Because of ITAR the vast majority of SpaceX employees are citizens or at least permanent residents. I'm sure he'd love to be able to hire outside of the US, but ITAR isn't going to change anytime soon.
Agreed. Yet, for some reason, the SpaceX team was chanting "U-S-A, U-S-A" after witnessing the landing. I thought that it would have been far more appropriate to chant "SpaceX"
Elon is in fact American. He was born in South Africa gu moved to Canada in the '80 and got a Canadian citizenship through his mother. In 1992 he first came to the USA and go his citizenship 10 years later.
He was not born in America nor were his parents but he is American like Linus Tovrvalds
I imagine its also because "SpaceX" is awkward to chant. Chanting too fast or with too many people and it will start sounding like "Space sex". Don't believe me? Say "Space X" ten times fast...
Elon Musk, within the same week, sold 300,000+ preorders for the Model 3 (the largest dollar-figure launch of ANY product in history), AND landed a friggin rocket on a drone ship for the first time in history.
He is hands down the greatest entrepreneur within our lifetime, and possibly the greatest in modern history.
PS - yes, I'm a fanboy - jesus christ how can you not be? and yes, it goes without saying he couldn't have done it without all the hard-working employees at both companies.
I don't think you should be downvoted. It's true, perhaps entrepreneur is the wrong word to use here because the goal of most companies is to maximize profits/shareholder value.
how about "most inspiring entrepreneur"? The two people that come closest in recent times, in my opinion, are Steve Jobs and Howard Hughes.
What problem? Google is something that helps billions of people every day in substantial ways.
No, it isn't revolutionary and exciting, but things that make the greatest impact rarely are. You either want to help people or you want to do flashy things that grab peoples' attention.
BTW, Linus has done more for humanity than Musk ever will. Teslas run on Linux and I would be surprised if his rocket didn't use it in some way as well.
Yeah... I should've been more clear. I mean to say that the poster I responded to is focused more on money rather than, "Holy shit, we landed a fucking rocket from the sky on a fucking barge in middle of the ocean. Fuck yeah!"
p&l is a silly goal when it comes to "Fuck yeah, progress!"
Not when you are an investor in Musk's projects (which I am). If investors don't see a return on "Fuck yeah, progress" type investments, they will stop making those investments and opportunities for progress to succeed will diminish.
You throw money at these sorts of companies to build knowledge and skill. You're investing in the future's economy and not the now's. It's selfish to think otherwise.
Why does making money have to be intrinsic to helping people? Ugh. Ugh, I say.
Elon might be able to take personal credit for booking 300k pre-orders (which is of debatable merit), but it was an army of incredibly dedicated SpaceX employees who landed that rocket. Credit where credit is due.
that's why I mentioned it in the "PS". To take a corny line from the Steve Jobs movie, Elon Musk is the conductor. Without him, none of this is possible. Look at Apple after Steve Jobs. Still got the same hard-working people there. Do we still have the same inspirational products coming out? Not even close.
I'm the biggest Musk fan there is, so don't take this the wrong way, but I have some serious doubts about that "largest launch" proclamation. That sort of statement needs some serious qualification. I think it's just a marketing thing. Has anyone really researched this claim?
PS - yes, I'm a fanboy - jesus christ how can you not be?
I am not a fanboy. (Perhaps it helps that I am not a boy.) But, whatevs. We all have our heroes. No need to justify yours, but also no need to make sweeping statements about what other people should be into.
I'm so damn excited I can hardly contain myself.