Who Is The Next Great Visionary?

Steve Jobs was considered one of the great visionaries of our time.  Read his book and you will get some insight into how he thought and how he got things done.  His death was a great loss, but we have a young visionary who is already changing the world in profound ways.  I'm talking about Elon Musk, the 42 year old overseer of  Tesla Motors, Space X and Solar City.  His vision is to change this world and beyond.  When he walked into the offices of Netscape Communications' headquarters in 1995 and try to get a job and they weren't interested, they didn't know what they were missing.  Musk went back to writing code and generating patents.  Those patents- for delivering maps, directions and phone directory information on the Internet- formed the basis of a company Zip2, that Musk launched with his younger brother Kimbal.  He was on his way.

Elon is constantly pushing people beyond what they think they can do, because people can usually do more than they realize.  When the company's at stake, everyone has to work as hard as possible.  Steve Westly, longtime venture capitalist and former California politician who served on Tesla's board, says Musk is a special entrepreneur.  "He's brilliant, driving, he 's resourceful, he's striving and he doesn't take no for an answer.  He's got the ability to disrupt multiple industries at the same time."

Tesla's goal is to speed the transition to electric cars, cut oil use and fight global warming.  The popularity of the Model S, which has become the status symbol of choice in California, has already forced other luxury automakers to follow with their own plug'in cars.  SolarCity, which offers homeowners solar power for no money down, threatens the business model of traditional electric utilities.  Since Jobs' death, Musk has become the country's Disrupter-in-Chief.  He has a change-the-world mentality.  Also like Jobs, Musk doesn't accept excuses or hal-baked answers.  His relentless questioning is one of the reasons Tesla and SpaceX survived.

Elon Musk made some bold and brave financial descision during the recession, when it looked like he might lose both Tesla and SpaceX.  Failure would have wiped him out.  He made a decision, to double down and try to save both entities, rather than letting one go and saving the other.  Both companies made, it could easily have gone the other way.

Tesla is developing its next car, the Model X crossover, due this year, and will build a $5 billion factory to produce lithium-ion batteries.  The first manned flight of  a Space X spacecraft may come this year too.  Solar City is growing at breakneck speed too.  they are testing energy storage devices for homes and business-using batteries from Tesla.  There remains the challenge of settling Mars, a  goal big enough to occupy anyone for a lifetime, but those who know Musk feel he will find other ideas to pursue.  He is a visionary with ideas that will change the world.