From the author renowned for biographies like “Steve Jobs” and other bestsellers, comes an incredibly intimate account of the most captivating and contentious innovator of our time. This rule-breaking visionary played a pivotal role in ushering in the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and he also took control of Twitter.
As a young boy growing up in South Africa, Elon Musk faced relentless bullying that left him with not just physical scars, but emotional wounds as well. On one particularly brutal day, a group of bullies pushed him down concrete steps and pummeled him until his face swelled into a grotesque mass of flesh. He spent a week in the hospital. Yet, the impact of his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic dreamer, left a more lasting imprint on his psyche.
Musk’s father influenced him deeply, shaping him into a resilient yet emotionally vulnerable individual. Musk exhibited sudden mood swings reminiscent of Jekyll and Hyde, possessed an extraordinarily high appetite for risk, an insatiable thirst for drama, a grand sense of purpose, and a relentless intensity that could be ruthless and occasionally damaging.
In early 2022, after a year marked by SpaceX launching an impressive thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and Musk becoming the world’s wealthiest person, he candidly acknowledged his compulsion for stirring up conflicts. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,” he reflected.
It was a contemplative comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he uttered these words, he was quietly acquiring shares in Twitter, the ultimate global playground. Throughout his life, whenever he faced adversity, his thoughts would return to those playground bullies. Now, he had the opportunity to own the playground.
For two years, Isaacson closely followed Musk, attending his meetings, touring his factories, and conducting extensive interviews with Musk, his family, friends, colleagues, and rivals. The result is an illuminating behind-the-scenes account, replete with astonishing anecdotes of triumph and turmoil. It delves into the very demons that propel Musk and explores the essence of what fuels innovation and progress.
