Reading Reflection No. 1

1. The thing that surprised me the most about Elon Musk was the amount of ventures he started. I really only knew about Tesla. He also helped start SpaceX, a space transportation service and manufacturer of aerospace equipment. He helps run SolarCity, a company intended on producing solar energy. Paypal might not even be around without him. 
2. The thing about Elon Musk that I most admire is his willingness to take risks. After making so much money off of Zip2 and PayPal, he put an incredibly high amount of money into developing new products. Even though they are not returning much money, he still continues funding these new technologies in order to try to help future generations. 
3. The thing about Elon Musk that I least admire is the fact that he left South Africa for Canada in order to avoid military service. While I understand somebody not wanting to go to war, his country was depending on them and he let them down.
4. Elon Musk did encounter adversity along the way. He ended up going broke before after renting an office with his brother. He ended up living there and had to shower at a gym. He didn’t have a bed of his own and slept on a bean bag. After that business had success, he lost control of it. He kept his drive to succeed and never gave up. He lived the way he had to in order to pursue his dreams. 


2. Elon Musk was really resilient in his journey. Even though he faced many points in his life that made it seem like he wouldn’t succeed, he never gave up. Many products he funded seemed like they had no chance to be a success, but he went with his heart and overall it has worked for him. 
3. The thing I found to be the most confusing in the text was how he was able to get out of going to the South African military. Normally it is extremely difficult in order to avoid service, but he was able to flee the country and get to Canada. Normally it is a long process becoming a legal citizen of another country.
4. If I could ask Elon Musk two questions, I would ask him what inspired him to go through with the particular companies he funded and what gave him the drive to keep going after he was broke living in his office. There are so many different ideas he could have started but he picked the ones he did for some reason. They are also all over the place and not in a particular field. Also, not having a home of your own must be very difficult. It would have been very easy for him to just throw in the towel, but he kept pushing and was successful because of it.
5. I believe Elon Musk’s view of hard work is giving everything your all no matter what. He gives everything he can for his business and wants to succeed and help mankind. He always is doing something in our to succeed, similar to me. I always do anything I can in order to be successful. Before coming to the University of Florida, I was at a community college full time and worked as many as four part time jobs at once.