Tesla Motors is relentlessly working to make electric vehicles the absolute future of personal transportation. They’ve made them cool. They’ve made them viable, and they’re conquering the world.
This is why they will succeed.
1. Elon Musk: Not Your Run of The Mill Entrepreneur
To understand the success and drive of Tesla Motors we’ve got to look at the key personality behind it, because this is not your run of the mill money maker. This is a man who has dreams that go well beyond making a bunch of millions and then affording himself a very comfortable retirement. This is a man who truly wants to change the world, and dramatically so.
It should be enough to list some of his personal ambitions:
- Make the world run on solar power.
- Make electric vehicles the default mode of personal transportations, powered by the sun too.
- Make going to space affordable to everyone.
- Establish a colony on Mars, and go there.
The man is certainly not lacking in ambition, and with goals such as these you’ve got to be made of some special cloth. The fact is he’s proven that he’s got what it takes to actually pull this off, or at least make major inroads. He already did make significant inroads, in fact.
But besides the dreams that drive him there’s also the way he thinks. It doesn’t necessarily always mesh with what you might expect. A good example, to be touched upon later on, is his opening up of Tesla Motor’s patents.
Another one is how he comes up with solutions. As he describes it he starts from first principles rather than from the established paradigms of thinking. In other words, he starts thinking about solutions to humongous problems from scratch, which frees him from distractions of what’s already floating around but not doing much.
Besides Tesla Motors, Elon Musk also runs SpaceX and Solar City. He’s part of the so called PayPal Mafia, a group of wealthy PayPal outcasts who went on to start some amazing companies. He’s one of the PayPal’s co-founders and his companies are probably the most ambitious and impactful of all.
Photo by Maurizio Pesce.
Magnus Thunderson
now if tesla can bring the price down to 35k or less with the Tesla 3 that would be a big step as currently Nissan no long has a surplus but a 3 month waiting list and growing and within 2015 lizard battery and there new policy of free charring stations but the lizard battery is not any bigger just better suited for hotter temp like Tampa so still suck at about 80 miles which is just to short of a range so until they get up to at least 125-150 min as both high heat and very cold weather effect the range as well as the age of the battery
ejhr
This gentleman is most certainly NOT starting from first principles! Otherwise he would show he understands the exponential equation and the 2nd law of thermodynamics. he would understand our civilization has already started its slide to destruction and that going to mars or space are pipe dreams. We won’t even be able to keep going with what we have now as the exponential growth in population and consumption will hit a wall, i.e., a finite planet real soon now. we are heading for a resource poor world,a low tech environment with expensive food also probably scarce as well.
Fun times ahead!Not!
WillSpencer
You’re still promoting the two-hundred year old and repetitively disproven Malthusian Fallacy?
ejhr
It’s not ever disproven, just delayed. Don’t tell me you are ignorant of the exponential equation too? [Mind you, most are]
zahid
i have forgotten my paasword as well as not have access to alternate id and i m using other phone number so how can i recover my paasword
salvador
BMW and Mercedes are introducing their electric cars just to show Tesla that they can make it too.
Big car companies are playing catchup.
David Ouyang
Great picture of a car. It is nice to have an ambition which might change the world.
I have heard of many alternative fuels that can run a car, such as grass clippings, algae, etc.
Which alternative fuel will take dominance? I think it is too early to tell. I hope that we will not end up with so many alternatives that we will burden the car manufacturers with building cars to accommodate all fuels. I think though that the government will choose one for us.