Antonio Navalón
51 years old. He is only 51 years old and neither the business world nor on planet Earth there is hardly anyone who does not know who Elon Musk is. His kingdom is not of this world or, at least, not of this planet. He, being a child and with an absolutely disruptive mind and not knowing what to do when the injustice and suffering on the people of Soweto or those who were deprived of their freedoms for the simple fact of having a different color of skin in South Africa, is currently the man of the moment.
Elon Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa and is a man truly out of any classification. He is also a man who lives with the stars and dreams of earthly powers. Musk is not an American nor does he think like one. He is a man who, let’s not forget, whatever he does on Earth will be irrelevant compared to what he truly cares about which is the realm of the heavens…infinite space. That same Musk is now coming to Mexico and not only because he has decided to make his crusade to produce 20 million Tesla cars annually a reality, but also because he knows that to achieve it and to reign everywhere, it is necessary to formally incorporate the new North America. A region that, whatever they say, is still the capital of capitalism.
The CEO of Twitter is a man whose figure and projection has singularities as unique as those of Howard Hughes. This American billionaire invested much of his fortune in exploring and promoting advances in the aeronautical sector. Some of his achievements were the innovative designs in the construction of airplanes such as the Hughes H-1 or the Hughes H-4 Hercules, in addition to obtaining air speed records and producing films on this subject that changed people’s perspective. Hughes is the character that most resembles those who have a distinctive stamp in the figure of Elon Musk, although Musk is the only one who has dared – regardless of the cost, since he does not care about the money of this earthly world – to break the barriers of the imaginable and marking the beginning of a revolution that, worth the redundancy, is just beginning.
Hughes was concerned about the road ahead so that all movement in the world would be through the air and by airlines. The creation of Trans World Airlines, the design of large airplanes, the occupation, first in the movies and then in the reality of the business world made Hughes a character who, in the end, as each of us are children of our genetics, died alone. On April 5, 1976, at the age of 70, while in the highest suite of a hotel in Acapulco – presumably the Princess Hotel – the aeronautical magnate began to agonize and had to be rushed to Houston, but when he arrived there was nothing the doctors could do to save his life. After dying in isolation and with a sickening fear of bacteria and viruses, his remains were laid to rest in Houston’s Glenwood Cemetery, right next to where his parents died victims of one of the most serious cholera and typhus epidemics the United States has ever experienced.
A big creator and consumer of artificial intelligence, Elon Musk knows that the world of robots is the death blow against the manual labor of the human condition. That’s why at some of the most important business rallies, Musk calls and advocates for the creation of a universal income for all human beings in the face of the inevitable displacement that artificial intelligence and the robot world is beginning to produce. In every business deal Musk makes there are two things to note that mark his imprint on the way he understands business. First, he really seeks to produce the first electric car that, by its implementation, development, simplicity to charge and spread, can truly be a relief for the very complicated climate and energy landscape. And second, Musk’s faith in the solution that science and technology can provide for every problem is infinite. And while he waits for the technological development itself to solve the complicated panorama of batteries, he sleeps peacefully thinking that the cars he produces are less harmful to the planet than other vehicles. What is true is that the products made by Musk – until we move to the next generation of batteries – seem to be one of the great solutions.
It is true that, during the day, Musk’s environmental footprint is smaller than that of other big businessmen but during the night, the consumption and environmental damage are much greater than other businesses since, to supply energy to his vehicles, it is necessary to have the corresponding energy consumption and infrastructure that could well be equivalent to the damage caused by fossil fuels. Just as Howard Hughes dreamed of the sky, he dreams that space is the only way to survive the challenge of having more than eight billion people living on planet Earth. He understands that the key is to provide services for people to travel not by air but through the universe. And in the best case scenario, that on that journey they find a planet and ecosystem that is not as polluted as ours and that ensures human preservation.
The South African-born tycoon is a creative, living, occupying entrepreneur of an autistic world who, at the end of the day, always surrounds himself with great teams and looks to take the next step. Musk has radically changed the way we do things and, above all, the way we do business. What is important is to know what Mr. Musk wants because we already know that – as if it were a James Bond movie – the tycoon is looking to conquer the skies, but it is not enough for him to conquer the Earth. Whatever his final project is, Elon Musk has already embarked on a path that can really make a qualitative leap in social and political behavior.
Politically, Elon Musk seems to have no fondness for anything. First, he was a Democrat, now, he will be a Republican, and tomorrow God knows what he will be. But what is certain is that for countries like Mexico, the arrival of Musk means the irruption of artificial intelligence, robots and the latest of the 21st century world, but not to communicate, not to send each other love letters – as it was in the first 20 years of this century – nor to consolidate the Zuckerbergs, but to really take the next step and replace the bases of manual workers by the masses of robots and that artificial intelligence occupies a large part of our lives, although it is not known at what cost.
Where is Musk’s endgame? It is hard to say. At the moment, by 2030, he wants to produce at least twenty million cars annually. In 2022 Tesla produced 1.31 million vehicles, and that’s considering the three gigafactories it currently has. And now, with the new ones planned to be built in Mexico and in other possible sites such as Indonesia, it will be able to get closer to the goal set. In the meantime, we must know that the politicians who can understand him, talk to him and be able to look at him without creating a phenomenon of boredom, are the ones who will have a future. And from the Mexican experience, I would like to point out that there have been two politicians who have been especially skillful, at least in keeping his attention. The first is the governor of Nuevo Leon, Samuel Garcia, and the second is the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard. I do not know if the latter will end up being the next President of the United Mexican States, but what I do know is that this relationship created and maintained with the new owner of the world may end up benefiting him more than people and he himself believe.
From Jules Verne to Vladimir Nabokov, at this point it is hard to know who has influenced Musk’s persona the most. But when it comes to investor roadshows and introducing new products, his role model was undoubtedly Steve Jobs. The creator of Apple was radical in all his conceptions, not only intellectual or technological but, above all, aesthetic. That is why Musk found his greatest source of inspiration in him. Just look at the palm of your hand, and you will realize that, unconsciously, we have all already lost the axes for the points that bordered Steve Jobs’ vision of his business.
In two presentations, one as the disciplined leader he is, dressed in a jacket and shirt, and the other in which he emanates and emerges as the true tech mogul who simply wears a t-shirt with nothing to announce except the fact that his presence represents, Musk revolutionized the Mexican industrial and technological sector last week. It took him three hours, playing on everyone’s nerves and speculation, to clearly confess what he was going to do in Mexico. In many places, there was even panic as there is always the possibility that a character like Musk could change his mind from one day to the next.
What is clear is that the day Musk’s earthly life comes to an end, that moment will surely not be perpetuated from a hotel suite in Acapulco – as it happened to Howard Hughes – but from a space station.
Never forget Elon Musk is like a child and has Asperger’s syndrome. He listens to himself and transmits what he believes from that conviction and resolution that only those who are living in that universe can understand. Specialists criticize and judge the drop in the value of his shares after Tesla’s presentation last Wednesday. However, Musk’s essence should not be forgotten. First, like Steve Jobs, he does not care about money. Second, he cares more about being right and imposing his radical vision of how to fix the world. He is convinced that science and technology is the solution to the world. Third, he has managed to fill the roads around the world with more than four million Tesla cars, and his mission certainly won’t stop there.
Elon Musk has only one person who binds him to the world, and that is his mother. He has only been married twice so far, but even if he had been married more than two hundred times, the result would be the same. The only person to whom he always addresses with tenderness, and love and who always brings him into his earthly world is his mother. It is not difficult to suppose that there is a Musk as long as his mother is still alive and that he will be another Musk once, following the implacable logic of nature, his mother abandons him. In the meantime, chroniclers and biographers of his life will continue to discuss whether he has 7 or 10 children, though that matters little. What matters is his disruptive element and his ability to fight from the conviction that the planet Earth and the human condition are in danger.
Space X is based on a fundamental principle, which is to provide people – considering the costs and the necessary requirements – with the possibility of traveling and moving into space in a simple way. That is why Musk is so determined to show the world that the terrestrial is vain and fleeting, that the real future is in the stars and in the outer space he admires so much. And he intends to prove it all through those two great friends that are so unconditional for him: science and technology.
Finally, it is necessary to know that being a shareholder of his is like being part of a congregation or a sect and that it is something that goes far beyond the temporary juncture or the benefit of a specific action. Those deals and associations are only the means that allow him to influence and perpetrate the great plans he has in the passage of his life on planet Earth. Musk, the man of the moment, is someone who lives on this planet but longs and dreams of the hereafter.
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