Reading Reflection No. 1

1) You read about an entrepreneur: I choose Elon Musk, especially after all the attention he’s received.

• What surprised you the most? 

He takes risks, and the fact that he had a rough childhood growing up. Also, he nearly lost it all attempting to save his companies.

• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? 

I admired Elon’s ambition when facing the impossible, which makes it possible. Moreover, his determination in leading mankind on the journey to become an interplanetary species, which seems necessary with our current environment issues.

• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? 

I least admired when he launched a Tesla Roadster into space. All this accomplished was a statement to the world saying, “look how powerful we are”, which in my opinion did not account for its negative effects. NASA has currently suffered loses because of space debris, 2003 space shuttle Columbia disaster, and adding more space debris just seems more harmful than good. Also, the funds put into the roadster could have been put into humanitarian work. Sadly, that is how marketing works.

• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? 

Sadly, Elon came across many failures but once he was able to recover he kept pushing forward. This shows that persistence is key. He now has recently faced a humiliating blow due to a tweet he posted mentioning a possible deal which was considered illegal and caused a huge decrease in stocks.      

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? Elon has a proficiency for science and was very disciplined. He managed to allocate his resources in order to create a company.  

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you? 

I found it confusing how he was removed as CEO of Pay Pal.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why? 

Questions I would ask Elon are; Why haven’t you applied resources into manufacturing an electric motorcycle? The reason why I would ask this question is because it seems like a field that has yet been exploited, and with his current knowledge on electric motors I feel that this could be rather simple for his company. Another question I would ask is; Why did you post this tweet on twitter knowing very well there would be consequences? This is out of curiosity, cause lets face it, he knew what was going to happen.   

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? 

I think he would definitely preach a hard work mentality. I felt as if he would be the type of person to say “pick a path and follow it no matter what”.  I was born to a father who believes only in hard work and this has great influenced me, so without a doubt I would definitely agree with Elon’s work ethic.