SNS: Elon’s Plan

SNS Subscriber Edition
Week of 7/4/2016    
Vol. 21 Issue 24

In This Issue

Feature: Elon’s Plan

• Elon’s Intelligence
• Product Excellence and the Musk System
• Resilience
• What Is Tesla?
• Inventing SolarCity
• Nepotism Charges and Board Conflicts: Tradeoff for Long-Term Planning?
• Elon’s Vision

Quotes of the Week

Takeout Window

• The Tesla Model 3
• Scary Photo Dept.

Upgrades

• SolarCity & Tesla: The Numbers

Ethermail

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It isn’t surprising that Elon Musk gets a lot of criticism. He’s different, he’s brilliant, and – unlike Wall Street – he thinks long-term.

I need to begin this discussion with a disclosure: I consider Elon to be a good friend, and have known him for almost 20 years. We awarded him the honor of Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009 at our FiRe conference, which he has attended for years (photos and video link below), and I personally own shares in both Tesla Motors and SolarCity.

This week, with Tesla’s bid for SolarCity, most of the global business blogs are questioning every part of the deal, from finances to board connections. While this transaction will soon be forgotten, it provides an opportunity to both look at these companies in a bit more detail and try to see the world from Elon’s perspective, which is almost the opposite of Wall Street’s.

Video of our 2009 interview: https://youtu.be/XdJZVUMRoTg