1- The server story- A Lesson in Bold Problem-Solving
Our story begins when Elon Musk became CEO of Twitter. One of Twitter’s servers was located on an island called Sacramento, and it was costing around 8 billion dollars. Elon Musk called his Twitter team and asked them to shut down the server. When the team heard this, they were surprised by Elon Musk’s decision and explained to him that it would take almost 6-8 months to do so. However, with Christmas coming up, they couldn’t afford to shut it down now because a lot of people would be tweeting and they needed the server.
Elon Musk then asked his secretary if she had ever installed a server, to which she said no. He further asked if she had ever been to the location, and again, she said no. Elon Musk then replied to his secretary that he himself had installed servers, and he knew how much time it takes. He demanded that it be done within 2 weeks, or else she would be fired. Elon said this and left, but on the plane, he was thinking about it. He then told his pilot to take him to Sacramento, and the pilot immediately took the plane there.
As soon as they reached the server location, Elon asked his guard to give him the knife he had, and with that knife, he cut all the wires of the Sacramento server, shutting it down immediately.
2 SPACE X- THE FOURTH LAUNCH
During one of Elon Musk’s rocket launches, his team was very hopeful and well-prepared for the third attempt. Musk had invested all his money into this attempt, and if it failed, he would go bankrupt. As the launch began, everything was going well until one of Musk’s engineers mentioned that the third attempt was historically unlucky. Just as he said that, the computer screen went blank, and the attempt failed. Everyone was devastated, and they thought Musk would announce the end of the company. However, Musk gave a speech, promising that they would launch again within seven weeks. Without taking a single day off, everyone worked hard, and during the fourth attempt, everything went well, and the launch was successful.
3 IMPOSSIBLE TARGET AT TESLA TO SAVE FROM BANKRUPTCY
Once upon a time, Elon Musk set a target to manufacture 5000 Tesla cars every week, a seemingly impossible feat given that they were only producing around 800 cars at that time. To achieve this, they needed a new factory, which would take two years to get permission. However, they managed to accomplish this goal in just four to five months. One scene illustrates the story. Elon Musk was watching every step of the factory to identify which step could be done faster. With his constant supervision, the speed of making cars increased. He noticed one step where a robot was tightening a nut and realized this was taking too much time. He immediately called the engineer who could change the robot’s settings. The engineer came and informed him that the robot’s maximum speed was set at 20. Elon Musk then instructed the engineer to change its coding to 100. However, when they tried this, the nut tightened so quickly that its thread slipped out. They then adjusted the settings to 70, and it worked perfectly, cutting the time in half. This story shows us Elon Musk’s extreme sense of urgency, which is a quality he possesses.
4 -MERGING OF PAYPAL AND X.COM
Once upon a time, PayPal and X.com decided to merge because they both had an equal number of users, and investors advised them to collaborate. So, Peter Thiel from PayPal and Lev Chin from X.com met and discussed the matter. Peter Thiel pointed out that both companies had an equal number of users, so they should split the shares equally. However, Elon Musk, who was present at the meeting, disagreed and suggested that PayPal should have a bigger share. This caused the meeting to be canceled.
Later, they called the investors and met again, where they were joined by Lamborghini.com. Elon Musk showed off the car’s capabilities by driving it at full speed, which almost caused an accident. Nevertheless, they continued the meeting, and Elon Musk dialed them up to share his risk-taking philosophy.