4 of the books that inspired Elon Musk to be successful.
Elon Musk has a simple explanation for how he learned to build rockets.
According to reports, he enjoys reading books.
A physics Ph.D. graduate of Stanford University who dropped out of the program because it didn’t seem relevant to him, Musk has always had a voracious appetite for the written word. It has been suggested that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was picked on a lot in his childhood and that he would revert to fantasy (J.R.R. Tolkien) and science fiction (Isaac Asimov) as a coping mechanism.
Musk’s love for books has always been evident in the following slides: he was inspired by books as a child gave him heroes as a young adult, and used them to learn rocket science while launching SpaceX.
1.“The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien
Muskrat was his nickname when he was a shrimpy, smart-mouthed kid growing up in South Africa. According to The New Yorker, “in his loneliness", he read a lot of fantasy and science fiction”; His future self was shaped by these books, including “The Lord of the Rings”; by J.R.R. Tolkien. In the books he read’ ;The heroes always felt a duty to save the world; he told The New Yorker.
2. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams
Musk says he struggled with an “ existential crisis”; between the ages of 12 and 15 and turned to Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer, and other moody philosophers to find meaning in his life. It didn’t work.
Douglas Adams’ comic interstellar romp,” The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”; was next on his list. There is a supercomputer in the book that finds 42 to be the answer to a meaningful life - but the question is never answered. The answer is easy if you can phrase the question
correctly, Musk said in an interview.: “So, to the degree that we can better understand the universe, then we can better know what questions to ask.”
3. “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life”by Walter Isaacson
Musk has described Ben Franklin as one of his heroes. As Musk says in an interview with “Foundation, Franklin’s biography illustrates his entrepreneurial skills. He was a runaway kid who became an entrepreneur. He had no money when he started.
This story is somewhat similar to Musk’s - growing up in Pretoria, South Africa, going to school in Canada, transferring to the University of Pennsylvania, and then using a Stanford Ph.D. to land in Silicon Valley. Musk’s review: “Franklin’s pretty awesome”; he says.
4." Einstein: His Life and Universe" by Walter Isaacson
Musk adds he learned a lot from another Walter Isaacson biography, "Einstein," in the same Foundation interview.
This novel, like "Franklin," depicts the narrative of a genius who uses his brilliance and desire to change the world. "Explores how an inventive, impertinent patent clerk — a struggling parent in a tough marriage who couldn't acquire a teaching position or a doctorate — became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos," the cover description exclaims.
Eleni Dimpetri