Why Exploding Rockets Couldn't Stop Elon Musk's Genius In 2020

You might know the genius Elon Musk who has managed to make reusable rockets, attractive electric cars and visualised high-speed travel in a vaccum tube. There is, however, an underlying foundation that made these achievements possible for the renowned technology billionaire - Money.

Reuters

In essence, this is a story about Elon Musk - The Businessman. Try and focus on the words as they are known to have a considerable impact on businesses. Elon Musk is a champion in this regard. Just a week ago, he managed to raise the prices of a cryptocurrency that first started as a meme, with a series of tweets. In doing so, he brought down the value of Bitcoin, just by 1 percent but down nonetheless.

Then again, it was nothing but a few words that made him a public enemy earlier this year. As Musk went on a rant on Twitter about Tesla¡¯s stock prices being too high, the electric vehicle firm experienced an almost instantaneous free fall in the stock market. Result - $14 billion off Tesla¡¯s value.

He is known to sway the curve the other way too. In 2018, a series of tweets by him shot up the company¡¯s share price to the point that the Nasdaq stock exchange had to halt the stock for a while. Musk even managed to get himself a lawsuit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading the investors with this act.

But if you were not to judge Musk for such moments of emotional flare-ups, you will see the underlying virtues that make the man do what he does, both good and bad. You will find Musk to have passion and proficiency.

The Businessman - Elon Musk

Elon Musk (Image: Reuters)

In most parts, it is these traits of Musk that have managed to bring him success in almost all the endeavours he has pursued over the years. As 2020 ends, Musk has climbed to number 2 on Forbes list of Real Time Billionaires, recently beating LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault to the spot. He now has a net worth of $153.3 billion - that is 11,29,869 crore in Indian Rupees. Mind you, the list contains the likes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg and even the guys who gave us Google Search. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, of course, sits at the top by a large margin.

The comparative success aside, Musk has managed to grow every company that he is associated with in the pandemic-stricken year. Tesla is now the most valued car company in the world. SpaceX ended the year with a record 26 launches, averaging a rocket launch every two weeks. Keep in mind the lockdown period when any activity as such, came to a pause.

Musk¡¯s other ventures did well too. His tunneling firm ¡®The Boring Company¡¯ recently got approval for its first ever citywide loop system with Tesla vehicles in the heart of Las Vegas. His neuroscience startup ¡®Neuralink¡¯ unveiled its first ever live experiment to the world, in the form of a pig named Gertrude. A coin-sized computer chip, meant to act as a wireless brain-computer interface, had been installed in the pig¡¯s brain. The long goal - to make such chips identify neurological conditions in humans.

Then again, there were ventures within these firms that displayed astonishing potential. Starlink, a satellite broadband initiative by SpaceX, has crossed the 800 satellites mark in low-Earth orbit, even beginning its Beta services in North America this year. SolarCity, a rather disputed investment of Tesla, now boasts of providing the cheapest solar power in the US.

Of course, not all of this progress translated into money for Musk. But the ones that did made a huge impact. The most recent gain in the tech billionaire¡¯s wealth was propelled by Tesla¡¯s impending inclusion in the S&P 500. As the company bullied its way to the stock market index, Musk, who owns around 21% of Tesla¡¯s stock, became more than $10 billion richer within a week.

The One True Goal

Elon Musk (Representative Image: Insider)

It is rightly said that to achieve success, one must follow their passion and not paychecks. Musk did the same, except, he had a challenge at hand that a few others might experience in their lives. His goals were too big.

He wanted to colonise Mars. It is still his top objective. Achieving this goal would require rockets - many, many rockets. And rockets cost money.

So it is easy to see that Musk could not have been following his dream today if it wasn¡¯t for the wealth that he has now managed to make. The journey, of course, is one of immense determination and a laser sharp vision. It did, however, make Musk put his eggs in other baskets. Musk simply could not ignore his paychecks.

Exploding rockets

SpaceX Falcon rocket explodes just before launch on September 1, 2016

This time of sowing wasn¡¯t short lived either. The one true goal would have come crashing for Musk years earlier, when SpaceX almost went bankrupt with repeated failures. In fact, the first three rockets launched by the company, between 2006 and 2008, failed. In each case, the rocket malfunctioned after lift-off, destroying the cargo along with it.

The failure left SpaceX in ruins, at a time when even Tesla was just about to go bankrupt. "I gave both SpaceX and Tesla a probability of less than 10% likely to succeed," Musk said in a Q&A session in 2018. With the money he was left with, he could either revive one and let the other die for sure, or play on lower odds and make it work by splitting the funds between the firms.

It was not until two days before Christmas that year that SpaceX had a breather, just as Tesla¡¯s investors agreed to another round of funding. Saved at the time, SpaceX observed only two other failures in its rocket launches to date. One in 2015 on Musk¡¯s birthday, as a Falcon 9 rocket vaporized shortly after launch and another in 2016 when a SpaceX rocket caught fire while refueling before launch. Several others were lost while landing post their mission success. Needless to say, SpaceX was financially well equipped this time to bear the losses.

After nearly two decades of existence, the companies stand at the top of their respective fields.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk celebrates after the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft on NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station (Image: Reuters)

More than that, they are creating history. When a business succeeds, its legacy comes into play. Musk, watching his company become the first ever private space firm to send astronauts to the ISS (International Space Station) this year, felt that. It was only natural for him to choke up with emotions post the launch.

He had dreamt this for 18 years. Despite exploding rockets. That's Elon Musk's genius!