications satellites for $3.5 million - it was their first sale. When NASA awarded a no-bidding contract to a competitor, Elon sued for corruption and won. SpaceX was the small David defeating a Goliath. But this move may have hurt his relationship with NASA. But his triumph put into question the prevailing practice of "cost-plus" between NASA and its contractors. Cost-Plus means the contractor charges all costs + pre-agreed profit when the project is over. Elon cited that this practice makes contractors increase the cost further, and delay the project. Elon suggest a "outcomes-based" system where contractors are paid for their milestones (encouraging creativity and innovation) on top of their bids.

JB Straubel
(p 100) JB Straubel loved tinkering with cars, loved electric cars and chemistry. He got an idea of using lithium ion as battery for electric cars but couldn't find a funder until he met Elon. Elon met a few EV inventors and developers, being referred to one after another, until he met the owners of Tesla Motors.

Martin Eberhard
(p ) Eberhard decided that the most environmentally sound car was an electric car. He couldn't convince the Tzero guys to build a production car, so he decided to build one himself. He registered the brand, Tesla and was bent to begin production, but had no funding. After meeting with Elon, Eberhard got a $6.4 million investment with Elon as Chairman of the Board. They would start building a supercharged EV sportscar - Eberhard as CEO, Tarpenning as president, Straubel as chief technology oГcer, Wright as chief operating oГcer, and Musk as the chair of the board and primary funder. Years later, they agreed that all 5 of them would be called cofounders.

Cobbling together pieces
(p 105) Tesla was successful largely because it decided to manufacture its key components instead of outsourcing them from several hundred vendors. By being vertically integrated, Tesla controled the supply chain, maintained its quality control and kept its costs down.

In the early days though, Eberhard bought components from all over the world, which was the norm then. The first car had the sporty body made by Lotus, and powertrain by AC Propulsion. Tesla made the electric engine. It performed magnificently and Elon invested $9M more.

Whose company?
(p 106) While their functions and titles were clear - Elon as chair board/investor and Eberhard as CEO, it was still a question of whose company Tesla was. Eberhard argued that it was him who thought of the idea, brought Tarpenning along, registered the company name and looked for funders - Elon was was just a board member and investor. Elon argued that he was the one who teamed Eberhard and Straubel together. That until he came along, Eberhard only had a shell of a company - no intellectual property, no employees, no funding, etc. But when Wright was fired, Elon became increasingly involved with Tesla (in addition to SpaceX) with its design and engineering. The heated battle with Eberhard escalated.

Hmmm...why should "whose company is this?" be so ambiguous? Isn't the one with the most shares of the company own the company? In this case, it's Elon.

Design decisions
(p 107) Although Elon's deal was computer software, he insinuated himself with the industrial design of the Tesla Roadster. He researched every beautiful car that was ever designed and tried to understand why. Elon's design corrections were sound but costly. e.g. creating a larger door meant redoing the chassis and spend a $2M recertification. Elon also changed the car lights (to make it look beautiful like a woman's eyes), widened the seats, door handles, body paneling, etc. No small detail was spared by Elon.

Raising more capital
(p 108) Elons changes to design and new hire created a need for more capital. After pounding the VCs of Silicon Valley, he got VantagePoint Capital, led by Alan Salzman and Jim Marver to invest $40 million. When the financing was publicly announced, Elon was shocked that he was not named founder, but Eberhard. After this slight, Elon made his rounds of interviews without clearance from the company PR in charge.

Getting credit
(p 109) Elon enjoyed his celebrity but mixed about being on the spotlight. He enjoyed making tweets and interviews on podcasts though.

The unveiling
(p 110) Elon, urinating on his hydrant, intervened in the unveiling event of the Roadster, even getting the PR lady fired. But the news articles gave glowing reviews but only gave credit to Eberhard, relegating Elon's role merely as an investor. This infuriated Elon. He went into a counter offensive by posting an essay on the Tesla website outlining the company strategy, giving a SpaceX factory tour to Robert Downey Jr resulting in a placement of a Tesla and cameo by Elon in the movie Iron Man.

The unveiling shattered the stigma that an electric car is just a glamorized golf cart. Celebrities started buying - George Clooney, Steve Jobs, Schwarzenegger, etc. Tesla was primed to give EVs a marketing facelift.

Catch-22
(p 114) It would have been convenient to launch the SpaceX rockets from Vandenberg Air Force Base, just 160 miles south. But the Air Force was too strict about their rules and SpaceX had to be a lower priority to launching spy satellites. Elon had to look for an alternative.

Shotwell scored a $6M satellite launch for Malaysia but the satellite was so heavy it had to be launched along the equator where the earth's rotation was faster and thus can provide added thrust. But the closest one was 4800 miles west at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The facilities were run by the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command under Major Mango. After talking to Major Mango and after visiting Kwaj, Elon decided to make the launch there.

This side of paradise
(p 115) After 4 years, Elon admitted Kwaj was a mistake due to logistics, the heat and the salty air. He should have just waited for Vandenberg Air Force Base to become available. But the trials and tribulations at Kwaf made for an engaging narrative.

The first launch attempt
(p 118) The first-ever launch of his rockets, Falcon 1, failed. The team picked up pieces of the wreckage to find out what caused the failure. Elon blew up on Mueller and Mueller dared Elon to fire him. This dark episode gave way to goofy humor - as Elon would have it. He was committed to go the long haul. The failure was caused by a small B-nut that secured a fuel line that a technician, Hollman, removed and reattached the night before. With Elon, every part, every process, and every specification must have a name attached to it. Someone was be made accountable. When Hollman learned Elon blamed him for the failure, he stormed into Elon's office. He left the company a year later. It was later learned that Hollman was not at fault. The B-nut was found still intact, but it corroded given the salty air of Kwaj.

The second attempt
(p 120) After the failure of the first launch, everyone was more careful, scrutinizing every part that goes into production. Elon pulled back on his warp speed for the crew.

The 2nd attempt for Falcon 1 failed again, this time because of the fuel slosh. The team already identified the problem before hand, but considered it 'unlikely' and a low priority. This disregard bit them all hard.

Roadster costs
(p 123) After the unveiling of the Roadster in May 2006, the manufacturing began with a target manufacturing cost of $50,000. But due to Elon's design changes transmission issues and cost overuns, by November, it was already $83,000. By July 2007 the cost rose up to $110,000. Elon decided it was time to call the SWAT Team.

Antonio Gracias
(p 123) Gracias was only 12 years old when he insisted on owning Apple stocks. His $300 shares is worth close to half a million now. He was enterpreneurial with a knack for making things efficient particularly in the manufacturing process. He was an early investor for Tesla. When Elon was having cost overruns with the Roadster, he deferred to Gracias.

Tim Watkins
(p 124) Watkins was a ponytailed British robotics engineer and an eccentric wizard at understanding factories. He made a factory run 24 hours with only 16 hours of labor - he knew exactly how long the machines can run on their own until human intervension is needed. Gracias and Watkins would be the SWAT team to troubleshoot Elon's cost overruns.

The supply-chain problem
(p 125) When the British company manufacturing the carbon fiber paneling canceled the contract due to Elon's difficulty, Elon took Watkins to a company in France, Sotira Composites to take on the work. This problem with the supply chain bothered Elon so he asked Watkins to study the overall supply chainfor Tesla. It was a nightmare. Just for lithium batteries alone, they were made in Japan, assembled in Thailand and shipped by boat to the Lotus factory in England for installation on the Roadster chassis. The car body would then be shipped to Palo Alto in California. The lithium batteries alone took a global travel before it ended up on the car showroom 9 months later. It wasn't just logistics but also a cashflow problem since those batteries have to be paid in advance - 9 months earlier. While outsourcing saved money, it hurt the cashflow. There were too many sections in the supply chain that could go wrong and cripple production.

Aggravating the problem was the car design itself which became complex due to Elon's intervention - the body became 40% heavier needing a new chassis which invalidated the crash-test certification previously issued on the original Lotus Elise (the template for the Roadster). At the end of the day, Elon concluded that it would have been a lot better to design the car from scratch on a clean sheet instead of starting off with the Lotus Elise and then making countless modifications.

When Watkins talked to Eberhard to sort out the supply chain for the Roadster, he was shocked to find out that there was no bill of materials. There was no costing for every part that went into the Roadster so the cost to manufacture the car could not be determined. Eberhard argued that he had no CFO to handle the SAP system to automate this. Watkins manually computed this and found out that at the very least, the car cost would be $140,000 - too high for the selling price of $100,000.

Eberhard’s ouster
(p 128) After Elon's trip to England, Eberhard told Elon to look for a CEO replacement. The search was slow and unproductive since Elon couldn't find a suitable one or one willing to be CEO to a 'house on fire'. On a board meeting, when Eberhard couldn't come up with a precise costing for the car, Elon flew the handle and accused Eberhard of lying. Tarpenning took exception to the word, but admitted that they grossly miscalculated on the costings. A few days later, Elon sacked Eberhard even though there was no CEO replacement yet. EVH took it hardly. This began a heated and public disparaging of the other until a legal settlement was made - but Elon continued in spursts.

Michael Marks and the asshole question
(p 129) Elon tapped Michael Marks, a Tesla investor and seasoned CEO who likes vertical-integration in the manufacturing process, to be interim CEO. Things were initially amiable until Marks started steering the company instead of simply going by Elon's dictates. Marks cancelled orders that were not urgent and treated people as people, unlike Elon who has no empathy and thus treats people horribly. Employees were intimidated by Elon so they don't tell him what he needs to know. Their rift pinnacled when Marks suggested farming out the assembly of Tesla. Elon wanted raw materials going in a factory and a complete car coming out on the other end. Elon remarked that Mark's idea was the most stupid thing he's ever heard. Marks, being proud and accomplised, couldn't take it anymore. He soon left but later conceded that Elon was right about vertically integrating manufacturing. Marks began to regard peole like Elon and Steve Jobs as true assholes who get the job done - they come as a bundled package. Another CEO was appointed, Drori, but the board couldn't work with him. He stepped down and soon after, Elon finally took over as CEO while being board chair.

Justine
(p 133) Shortly after the death of Nevada, the Musks had 5 kids through invitro method - twins Griffin / Xavier and triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damian. Justine and Elon ranged from living in a shanty to a mansion. They had tender moments and were a prized addition to celebrity events. But when they fought, it was also brutal. Justine increasingly felt like a trophy wife, being made-over by Elon for his vanity. Elon didn't intimate to Justine the troubles he had in the company which made Justine unwanted or unneeded. Justine cited that Elon feels nothing for other people - no empathy. He can conceptually think about what people go through, but no empathy. What Elon lacked in empathy, he over compensated by intensity. Justine's peaks and valleys about the relationship morphed into pemanent anger because Elon shut her out. It was just a matter of time and the divorced.

Talulah Riley
(p ) Shortly after breaking up with Justine, Elon met Talulah Riley, a tall and beautiful actress in London. This was the time 2 rockets failed at SpaceX and a third was scheduled in the next weeks, when Tesla was suffering from a cash flow crisis and when the threat of a market meltdown was looming. He asked for her number and they were inseparable since then. After dating for 2 weeks, they were engaged. The in-laws met but Kimbal suggested they wait a year before getting married - as Elon just got divorced.

3rd Rocket
(p 139) The 3rd launch would have been the last launch if didn't go well. Elon only had enough money for 3 failed launches. On this one, it actually carried payload - satellites for NASA and the Air Force and the cremated remains of Scotty of Star Trek. Again, the rocket failed. This time, it was the redesigned cooling system for the Merlin engine. During the test at sea level, there was no problem. But in the vacuum of space, the problem became apparent. That was supposed to be it for Elon, but in a news announcement shortly after the crash, he said he will not give up until he sends a rocket to orbit. But Elon already ran out of money, Tesla was bleeding cash and SpaceX had 3 failed rockets plus Justine kept the house from the divorce.

Launching the 4th in 6 Weeks
(p 139) Meeting up with his team the following day, they discussed how to prevent this failure. But everybody was prepared to be chewed up. Instead, it was a cool and sober Musk who told the crew to assemble another rocket from the components still lying around LA and to launch in 6 weeks. After this speech, the feeling of despair in the room to that of exuberance and determination.

Rolling out the Roadster
(p 142) Feb 2008, the first few Roadsters arrived at Tesla HQ from production. Elon took it out for a victory spin in Palo Alto. It was a small triumph and not a guarantee of success. Many budding car manufacturers came to this level and still got bankrupt. in the past 100 years, only Ford was the car company that didn't go through bankruptcy.

It was a bleak episode during that time - the subprime market was crashing causing a severe recession, Tesla's cash flow was in the red and SpaceX hasn't made any successful launch. Elon borrowed money from friends and used customer deposits for operating expenses. Elon even asked Kimbal to put in his last money to meet payroll. Musk was driven so close to the edge Talullah thought he would go crazy.

It came to a point where Elon would have to choose which company to save. In trying to save one, that company might survive. But in trying to save 2, both will die. But to Elon, it was like giving all the food to only one child and letting the other child die. It was unacceptable. He had to give it his all to save both.

Founders to the rescue
(p 145) At the brink of bankruptcy, the co-founders of PayPal (Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, et al), the same people who kicked him out of office, chipped in $20M. Elon was thankful that he didn't give the finger to Thiel and Levshin during his ouster, otherwise this bailout wouldn't happen.

Crunch time
(p 145) Getting the rocket components in LA to Kwaj on a boat would cause delay, so he chartered an Air Force C-17 to haul the components. During the trip, the air pressure dented the rocket parts. Instead of flying it back to LA for repairs, Elon decided to bring it to Kwaj and have it repaied there. There was a sense of surreal optimism with the crew. Elon had to make a hard choice - get the rockets repaired in 5 weeks following the checks and balances he himself instigated, or abandon the checks to repair the rocket in 5 days. He opted for speed. He underscored that Elon was willing to change directives when the situation changes, and that he is willing to take risks no normal person would.

“Fourth time’s a charm!”
(p 147) Elon was in LA watching the 4th launch in Kwaj. The launch was flawless. All 500+ employees were in jubilation (at Boeing, this department would be 50,000). Kimbal cried. Falcon 1 rocket was historic. It was the first ever privately funded and privately produced rocket that was launched into orbit. The stress of the launch was so much Elon nearly felt sick and couldn't feel the joy.

“ilovenasa”
(p 148) The success of Falcon 1 raised the bar for private rocket firms. NASA put out a bidding to supply crew and cargo to the space station. Elon made Shotwell SpaceX president in charge of finances, people and marketing while Elon remains CEO in charge of engineering and product development. Together, they went to NASA and won a $1.6B contract for 12 round-trip missions to the space station. It was the beginning of good fortune for SpaceX.

Tesla financing, December 2008
(p 150) Tesla didn't even have enough for payroll on Christmas eve, so Elon asked new funding of $20M from his investors. Alan Salzman of VantagePoint Capital, who personally didn't like Elon, was the only one stopping the deal. Without the deal, Tesla would be dead and so would the fate of electric cars. After much bickering and in-fighting, Salzman relented and the deal pulled through. The day was saved, Tesla was saved and the future of electric cars was saved.

Government loans
(p 152) One of the lingering criticisms of Tesla was that it was bailed out by the government under its TARP program. This is not the case. Tesla applied for and received an interest-bearing loan of s $465 million from the Department of Energy. They did't even get the money upfront, but had to incur expenses first and present the expenses to get the money. It prompted paid off $12M in interest while rivals who took the loan could not or did not. Ford still hasn't paid its loan, Nissan was able to in 2017 and Fisker went bankrupt.

Daimler investment
(p 152) In Germany, Elon went to Daimler to pitch for an electric car sale. Daimler agreed to visit the company and hear his proposal for an electric Smart car. Elon had a gasoline-powered Smart car in Mexico driven to Tesla where they replaced it with an electric motor and a battery pack. The Daimler people were impressed that a prototype for a Smart electric car was already available and driveable. The performance also impressed them. They contracted with Tesla for battery packs and drive trains. They also invested $50M to Tesla which resuscitated the company.

Henrik Fisker
(p 155) Daimler's investment of $50M, the investor debt loan of $20M and the gov't loan of $460M gave new life to Tesla. If successful, it could mass-produce a 4-door electric-powered sedan for $60K. Designing a sleek Roadster was easier than designing a functional 4-door design, especially with a battery pack on the floor that would raise the roof. Elon contracted Henrik Fisker to be the designer who explained the difficulties to Elon. After 9 months, Fisker couldn't stand Musk anymore and left.

Franz von Holzhausen
(p 155) Franz was a car designer who had a Euro-cool aura about him. Upon meeting, Elon hired him to be the in-house design studio for Tesla. Franz would be one of the very few who will be Elon's professional and personal partner - kinda Lennon-McCartney. The Tesla design studio for Franz was at the SpaceX location so that Elon can be beside it. Franz needed an assistant so he hired a friend and clay-modeller, Dave Morris. While Franz was apprehensive about the company's viability, Morris was gung ho working for a hardcore like Elon. Eventually, Elon bought an aircraft hangar to be the design studio. He would talk to Franz almost daily and on Fridays, they would spend hours perfecting the Model S design. Elon like the talk over a 3D model so that's what Franz and Morris laid ready on Friday afternoons.

The battery pack
(p 156) Elon wanted the battery pack on the car floor to make it stable but without raising the roof. They shaved millimeters off the battery pack to do this. Elon hired Drew Baglino to be in charge of the battery. Baglino rose up in the Tesla ranks over the years. He knew not to challenge Elon's unworldly deadlines or specs. One challenge of the battery being on the floor was to protect it from rocks or from any piercing. It became battleground with lightweight vs safety. The chief engineer for the Model S, was Peter Rawlinson who addressed the problem by making the battery pack, part of the car's structural framework.

In Elon's system, the designers and engineers worked together as a team. Designers and encouraged to think like engineers and engineers are encouraged to think like designers.

Friendly design
(p 158) Although not really that functional, a flushed door handle was introduced for 'friendliness', as a basis for having a relationship with the car. The balked at this, but Elon of course, prevailed. The touchscreen panel for the driver was also an industry first that turned the car industry around. Elon hated stupid government rules and fought consistently with them. The car increasingly became more of an updatable software instead of just hardware. Tesla can globally add software updates on already-bought cars further enhancing its features.

Falcon 9, Dragon, and Pad 40
(p 161) With the NASA contract, Elon needed a bigger rocket, a new launch pad (not Kwaj anymore) and a space capsule. SpaceX used 9 Merlin rockets instead, leased space at the Kennedy Space Center and developed a capsule from scratch. Elon hired Brian Mosdell for fixing up the new place. During new-hire interviews, Elon could go silent for a full minute and go rapid-fire on technical questions. He has a gut-feel for the applicant - thus the hiring of Mosdell. The launch pad was built literally from repurposed scrap - it's cheap. Elon also questioned requirements by the Air Force, usually being successful in revising an outdated requirement and saving more money - like replacing the $2M double crane for something that only cost $300K. The cost-plus system milked the aerospace industry. Elon found alternative sources from non-aerospace companies- even just a hardware store. e.g. a $1500 latch was re-sourced using a bathroom latch for $30.

Obama at SpaceX
(p 162) Lori Garver was a long-time NASA veteran who opposed the traditional cost-plus system and wanted the private sector to provide aerospace functions for the government. The success of the 4th launch got Garver promoted to Deputy Adm of NASA but her boss Charlie Bolden was anti-SpaceX and anti-Elon. Congress was also not sold on handing over to the private sector, what was once the Holy Grail of government tradition - the space program. Obama cancelled NASA's Contellation program as it was "over budget, behind schedule, oА course, and unexecutable.” There were push-backs as expected, but they were proven wrong as SpaceX has put more man/cargo into space than any other country.

Into orbit…
(p 165) With the 3 failures of Falcon 9 and Obama's initiative to outsource NASA's space program to the private sector, there was a lot of pressure on Falcon 9's launch. Despite an antenna that got wet, the launch went perfect. This validated SpaceX as the most successful private rocket company in the world - just 8 years from its founding. It also validated Obama's decision.

… and return
(p 165) Returning from orbit was also successful with a derring-do decision by Elon the shear off a crack in the engine skirt instead of replacing the entire engine which would haves spelled delays. Despite the success, Elon realized that Mercury, 50 years earlier, had already achieved this success. America was simply catching up with its old self.

SpaceX has repeatedly proven that it was more nimble than NASA especially with Elon's derring-do and high-risk taking that paid off results. This paved the way for SpaceX to be transporting man into orbit. Elon was already prepared for that - by having a window installed on the space capsule.

“I can take a hard path”
(p 168) Elon was manic with Talulah. Once, he sent her 500 roses. They got married in September 2010 in the Scottish Highlands. Talulah was prepared to take the hard path by having Elon as a husband. She finds the child hidden within the man. He would intimate with her reratings from his Dad. He used the same harsh words to other people.

The Orient Express
(p 169) Talulah would throw creative parties that amused Elon. She would have been perfect for him had he chosen stability more than drama and intensity.

Fremont
(p 171) Tesla emerged when globalization was at its peak. Manufacturing was offshored to cut costs. 1/3 of American manufacturing was shipped out. Elon didn't subscribe to this. He wanted to have the feel for manufacturing to allow him to tweak constantly as the need presents itself. To him, the machine that builds the machine (the car) was equally important.

Steve Jobs and Elon both have obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) but they differ too. Jobs is OC with the design of this products but outsourced production and didn't visit his factories in China. Elon on the other hand was obsessed with design, materials, the science and manufacturing. He would spend lots of time on the assembly line getting the feel of what's happening and applying innovation as needed.

Elon bought a mothballed Toyota factory in Fremont for $42M (it used to be worth $1B). He also convinced Toyota to invest $50M in Tesla. Elon redesigned the factory so that the engineers' offices are along the assembly line - they are not insulated from what's happening on the floor. Tesla went public and generated #266M for the company. Just 18 months earlier, Tesla was dying. Now, it's the hottest company.

Production quality
(p 172) The Model S rolled off the assemby line in June 2012. Elon was not happy with the car - the gaps were stark and the paint job sucked. He asked his design chief, Holzhausen, to move to Fremont to be the new production quality control chief. Holzhausen learned how his designs on paper translate to finished products on the assembly line. Instead of blaming production for a flaw, Elon asks what went wrong in the design?

An overriding theme in Elon's management style is 'hardcore'. He is hardcore and expects everyone in his team to such.

Model S made a historic mark when Motor Trend Magazine picked it car of the year in 2012 - with glowing and superlative review that surprised even Elon. This was a first for an electric car.

The Nevada battery Gigafactory
(p 173) In 2013, Elon delivered the most audacious statement - to build a giant battery factory, bigger than all the world's factories combined. To his people, it was the wackiest Elon proposal ever. They didn't even have a clue how to make a battery.

Tesla partnered with Panasonic. Panasonic will make the battery cells and Tesla will make the battery pack for cars. $2B will be invested by Panasonic while Tesla puts in $3B. Panasonic was reluctant knowing Elon was difficult to deal with. Elon and Straubel created a charade of 'building a factory' - either Panasonic gets on board or be left behind. It worked. Both were invited to Japan by Panasonic. At a formal dinner, Elon behaved his best, impressing and surprising Straubel. Panasonic agreed to have 40% stake, stating that they are too conservative as a 95-year old company, and that they have to adapt Elon's way of thinking.

Jeff Bezos
(p 176) Like Elon, Jef Bezos was also a billionaire, a lover of science fiction, reusable rockets, obsessed with colonizing other planets and built a rocket company, Blue Origin.

Elon and Bezos met in 2004 when Elon invited Bezos to visit SpaceX. As a reciprocity, Bezos invited Elon to Blue Origin. Elon was overtly expressive about things Bezos could and should not do. Bezos thought Elon was too sure of himself when all his rockets have failed. Bezos also submitted a personal review in Amazon of Justine's book. Elon has been curt and brusque for most of it.

Pad 39A
(p 177) With the scuttling of the Space Shuttle, SpaceX moved into high gear in 2011 in bringing cargo and men to the International Space Staion by leasing launch pad 39A - center stage for the moon landing, the last manned moon mission and first Space Shuttle mission. But Bezos competed in bidding for 39A. SpaceX won and Bezos sued. Elon ridiculed Blue Origin for not having enough thrust to put anything into orbit (not enough thrust to escape earth's gravity). Bezos eventually leased launch pad 36. This was symbolic of the space-exploration torch being passed down from a sclerotic NASA to the much nimble mission driven private sector.

Reusable rockets
(p 177) Bezos and Elon both shared the same vision of using reusable rockets. Bezos looked into the software needed while Elon took a deep dive into the rabbit hole of the underlying physics. Elon obsessed with weight reduction of every component of the rocket - a lighter payload will allow better escape velocity from earth's gravity. Stealthily, Bezos applied and received a patent for sea landing of a rocket. Elon was livid saying the notion has been around for half a century. Bezos canceled his patent, but was considered waged between the billionaire titans.

Grasshopper
(p 180) Elon developed a reusable Falcon 9 prototype named Grasshopper that could 'hop up and down'. In a board meeting, even though a reusable rocket was still a prototype, they were seriously discussing what people on Mars will be wearing. As the board was watching Grasshopper rise 3000 feet and land vertically, the rocket exploded. This began a bad streak for SpaceX and the entire rocket industry. Supply missions to the Space Station by other companies also failed and the crew at the Space Station were running low on food and supplies. The pressure was on for SpaceX to launch successfully on June 2015 - but it failed. This the first failure of a Falcon 9 rocket after operational for 7 years.

Meantime in Nov 2015, Bezos was enjoy some success with his reusable rocket that flew into the space threshold - 62 miles up, and landed successfully vertically - the booster reignited to slow down the descent, legs deployed, hovered to fix its bearings and landed vertically. Bezos gloated and Elon derided the event as a ' suborbital hop', not exactly a full orbit with payload.

Jeff Bezos: "The rarest of beasts—a used rocket. Controlled landing not easy but done right can look easy."
(My thought bubble) Bezos: My dick is bigger!

Elon Musk: "@JeАBezos Not quite ‘rarest.’ SpaceX Grasshopper rocket did 6 suborbital flights 3 years ago & is still around."
(My thought bubble) Musk: My dick is harder!

Elon had a valid point. A true reusable rocket is one that can launch into space with cargo (like a satelite) or dock on the Space Station and land back to earth in one piece. This is an accomplishment in greater order of magnitude.

“The Falcon has landed”
(p 181) Just four weeks after Bezos’s suborbital flight, Elon was able to land a redesigned Grasshopper vertically in one piece - by using more liquid oxygen and supercooling it to make it denser and more powerful without increasing mass or size of the rocket. Despite possible glitches, Elon gave the go-ahead. It returned back to earth and landed vertically. Everyone was ecstatic. It was the first-ever that a rocket with payload went into sub-orbit and landed vertically - a fully reusable rocket was born. Bezos tweated a veiled congratulatory note welcoming SpaceX into the rank of Blue Origin. Elon was furious. He has always regarded SpaceX as a bar higher than Blue Origin.

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