13A- Reading Reflection No. 1

Assignment 13A- Reading Reflection No. 1

I read the biography on Elon Musk. Here are my thoughts:

• What surprised you the most? What surprised me the most is that whatever company Elon ventures in, he has a serious passion for it. He sets impossible deadlines in order to get the most out of his workers. Musk has a fierce persona whenever he leads a business and likes things ran his way. Elon Musk once said that "If there was a way that I could not eat, so I could work more, I would not eat." He has an extreme schedule and lives by it. One thing that I did not know is that Elon Musk is a co-founder of Paypal. 
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? One thing that I admired the most about Musk is his strong work ethic and way of dealing with business. He has failed many times but he has also had successes. He had a dream since younger of coming to America which he achieved. Moving from Africa to Canada then to California, Musk had visions of changing the world around him.
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? What I did not like about Musk is that at times he could come off as really aggressive and stubborn. With Musk, it is very hard to sway his opinion or perspective. Another thing that I did not admire is that he treats his top workers horribly sometimes, almost verbally abusing them. 
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? Musk has encountered a lot of adversity and failure. He was bullied for being a nerd when he was younger at school in South Africa. He also did not have a good life at home. Musk's parents divorced at a young age due to his father. His father had a strong, overbearing personality. Although the father taught him a lot, Musk experienced some form of psychological torture from his dad. No one gets along with Musk's father. Also, Musk moved to Canada at age 17 in order to fulfill his dreams, knowing little to no family in Canada.
• What competencies did you notice the entrepreneur exhibited? Musk was intelligently smart during a child and often studied encyclopedias and whatever he could get his hands on. He excelled at universities in Canada and in the United States. Musk majored in Business and Physics. These two areas have deemed to be the most used in his career. 
• Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. One part of the reading that was confused was the part where the author started talking about when he first came to Silicon Valley and how the Silicon Valley did business. This part confused me because it did not have anything to do with Elon Musk, but rather entirely about the author's beginning in Silicon Valley.
• If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why? I would ask Elon Musk how I could start a successful business and what I would need to continuously generate revenue for it. I would also ask how did Musk manage to organize his schedule so specifically that he got the most out of productivity and efficiency.
• For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? I think what Musk thinks of hard work is never quitting and dedicating your life to what you are working on. Musk thinks that pulling an all-nighter to make a deadline is hard work. I do share his opinion, yet I would not go through the effort of pulling an all-nighter. I would rather sleep on time while getting the project done still.