Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s journey as a tech entrepreneur began with his first company, Zip2, which he co-founded with his brother Kimbal Musk in 1995. Zip2 was an innovative online city guide that combined business directories with maps, essentially an internet version of the Yellow Pages enriched with navigational features. The company’s success culminated in its sale to Compaq for $307 million in 1999, earning Musk $22 million from his stake and laying a critical foundation for his future ventures. ...

Introduction Elon Musk, one of the most renowned innovators of our time, attributes much of his groundbreaking success to a problem-solving approach known as first principles thinking. This method involves breaking problems down to their most fundamental truths and reasoning upward from there, rather than relying on analogy or incremental improvements. Understanding Musk’s detailed application of first principles offers valuable insights into how revolutionary ideas—from reusable rockets to affordable electric car batteries—can emerge by questioning assumptions and rebuilding from the ground up. ...