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  • Elon Musk

  • By: Ashlee Vance
  • Narrated by: Fred Sanders
  • Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (4,845 ratings)

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Elon Musk

By: Ashlee Vance
Narrated by: Fred Sanders
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Publisher's Summary

South African-born Elon Musk is the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity. Musk wants to save our planet; he wants to send citizens into space, to form a colony on Mars; he wants to make money while doing these things; and he wants us all to know about it.

He is the real-life inspiration for the Iron Man series of films starring Robert Downey, Jr. The personal tale of Musk's life comes with all the trappings one associates with a great, drama-filled story. He was a freakishly bright kid who was bullied brutally at school and abused by his father. In the midst of these rough conditions and the violence of apartheid South Africa, Musk still thrived academically and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he paid his own way through school by turning his house into a club and throwing massive parties.

He started a pair of huge dot-com successes, including PayPal, which eBay acquired for $1.5 billion in 2002. Musk was forced out as CEO and so began his lost years, in which he decided to go it alone and baffled friends by investing his fortune in rockets and electric cars. Meanwhile Musk's marriage disintegrated as his technological obsessions took over his life...

Elon Musk is the Steve Jobs of the present and the future, and for the past 12 months he has been shadowed by tech reporter Ashlee Vance. Elon Musk is an important, exciting and intelligent account of the real-life Iron Man.

©2015 Ashlee Vance (P)2016 Random House Audiobooks

What listeners say about Elon Musk

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

An underwhelming narrative of a really cool guy

This book is a bit of a let-down. You will learn a bit about Elon and his companies, but it will sap 13 hours of your life away and you won't be a better person for it.

You'd think there's so much you can learn from Elon Musk, but this author didn't really make much effort to gather any nuggets of insightful information, just snippets of hearsay from sources that have worked around Elon. Listening to the book feels kind of perverted because it's written in a way where the author digs up lots of dirt on him the way a trash magazine reports on the secret lives of celebrities.

The Author even gloats mildly about his tenacity in pestering Musk until he agreed to let him write the book.

Don't bother listening to this one.

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72 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating story of an exceptional man

Things I liked:

1. Elon Musk's story is nothing like you have ever heard, even if you have studied the greatest men and women to grace this planet.

2. His big picture thinking and pursuit of ideals, never backing down until those ideals are achieved is grandiose.

3. The idea that a man like this is alive at this present moment gives me the extra motivation to work hard on my purpose and perhaps come across Elon one day.

4. Both the writing by Ashlee Vance and reading by Fred Sanders is fantastic. The story flows very well and I will undoubtedly be listening to this again.

Things I disliked:

1. I wish there was more.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • MKG
  • 07-05-2016

Best Biography Ever!

Simply the most impressive and exciting true story about a person's life that I've ever known.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A really good read (listen)

Really enjoyed musks story of obsession and his drive to make the world a better place. Highly recommended for those who believe in a bright future.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it

Great story well told, if slightly biased towards the end. He is an amazing and terrifying man.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Changing force

Musk has ambitions that are so magnetic that it makes you want to change the world too.
He really is shaping the future, Ashlee Vance does an outstanding job presenting this.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant book

An amazing story of a truly remarkable and resilient man. Vance captures Musk's personality, both good and bad points, and digs deep into his success and failures.

Very well narrated.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

This book is an absolutely fascinating dive into the life of Elon Musk. The book is a well-researched and engaging biography that takes the reader on a journey through the life of one of the most fascinating entrepreneurs of our time. It provides insight into Musk's early life, upbringing, and journey to becoming the CEO of two incredibly successful companies, Tesla and SpaceX.

The book also delves into Musk's personal life, including his relationships, his marriage, and his children. It was refreshing to see the human side of Musk beyond just the impressive accomplishments he is known for. Throughout the book, the author does an excellent job of capturing Musk's drive, ambition, and determination and how these qualities have contributed to his success.

Overall, I found "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future" a thoroughly interesting and thought-provoking read. Whether you're interested in entrepreneurship, technology, or just a good biography, this book is definitely worth a read.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

such an amazing story.

Extreme management and perseverance to achieve what he does, inevitably burning people on the way. His arrogance and dictator style leadership means he achieves the impossible. Lucky he has an underlying altruistic vision of solutions for humananity which drives him.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing person

I love this guys vision. If one thing is for sure, it is we need more visionaries like him.

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1 person found this helpful

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