Elon Musk - A Man in Full

For those in the UK, or with access to the BBC iPlayer, there is an absolute ‘must watch’ series just started, called The Elon Musk show.  It is a smartly produced documentary, with episode one introducing an array of characters; his former-wife, his mother, various rocket scientists, early investors, exhausted colleagues, and his first wife Justine.  From the off, there are some psychological truth-bombs that are jaw-dropping.  Early in his days as CEO of SpaceX and the Chairman of Tesla, Musk is interviewed about the work-life challenges of being a father of five (he and Justine had twins and triplets) and his candidness is profound; “actually it impairs my ability to execute here,” he says.

Not long after this, he confirms that he is filing for divorce from Justine, his college sweetheart, by efficiently leaving a message on their marriage therapist’s phone.  His work ethic is remarked on by everyone and his mother explains why he finds settled relationships so difficult; “He compartmentalises his brain…when you date or marry Elon, you don’t see him much.”  His commitment to his enterprise is unquestionable though.  When there is delay to delivery of the first Teslas, he throws himself at the minutiae of the supply problems: “I’m available 24/7, call me at 3 am on a Sunday, I don’t care.”

As you watch, there is the sense of a man of incalculable genius and entrepreneurial vision; and a rare human-being with profoundly odd behaviours and some strange emotional vacuity.  It would be easy to watch the show and grow a sense of moral outrage, as I am sure some commentators will, as the PayPal millionaire becomes the billionaire, and then within two decades, the richest man in the universe.  But for me, it is the business insights that are most illuminating.  He obviously had a profound sense of the future; a vision for a more sustainable planet, and the opportunity for human exploration beyond this earth.  We also discover some small nuggets about how he sought to galvanise and lead others with a team-philosophy that is Steve Jobs-like in its brevity and acuity.

Thomas Mueller is a Rocket Propulsion Engineer at Space X and was “employee number 1” when hired by Musk.  He talks of Musk’s determination to get the whole team wholly focused and completely committed to the success of the venture.  After an early rocket explodes on an island in the Pacific, Musk exits some engineers and others he feels are not fully committed. Mueller describes Musk’s approach like this:

“I noticed that if people were negative, they were not in the next meeting. He said a company is a bunch of vectors, each person is a vector, and they need to point in the direction you want to go. Bureaucracy and office politics and low morale, it’s almost random vectors. He was always about making all the vectors, which are all the employees, pointing in the right direction, moving forward.”

There are, I hope, more gems and jaw-dropping moments to follow in the series.  Musk’s story is, in a way, very familiar, but here in the details of the telling, and in the warmth, amazement, and openness with which his family and colleagues tell the tale, a fascinating picture emerges of what Tom Wolfe might have termed “a man in full”.