Elon Musk

Thanks to Elon Musk, we may soon be traveling inside high-speed podKapselpods, flying into space and having microchips implanted in our brains. Musk, 50, has already changed the world — and he’s become extremely wealthy while doing it. He began 2022 as the richest person in the world. Bloomberg journalist Matt Levine wrote: “The way finance works now is that things are valuable not based on their cash flows but on their proximityNäheproximity to Elon Musk.”

Musk is known for taking risks and taking on big challenges. Back when NASA was flying the space shuttle, Musk thought he could do it better. In the two decadeJahrzehntdecades since he started SpaceX, he’s been proved right. SpaceX was the first private company to fly to the International Space Station and is to be contracted with sb.sich mit jmdm. handelseinig seincontracted with NASA to send U.S. astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972.

People are critical of billionaireMilliardär(in)billionaires and their obsession with space, when their innovations and huge fortuneVermögenfortunes could help solve many problems here on earth. But Musk does this, too, at least in part: In February, upon the request of the Ukrainian government, he activated his system of Starlink satellites over that country, enabling broader and faster internet service there after the war with Russia started. War or no war, this was one of SpaceX’s goalZielgoals in developing reusable rockets. They dramatically cut the cost of to launch sth.etw. startenlaunching satellites. And Musk plans to launch thousands of them for the Starlink program to provide fast internet service to every human being and any location on earth.

The two sides of Elon Musk

The question that seems to follow Musk, however, is: At what point do big dreams become unjustifiable risks? Musk hopes that SpaceX’s satellite business will to bankroll sth. (ifml.)etw. finanzierenbankroll his project of starting a colony on Mars, but this highly ambitious goal could actually destroy the company. Development of the launch vehicleTrägerraketelaunch vehicle (called Starship) has proved a huge financial risk. In a letter to SpaceX employees last November, Musk warned: “We to face sth.sich etw. gegenübersehenface genuineecht, ernsthaftgenuine risk of bankruptcyInsolvenzbankruptcy. …We need all hands on deckalle Mann an Deckall hands on deck to recover from what is, quite franklyoffengestandenfrankly, a disaster.”

Without question, Musk’s greatest success so far has been Tesla, Inc., which he joined as chairmanVorsitzenderchairman and biggest shareholderAktionär(in)shareholder in 2004. The company has supercharged the EV (electric vehicle)ElektrofahrzeugEV market and, in a relatively short time, become the world’s most valuable carmaker. However, as Tesla enjoys this success, the company faces legal problems. Many blame Musk himself, saying he has promised too much regarding the company’s autonomous driving software. While Tesla warns drivers that its “Autopilot” system requires constant supervision, Musk has said that all Teslas have the hardware necessary for full autonomy. These mixed messageshier: widersprüchliche Aussagenmixed messages have led to an investigation by America’s traffic safety regulatorhier: Regulierungsbehörde für Verkehrssicherheittraffic safety regulator and made the firm the targetZiel(scheibe)target of lawsuitProzesslawsuits, after an alarming number of crashes.

This isn’t the first time Musk’s public statements have caused trouble. He has used social media to attack journalists, whistleblowers and critics. He’s also been criticized for his opposition to unionGewerkschaftunions and taxes. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has to call sb. out (US)jmdn. anprangerncalled out the billionaire for not paying his fair share of taxes — in 2018, Musk paid no federal income tax. And early in the Covid-19 pandemic, he broke local health regulations to keep his factories open.

These things matter because being Elon Musk comes with a lot of power and influence — many would say too much power. Musk has about 74 million Twitter followers and, more than once, a tweet from him has caused chaos on the stock marketBörsestock market. In 2018, he was to sue sb.jmdn. verklagensued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange CommissionBörsenaufsichtsbehördeSecurities and Exchange Commission for falsely claiming he was ready for a private takeover of Tesla. And in January of this year, after Musk brieflykurzbriefly spoke about supply-chain problems, the share priceAktienkursshare price of Tesla and other EV companies dropped sharply.

Over the years, Musk has had failures as well as successes. Both SpaceX and Tesla have come close to bankruptcy in the past. His companies have missed important targets by months, even years. Musk is not especially worried about this, however, once telling Fast Company magazine: “If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”

Musk’s innovation drive is not limited to satellites and cars. Neuralink, the brain-chip start-up that he to co-found sth.etw. mitgründenco-founded in 2016, is creating microchip implants for people, for example, who are paralyzed. The chips could enable them to use smartphones and other technologies with their minds — “faster than someone using thumbs,” says Musk. In January, Neuralink announced plans for clinical trialTest, Studietrials on humans. If the technology works as Musk describes, it would be a medical breakthrough. At the same time, the company has come under fire for experimenting on animals. And the idea of a billionaire businessman implanting microchips into people’s brains makes conspiracy theorists to make sb. go wild (ifml.)jmdn. völlig außer sich geraten lassengo wild.

Takeaways

Elon Musk divides opinion like few others. On the one hand, he’s one of the most successful entrepreneurUnternehmer(in)entrepreneurs of all time. He is famous for starting highly innovative companies and taking on big challenges. He has also given huge amounts of money to charityWohltätigkeitsorganisationcharity. 

On the other hand, people worry that Musk has too much power and influence. He’s been criticized for erraticlaunisch, unberechenbarerratic behavior, especially on social media. And some of his companies have faced allegationAnschuldigungallegations of sexual harassmentsexuelle Belästigungsexual harassment and poor working conditions.

The man behind the Musk

Despite all the controversy, Musk keeps working hard — probably because, since childhood, he’s to achieve sth.etw. erreichenachieved so much through hard work. He told the U.S. news program 60 Minutes that, while growing up in South Africa, he was often to bully sb.jmdn. drangsalieren, mobbenbullied, until he learned martial arts to defend himself. He also showed early signs of intelligence and creativity, and sold his first software code when he was 12 years old. Last year, Musk to reveal sth.etw. enthüllenrevealed that he has Asperger’s syndromeAsperger-Syndrom (Variante des Autismus)Asperger’s syndrome, which might help explain some of his uniquenessEinzigartigkeit; hier auch: Eigenwilligkeituniqueness.

After moving to the U.S., he studied economics and physics. He to quit sth.etw. abbrechenquit a PhD programPromotionsstudiengangPhD program at Stanford University to start his first company, Zip2, with his brother, Kimbal. In a speech to college students in California, Musk said he couldn’t afford an apartment at that time, so he slept on a couch in a rented office. “We were so to be hard up (ifml.)knapp bei Kasse seinhard up, we had just one computer,” he said. “The website was up during the day, and I was coding at night.” The hard work to pay offsich lohnenpaid off: In 1999, Zip2 was sold to the computer company Compaq for $305 million, and Musk was a multimillionaire before the age of 30.

On top of everything else, Musk runs other companies, too, working on digital intelligence and public transport. He told the Financial Times that he works 80 to 90 hours a week and doesn’t own a house or to go on vacation (US)in Urlaub fahren, Urlaub machengo on vacation. “I aim to work as long as I’m able to work and be productive and contribute — that is my naturehier: Veranlagungnature.”

Perhaps Elon Musk was best described by the U.S. magazine Time, as Person of the Year 2021. The magazine editorRedakteur(in)editors say this is not an award but a title for “the person who had the most influence on the events of the year, for good or for illim positiven wie im negativen Sinnfor good or for ill.”