Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Next Big Future: Elon Musk's big plans include Vertical takeoff Sup...

Next Big Future: Elon Musk's big plans include Vertical takeoff Sup...: Business Week has a lengthy feature on Elon Musk. Elon Musks Hyperloop transportation system is discussed but there are still very few det...

Why aren't there more people like Musk?  Why isn't there more effort to solving problems?  It seems like people are just interested in conflict, or contests.

Think what you want about electric cars, but Musk figured out a way to sell the darned things.  Maybe it will be successful some day.  But I have my doubts.  I could also be wrong about that too.  He did successfully find a niche market for his cars.  The mass market is where I have my doubts.

On another subject, this quote struck me:
“The next six months will be about really proving things for Tesla,” Musk says. “We need to get in excess of 20,000 units a year and in excess of 25 percent gross margins, which would be close to the highest in the car business.” SpaceX has a backlog of about $3 billion booked from spaceflight customers through 2017, but still has to successfully execute all those launches using equipment it hasn’t finished developing. Musk’s goals go well beyond cash-flow statements, however. “We don’t have sustainable energy production solved,” he says, “and we are not a multiplanetary species.”[emphasis added]
That's kinda what I've been writing about.  But he is doing it.

What about this quote from Business Insider?
Musk is the "most risk-immune person I've ever met," he says. "He's really an American hero, more than anyone I've ever met."
What does that mean?  That he does risky things?  But this concept of risk is business risk, not bungee jumping kind of physical risk to life or limb.

Still, if you've got somebody who is willing to tackle a problem and is able to solve it, you just might have something special.

You could assemble a group of these kinds of people and do some really big stuff.


No comments: