This presentation shows the leadership skills shown by Elon Musk in different areas including Tesla and SpaceX

2. ELON MUSK
 CEO and CTO of SpaceX.
 CEO and product architect of Tesla Motors.
 Chairman of SolarCity.
 He is the founder of SpaceX.
 Cofounder of Zip2, PayPal, and Tesla Motors.

3. • Elon Musk was born in 1971 in South Africa. Childhood wasn’t a great time for
him—he had a tough family life and never fit in well at school.
• Elon was constantly buried in the Encyclopaedia Britannica at the age of four.
• At the age of nine he got his hands on his first computer, the Commodore VIC-
20 and completed “how to program” guide in just three days.
• At 12, he used his skills to create a video game called Blastar, “a trivial game.”
• Musk never felt much of a connection to South Africa—he didn’t fit in with
the jockish, white Afrikaner culture, and it was a nightmare country for a
potential entrepreneur.
Early Life

4. • At the age of 17, he left South Africa forever and started out in Canada, and a
few years later, used a college transfer to the University of Pennsylvania as a
way into the US.
• In college, he thought about what he wanted to do with his life, the answer he
came up with was a list of five things: “the internet; sustainable energy; space
exploration, in particular the permanent extension of life beyond Earth;
artificial intelligence; and reprogramming the human genetic code.”
• After finishing college, he enrolled in a Stanford PhD program to study high
energy density capacitors. But two days into the program, he got massive
FOMO because it was 1995 and he “couldn’t stand to just watch the internet go
by. He wanted to jump in and make it better”. So he dropped out and decided
to try the internet instead.

5. • Musk took second Internet startup company—originally called X.com but by
then merged with another company known as PayPal that had been sold to
eBay for $1.5 billion. This was after his first, Zip2.com, had sold for $305
million in 1999. Fabulously wealthy and barely into his 30s.

6. “He goes into his brain, and then you just see he is in another world. He still does
that. Now I just leave him be because I know he is designing a new rocket or
something.” — Elon Musk’s mother describing how as a child Elon sometimes
seemed to drift off into trances. He wouldn’t respond when spoken to and would
have a distant look in his eyes. Musk’s parents and physicians thought maybe he
was deaf and removed his adenoid glands thinking that would improve his
hearing. It made no difference.

7. • Insanity and godlike genetics are the qualities needed to achieve extreme
success according to the intimate perspective of Justine Musk, who was Elon’s ex
wife. Justine met Elon as students at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario,
and married in 2000. They have 5 sons.
• As Musk achieved astronomical success, Justine, who is a writer, watched herself
slowly take a back seat to his work.
• Marital woes aside, Justine walked away with a courtside view of success that
many don’t get to see. One of her key takeaways is that “pursue something
because it fascinates you, because the pursuit itself engages and compels you.
Extreme people combine brilliance and talent with an insane work ethic, so if the
work itself doesn't drive you, you will burn out or fall by the wayside or your
extreme competitors will crush you and make you cry.”

8. • Six weeks after they separated, Elon texted Justine to let her know that he was
now engaged to be married to a young, British actress named Talulah Riley.
• Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley, and in 2010, the couple married.
In January 2012, Musk announced that he had recently ended his four-year
relationship with Riley.] However, in July 2013, Musk and Riley remarried. ] In
December 2014, Musk filed for a second divorce from Riley; however the action
was withdrawn and the couple remain married.

9. “I do think of him as the Terminator. He locks his gaze on to something and says,
‘It shall be mine.’ Bit by bit, he won me over.” — Justine Musk, Elon’s ex-wife

10. “I would like to allocate more time to dating, though. I need to find a girlfriend.
That’s why I need to carve out just a little more time. I think maybe even another
five to 10 — how much time does a woman want a week? Maybe 10 hours? That’s
kind of the minimum? I don’t know.” — Elon Musk

11. “I remember him saying, ‘Being with me was choosing the hard path.’ I didn’t
quite understand at the time, but I do now. It’s quite hard, quite the crazy ride.”
— Talulah Riley

12. {

13. SpaceX
 In 2002, he started one of the most unthinkable and ill-advised
ventures of all time: a rocket company called SpaceX.
 Its purpose was to revolutionize the cost of space travel in order
to make humans a multi-planetary species by colonizing Mars
with at least a million people over the next century.
 On 24th march 2006, they lauched their first rocket called
FalconSAT – 2.

14. SpaceX – FalconSAT - 2

15. SpaceX – Falcon 1 Demoflight 2

16. SpaceX –Trailblazer

17. SpaceX
 By 2008, SpaceX had figured out how to build rockets, just not
rockets that actually worked.
 In order to bring in any serious outside investment or payload
contracts, SpaceX had to show that they could successfully
launch a rocket—but Musk said he had funds left for one and
only one more launch. If the fourth launch also failed, SpaceX
would be done.
 On september 2008, Ratsat, the fourth flight of falcon 1 took
place.

18. SpaceX
 First, in September of 2008, SpaceX launched their fourth
rocket—and their last one if it didn’t successfully put a payload
into orbit—and it succeeded. Perfectly.
 NASA took a gamble and offered SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract
to carry out 12 launches for the agency. Runway extended.
SpaceX saved.
 to this day, the four entities in history who have managed to
launch a spacecraft into orbit and successfully return it to Earth
are the US, Russia, China—and SpaceX.

20. TESLA
 In 2004, as that “project” was just getting going, Musk decided to multi-
task by launching the second-most unthinkable and ill-advised venture of
all time: an electric car company called Tesla.
 Its purpose was to revolutionize the worldwide car industry by
significantly accelerating the advent of a mostly-electric-car world—in
order to bring humanity on a huge leap toward a sustainable energy
future.
 In 2007, they had yet to deliver their first car—the Tesla Roadster—to the
market, which didn’t look good to the outside world.
 This would have been more okay if the global economy hadn’t suddenly
crashed, hitting the automotive industry the absolute hardest.

22. TESLA
 Without outside money, both Tesla had a short runway. So it’s not that
Tesla were bad—it’s that it needed more time to succeed, and Tesla was
running out of time.
 Musk scrounged up the last money he could manage to keep Tesla going,
Tesla’s investors reluctantly agreed to match his investment.
 A few months later, Tesla’s Model S had become a smashing success,
blowing away the automotive industry with the highest ever Consumer
Reports rating of a 99/100, and the highest safety rating in history from
the National Highway Safety Administration.

23. TESLA
 Now they’re getting closer and closer to releasing their true
disruptor—the much more affordable Model 3—and the
company’s market cap is just under $30 billion.

24. PERSONALITY TYPE
INTJ
Founder of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, founder of PayPal along with Peter Thiel.
Musk: "My career has been focused on finding practical, effective solutions to real-
world problems.”
Musk: "[I started SpaceX because] if we're not on a path of ... expanding to the stars,
then what we're effectively saying is [that] we're going to consign ourselves to Earth
until an extinction event wipes us out.”
[His brother:] "Elon's psyche is tied up in the idea of changing the world."
Jon Stewart [to Musk:] "I am astonished at your entrepreneurial spirit, your tenacity,
and your ability to get things done.”
Steve Jurvetson : "I don't think I've ever seen an entrepreneur with so much resolve."

25. Leadership
The Blessing And Curse Of An Opinionated Leader
Dolly Singh, former HR head at SpaceX: "The thing that makes Elon Elon, is his
ability to make people believe in his vision."
Jim Cantrell, SpaceX’s first engineer, adds, "The guy is pure ambition. He's three or
four steps ahead … Most of us can’t conceive these things working; he can’t conceive
it failing. Period." This is the hallmark of an opinionated leader.
A good leader needs to be extremely persuasive to get people to follow him, and to
push people hard to stretch what’s possible. That persuasion comes with expressing
strong opinions. Think of the best leaders in history—Mandela, Churchill, King,
etc.—and you’ll see a pattern: they tell great stories, with boldness, absolutely
convinced that they are right. They both inspire and grab attention.

27. So it turned out you were wrong…
The problem with opinionated leaders is that even the smartest people
get things wrong, and many leaders fear changing course once they’ve
expressed an opinion for fear of appearing weak.
The fastest-climbing people and companies are willing to deviate from
their original business or career plan. Whereas a strong leader needs to
be resolute and persuasive, an innovative leader needs to be open to
changing her mind.

28. So it turned out you were wrong…
The problem with opinionated leaders is that even the smartest people
get things wrong, and many leaders fear changing course once they’ve
expressed an opinion for fear of appearing weak.
The fastest-climbing people and companies are willing to deviate from
their original business or career plan. Whereas a strong leader needs to
be resolute and persuasive, an innovative leader needs to be open to
changing her mind.

29. Focus
“One night he told me, ‘If there was a way that I could not eat, so I could work
more, I would not eat. I wish there was a way to get nutrients without sitting
down for a meal.’ ” — Nicholson
Resilience
“We all worked 20 hours a day, and he worked 23 hours.” — Julie Ankenbrandt
on working with Musk at the start-up X.com, which would later merge with
Confinity and lead to what we know as PayPal.
Adaptability
Reimagining
Visionary

31. TASK ORIENTED
Situation favorableness occurs when the three dimensions - leader-
member relations, task structure, and leader position power - are high.
Leader-member relationships refer to the degree of trust, respect, and
confidence that exists between the leader and the workers. Task
structure refers to the degree to which tasks are clearly explained and
structured for workers. Leader position power refers to the degree to
which the leader possesses inherent power in his or her position.

32. LEADERSHIP STYLE
Pace Setter Leadership
Examples: Elon Musk , Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates
Key Phrase: “Let’s dream big and set standards”
Description: These leaders set the pace for their own company and others in the
industry to follow.
Strengths:
1. True visionaries can revolutionize an industry and cater to future markets
2. Will be “two steps” ahead of their competitors
3. Will lead by example and empower people with their own deep-seated values
Weaknesses:
1. Can be outdone by other transformational leaders
2. Staff can get easily burnout by trying to keep pace

34. Charismatic Leadership
Examples: Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton
Key Phrase: “Let’s do it together”
Transformational Leadership
Examples: Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg
Key Phrase: “I can do it better”

35. Laissez-Faire Leadership
Examples: Warren Buffet, Richard Branson
Key Phrase: “I’ll give you the tools and autonomy to execute”
Authoritative Leadership
Examples: Alex Ferguson, Margaret Thatcher, Jack Welch
Key Phrase: “I direct, you follow”

36. Elon Musk: Relentless innovation
CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, has revolutionized entire industries
with his focus on moving beyond the status quo.
Both companies faced bankruptcy in 2008, and Musk was forced to
decide between allocating his remaining funds between the companies
or focusing on one. He felt compelled to support both ventures, and the
risk paid off. Tesla is trumping Ford and General Motors with gross
profit margins well over 20 percent, while SpaceX was one of two
companies chosen by NASA to develop the next generation of systems
to take U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station.

37. The hallmark of innovative thinking is the ability to be open and
adaptable. Continuing on a path just because you’ve committed to it is
not a formula for success.
Musk. He is fiercely opinionated in his vision, highly charismatic in his
delivery, and often abrasive with those who didn’t agree.
But when he changed his mind about something, he became fiercely
opinionated in the opposite direction.

38. MUSK V/S OTHERS
Elon Musk Steve Jobs Jeff Bezos
Innovative, courageous, persistent and creative ways all three built their
businesses.
What is disheartening is how little care and appreciation any of them
give to hard-working and loyal employees, and how unnecessarily cruel
and demeaning they could be to the people who helped make their
dreams come true

40. Given the extraordinary success of these men, the obvious question is whether
being relentlessly hard on people, and even cruel, may get them to perform
better.
The first answer is that they can. Genius covers a lot of sins. A great product is a
great product, and you don’t have to do everything right to be successful. Most
customers don’t care how the sausage gets made, as long as it tastes good.
Employees, in turn, are willing to sacrifice a lot to work for a visionary. Much as
Mr. Jobs was, Mr. Musk and Mr. Bezos are passionate, inspiring and charismatic
leaders.
Mr. Jobs drove around without a license on his car, and he regularly parked in
spaces reserved for the handicapped. As Mr. Ive said of his attitude, “I think he
feels he has a liberty and a license to do that. The normal rules of social
engagement, he feels, don’t apply to him.”

41. “Elon said ‘I will spend my last dollar on these companies. If we have to
move into Justine’s parents’ basement, we’ll do it.’ ” — Antonio Gracias
recalling a dinner with Musk during the 2008 financial crisis.