Elon Musk

By Walter Isaacson, the author of the million-selling book about Steve Jobs: The ultimate and highly current biography of Elon Musk, the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our time. Today, Elon Musk is regarded as a visionary who disregards all rules and has led our world into the age of electric mobility, private space travel, and artificial intelligence. However, his beginnings were far more modest. As a child, he was regularly beaten by teenage bullies on the playgrounds of South Africa and had to stand up to his violent father at home, learning early on to rely solely on himself. This lesson made him one of the boldest entrepreneurs of our time, equipped with an extremely high risk tolerance and a nearly manic intensity. Yet, all his successes could not mask the shadows of his childhood: In early 2022—after a year in which SpaceX conducted thirty-one satellite launches and Tesla sold a million cars, making him the richest man in the world—Musk embarked on a deal that would lead to one of the most sensational acquisitions of our time: Twitter. In his darkest hours, Musk would remember for years how he was tormented on the playground and at home by his father. Now, however, he had the opportunity to own the ultimate playground in the world. For two years, author Walter Isaacson observed Elon Musk up close, attending his meetings, walking through his factories, and spending hours interviewing him, his family, friends, colleagues, and adversaries. The result is an insightful insider account, filled with astonishing stories of triumphs and turbulence, that asks: Are the demons that drive Musk ultimately what it takes for innovation and progress?.