A Design-Inspired Book Review of Elon Musk
2015 was a monumental year for Tesla and SpaceX, the most famous duo of Elon Musk’s companies: Tesla launched the Model X and SpaceX navigated the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket to touch down back on land. Also in 2015, Ashlee Vance published the first biography of Musk, entitled Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. Reading his biography in 2025 not only offered a fascinating perspective on Musk’s progress since then, it also demonstrated how his methods continue to bring him success and influence while developing powerful technology.
Figure 1: A Falcon 9 rocket takes off from Cape Canaveral in 2015 [1]
Dedication to A Worldview
Musk is well known for the high, often unreasonable expectations that he has of his employees, but he is confident in asking for sacrifice and toil because he himself has been there. In his earlier days, over a decade ago now, Musk battled over control of Tesla and spent long hours each day, almost every day, building Tesla into the automobile and innovation giant it is today. Whatever his legacy, this much is certain - Musk is a man dedicated more than almost any other. Vance wrote of him,
What Musk has developed that so many of the entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley lack is a meaningful worldview. He’s the possessed genius on the grandest quest anyone has ever concocted. He’s less a CEO chasing riches than a general marshaling troops to secure victory [2].
Figure 2: Elon Musk introduces the Tesla Model X, complete with falcon wing doors [3].
At no point throughout his time with Tesla or SpaceX has Musk lost sight of his goals. Much of his focus can be attributed to the clarity with which he defines his goals, all of which hinge on what he feels is his life’s calling - getting mankind to Mars. Though it is a wildly ambitious goal, he understands the steps to accomplish it, and he rigorously employs systems thinking to mesh the successes of his companies so that they build upon one another. He has built his corporate empire incrementally and against the odds, striving daily to make some progress towards his ultimate end. With his unyielding persona, Musk has made influential friends and inspired other world-class innovators, furthering his pursuits. Surrounded by other thinkers, Musk has thrived in an environment that fosters his dreams.
A Productive Personality
It’s no secret that working for one of Musk’s companies is unlike any other job experience. Vance said that Musk “willed” Tesla into being [4], and though it takes much more than sheer willpower to build a company, it was perhaps Musk’s most critical asset. Musk has found so much success because he applied his personality to his work, to such an extent that his companies came to embody him, becoming “...expressions of Musk” [5].
Figure 3: A Dragon manned capsule is presented by Elon Musk [6].
His unbridled passion and commitment to his vision has been unrelenting. Any technical expert can be inspired by Musk’s attention to the minutest detail (Vance called it “maniacal attention to detail” [7]), attention that comes from his passion. He poured much of this detail into making the Tesla Model Y the highest-rated car for safety under various tests. It’s frequently challenging for anyone involved in engineering and other technical details to juggle both the big-picture view and the nuances and specifics, but Musk cared enough to know all of it. Musk has channeled his skills artfully, maximizing their use as he directs his companies. Now he manages six companies, including his upstart xAI.
Figure 4: Elon Musk at the German Tesla Gigafactory in 2022 [8].
Looking into the Past
Near the very end of the book, Vance predicted that Musk, should his unprecedented success continue, would ascend as “the richest man in the world and among its most powerful” [9]. As we know today, this is exactly what happened. Musk launched himself to the forefront of American tech and innovation, building remarkable brands. Musk has also become known for setting ambitious, sometimes overly optimistic, deadlines, leading to occasional delays in product delivery, exemplified by the initial challenges and infamous demo of the Tesla Cybertruck. Rather than letting setbacks rattle him, he kept pushing forward with his designs, recognizing his failures and making changes fast to improve.
Figure 5: The windows of the Cybertruck broke during a demo specifically designed to showcase their strength [10].
Musk has come far since 2015. As the tech sector continues to explode with growth, one can see that Tesla and SpaceX were ahead of their time, reengineering from the ground up and incorporating slick touchscreens and modern aesthetics into their brands. Good designs stay ahead of the curve, and Musk has stayed well beyond the competition, investing time and money into his dreams and then following through with technical expertise and a willingness to achieve.
Figure 6: Ashlee Vance’s biography of Elon Musk [11].
Takeaways for the Aspiring Engineer
Elon Musk is a brilliant engineer and a capable CEO, yet his success is more due to his zealous pursuit of his vision. Though his methodology may be unempathetic at times and often requires the near-impossible, he knows how to build meaningful relationships with other powerful and influential people. His consistent approach to life keeps him constantly in the growth area, and he refuses to slow down his pace. His purposes are clear and evident to himself and everyone he interacts with, facilitating a culture that really can make breakthroughs. 10 years after the first Falcon 9 touchdown landing, he has embroiled himself in politics with X and DOGE while also diving into AI; if anything is clear, in the next 10 years, he will have continued to spread his business and industrial empire further into innovation so that, perhaps one day, he can land people on Mars.
References
[1] "Falcon 9 Successfully Launches, Descends to Off-Balance Landing." Spaceflight Now, 14 Apr. 2015, spaceflightnow.com/2015/04/14/falcon-9-successfully-launches-descends-to-off-balance-landing/.
[2] Vance, Ashlee. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.1 HarperCollins, 2015, p. 17.
[3] Lambert, Fred. "Elon Musk Introduces the Tesla Model X, Complete with Falcon Wing Doors." Business Insider, 27 Sept. 2016, www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-model-x-2016-2.
[4] Vance, Ashlee. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.2 HarperCollins, 2015, p. 272.
[5] Vance, Ashlee. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.3 HarperCollins, 2015, p. 218.
[6] Cho, Eric. "Why Elon Musk Won't Quit." Slate, 24 Apr. 2015, slate.com/technology/2015/04/elon-musk-and-mars-spacex-ceo-and-our-multiplanet-species.html.
[7] Vance, Ashlee. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.4 HarperCollins, 2015, p. 218.
[8] "Musk Hands Drivers First Teslas from New German Gigafactory." Asia Financial, 22 Mar. 2022, www.asiafinancial.com/musk-hands-drivers-first-teslas-from-new-german-gigafactory.
[9] Vance, Ashlee. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.5 HarperCollins, 2015, p. 358.
[10] Eliot, Lance. "Top Ten Reasons Tesla's Cybertruck Windows Shattered Despite Being Unbreakable." Forbes, 30 Nov. 2019, www.forbes.com/sites/lanceeliot/2019/11/30/top-ten-reasons-teslas-cybertruck-windows-shattered-despite-being-unbreakable/.
[11] "Watch and Digest Elon Musk: NY Times Best-Seller in 4 Minutes." Medium, BookVideoClub, 28 Jan. 2016, medium.com/@BookVideoClub/watch-and-digest-elon-musk-ny-times-best-seller-in-4-minutes-380dd6671cd7.
To cite this article:
Conover, Dylan. “A Design-Inspired Book Review of Elon Musk.” The BYU Design Review, 27 August 2025, https://www.designreview.byu.edu/collections/a-design-inspired-book-review-of-elon-musk.
