The Risk Taker: Elon Musk 惊世骇俗的冒险家：伊隆·马斯克

When you work on an epic scale, tossing out huge ideas as if they were pennies aimed at a wishing well1), you get used to hearing the word crazy. For Elon Musk, the term springs up so frequently he might as well print it on his business card. Crazy Elon Musk. Who else would have the audacity2) to plan a privately funded mission to Mars?

A lifetime before he aimed at distant planets, Musk was a driving force behind two of the most successful startups the digital world had ever known. Zip2, the Internet services provider he co-founded with his younger brother, Kimbal, at age 24, was purchased by Compaq for $307 million. PayPal, the online payment system he developed with Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, was scooped up3) by eBay for $1.5 billion. After all his shares were added up, Musk was worth $180 million.

It takes a certain measure of savvy4) to pull off5) deals like those, and youve got to respect a man who assembles such a private fortune in only seven years time. So when Musk decided that he should aspire to put life on Mars by rocketing a miniature greenhouse there, people humored6) him. And when he flew off to Moscow to talk with the Russians about purchasing two intercontinental ballistic missiles, they smiled. But when he announced that he was going to start yet another company—one that would build its very own rockets—they concluded he was nuts.

“The public tends to respond to precedents and superlatives7),” Musk said in a commencement speech at Caltech8) in June, 2012. Thats why the notion of sending that greenhouse into space held so much appeal for him. Not only would it bring life to Mars, but it would also be the greatest distance life from Earth had ever traveled. Musk believes a permanent human base on Mars is attainable sooner than even the foremost stargazers9) can fathom10).

Blasting Off

Born in South Africa in 1971, Musk was not like the other neighborhood boys in Pretoria. Not only did he love to lose himself in books, but he remembered virtually everything he read. The son of an engineer (electrical and mechanical) and a dietitian/model, he learned early on how to harness his brainpower to make money. At 12, he sold his first piece of software—a video game called Blastar—for $500. At 17, Musk left home to make his fortune in America. He knew that the United States is where the action is.

Of course you cant just show up in America without a green card. So Musk set out first for Canada and took on a series of odd jobs11), eventually enrolling in one of the nations top schools, Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. After a year, he transferred to Penn, where he collected his dual degrees (physics and business). He graduated in 1995 and moved west to Stanford, with plans to develop expertise in high-energy supercapacitors12) while working toward a graduate degree. That lasted all of two days. In no time he saw the feverish entrepreneurial spirit in Silicon Valley, observed the staggering success of the Netscape IPO13), and threw himself headlong14) into the game.

He summoned his brother from Queens University, recruited a friend, and the three worked night and day beneath the leaky roof of a tiny Palo Alto, Calif. office that also served as their home, creating the code for Zip2. The company was a success. When Zip2 was sold, Musk pocketed $22 million. He immediately invested it in his next big idea, a digital payment service called X.com. In the spring of 2000, at age 29, he merged the company with a competitor called Confinity, which offered a similar service known as PayPal15).

Confinity CEO Peter Thiel stepped aside and let Musk steer the company, and by some accounts he did an admirable job of blending the two operations. But he clearly ruffled some feathers16). After nearly 10 months in charge, Musk left the PayPal office for a long-awaited vacation in Australia. While he was gone the board of directors voted to replace him with Thiel. The dismissal stung, Musk says, but it did not soften him. He was still the companys largest stockholder. In the end, Paypal was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion.

Experiencing Turbulence

Is it courage that sets Elon Musk apart from most business leaders? Of course not. What makes Musk extraordinary is this: In an era when young hotshots17) with laptops are scrambling to launch the next Google from their dorm rooms, he chose to risk his entire net worth on three enterprises with sweeping infrastructures and steep18) research and development costs.

First he poured $100 million into SpaceX. Then in 2003, he sank $50 million into Tesla, an automaker determined to manufacture electric cars for the masses. And three years later, it was a $10 million initial investment in SolarCity, a company that installs and leases solar panels across the country.

Its tempting to say he makes everything look easy, but thats definitely not the case. Musk handed off the reins19) at SolarCity to two cousins, reserved the CEO role at SpaceX for himself, and initially tried to guide Tesla from afar, only to eventually find himself with a second CEO job. These days he shuttles back and forth a couple of times a week between SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., and the Tesla nerve center20) in Palo Alto. The workload—85 to 90 hours per week—helped destroy his first marriage to sci-fi novelist Justine Musk, and no doubt contributed to the downfall of his second, to British actress Talulah Riley. In order to spend quality time21) with his sons—twins born in 2004 and triplets born in 2006—he often piles them onboard his jet for the 400-mile commute.

Musks failures have been epic. Teslas $98,000 Roadster arrived months behind schedule. And the first three rockets built by SpaceX produced crash-and-burn videos akin to those Musk was forced to watch with his friends.

“That was definitely a difficult blow,” Musk says. “The important thing is that none of our customers left SpaceX. They all sort of held the faith.”

Musk never lost his. When the fourth rocket climbed into the blue sky above the Marshall Islands—2,400 miles southwest of Hawaii—on Sept. 28, 2008, he did not have the funds to build a fifth. No matter. About 9.5 minutes into the flight, 250 miles above the mission control center, the second stage engine shut down as planned and the Falcon 122) became the first privately developed liquid-fuel rocket to orbit the Earth. “This is one of the greatest days of my life,” the CEO gushed23) in the post-mission celebration he shared with SpaceXs 150 employees. “We are going to be taking over for the Space Shuttle when it retires.”

If its hard to fathom how one man could risk $100 million on such a far-flung dream, just imagine how hard it would be to turn right around and take the last $3 million in your bank account and sink it into a struggling car company. Thats precisely what Musk did three months after SpaceXs triumph, back in the days when the nations banks were pleading for federal bailouts24), and General Motors and Chrysler were teetering25) on the edge of bankruptcy. He had to borrow money to pay the rent, he says.

It was the most gut-wrenching26) stretch of his life, a span he likes to call the “period of maximum suckage27).” But he did not blink28). “Either I went all-in or Tesla dies,” Musk told a reporter for Mens Journal. “I didnt want to look back and say there was something more I could have done.”

Never a Final Frontier

On May 25, 2012, the latest SpaceX rocket, Falcon 9, ferried a laptop computer, 162 meal packets and a fresh set of clothes to the astronauts at the International Space Station, kicking off a $1.6 billion contract (at minimum) with NASA for at least 12 more resupply missions. The same week, Tesla announced that in June—ahead of schedule—it would begin fulfilling orders of the Model S, a four-door electric sedan priced about $50,000 after tax credits29). SolarCity entered 2013 with hopes to raise $200 million in its own IPO.

Musk reminds us of a time when the United States was a nation of big ideas, when we endeavored to bridge the coasts with railroad tracks, dig the Panama Canal, and, yes, put a man on the moon. “He has this incredible sense of mission,” says Thiel. “The things that he is working on—if he were not doing them, they would not be done.”

Though much is made of Musks struggles in personal relationships, the truth is he has a profound understanding of what it is that makes human beings tick30). He knows its not enough to build a functional electric car. To fire up the worlds imagination, the thing has to rocket from zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds—just like a Ferrari31). To create a whole new worldview, you cant simply reach the International Space Station. You have to make space travel affordable and put the journey to Mars in the grasp of the well-heeled32) voyager.

So the real question is not whether Elon Musk is insane. Its whether we are crazy to doubt him. If history is any judge at all, Musk will prove us wrong.

当你从事一项史诗般规模宏大的工作，抛出一个又一个惊世骇俗的想法，犹如一个又一个投向许愿井的硬币，你会习惯于听到“疯狂”这个词。对于伊隆·马斯克来说，“疯狂”一词如此频繁地出现在他生活中，他真应该将它印在自己的名片上：疯狂的伊隆·马斯克。除了他，还有谁有胆量筹划一项完全由私人出资的火星探索任务呢？

早在他将目标投向遥远的星球之前，马斯克就已是数字世界里所知的最为成功的两大创业公司的主要推动者。一是互联网服务提供商Zip2，这是他24岁时与弟弟金博尔共同创立的一个公司，后来以3.07亿美元的价格被康柏公司收购。另一个是他和皮特·泰尔以及马克斯·列夫琴共同研发的在线支付系统PayPal，后被eBay以15亿美元的价格抢先收购。如果将他所有的股份加在一起，马斯克当时的身价已达1.8亿美元。

能达成这样的交易还是需要有一定的头脑的，况且，一个在短短七年之内就聚集了如此一笔私人财富的人确实值得敬佩。因此，当马斯克立志要将一个微型温室通过火箭传送到火星上、从而给火星带来生命时，人们假装相信了他；当他飞到莫斯科和俄罗斯人谈判，要购买两枚洲际弹道导弹时，人们笑了；但当他宣布他要创办另一家公司—— 一家打算自己制造火箭的公司时，人们认定他疯了。

“公众通常会对做得最早和做得最好的人和事做出反应。”马斯克于2012年6月在加州理工学院毕业典礼上的演讲中如是说。这也是为什么将温室送往太空的想法对他会有那么大的吸引力。它不仅能将生命带到火星上，而且也将是地球生命迄今所能到达的最远的距离。马斯克坚信，在火星上建立永久的人类基地的那一天，要比哪怕是最杰出的天文学家所能推算的时间都要早。

展露峥嵘

马斯克于1971年生于南非，但他和比勒陀利亚(编注：南非行政首都)附近其他男孩都不大一样。他不仅沉迷于书的世界，而且对读过的东西几乎过目不忘。他父亲是位(电气和机械)工程师，母亲是营养师和模特，他很早就学会如何利用自己的聪明才智来赚钱。12岁时，他卖掉了自己设计的第一款软件——一款名为Blastar的电子游戏，赚了500美元。17岁时，马斯克离开家乡，前往美国追求财富之梦。他知道美国就是他可以一展宏图之地。

当然，没有绿卡是无法在美国立足的。所以马斯克先去了加拿大，在那里打了一些零工，终于被位于安大略省金斯顿市的女王大学所录取——那是加拿大最为顶尖的大学之一。一年后，他转学到宾夕法尼亚大学，在那里拿到了双学位(物理学和商务学)。1995年毕业后，他开始向西挺进，进入斯坦福大学，打算一边攻读研究生学位一边学习高能超级电容器的专业知识。但这一切总共只维持了两天。因为他很快就发现了硅谷那炽热的企业家精神，目睹了网景公司首次公开募股那令人瞠目的成功，便义无反顾地投入到这一行当中。

他把他弟弟从女王大学召集过来，又招来一位朋友，三人就开始没日没夜地在一间屋顶漏雨的小办公室里忙活起来，为Zip2编写代码。这间位于加利福尼亚州帕洛阿尔托市的办公室同时也是他们的家。公司获得了成功。卖掉Zip2时，马斯克分得了2200万美元。他立即将这笔钱投入到他下一个宏伟计划中—— 一个叫做X.com的数字支付服务系统。2000年春，29岁的他将公司和另一家名叫康菲尼迪的竞争对手合并，这家公司提供一种名为PayPal的类似服务。

康菲尼迪首席执行官皮特·泰尔退居幕后，让马斯克执掌公司。据说他在融合两家公司经营方面做得很出色，但他显然也激怒了一些人。在管理了将近十个月之后，马斯克离开了PayPal的办公室，前往澳大利亚度假——那是一个期盼已久的假期。在他离开的那段时间里，董事会投票解除了他的职务，让泰尔取而代之。马斯克说，董事会解雇他的做法深深刺痛了他，但并未削弱他的力量。他仍然还是公司最大的股东。最终，PayPal以15亿美元的价格卖给了eBay。

激流勇进

伊隆·马斯克和多数商业领袖之间的区别在于勇气吗？当然不是。使马斯克与众不同的是，当青年才俊们在宿舍里利用笔记本电脑争先恐后地想要发布下一代Google时，他却将全部资产净值全都押到三家企业上，要面对规模庞大的基础设施建设和高昂离谱的研发费用。

首先，他向太空探索技术公司(SpaceX)砸了1亿美元。接着在2003年，他又向特斯拉公司注入5000万美元，这是家致力于生产大众型电动汽车的汽车制造公司。三年后，他又向太阳城公司投入了1000万美元作为初期投资，该公司在美国各地安装与出租太阳能电池板。

有人会禁不住说，他做什么事看上去都很容易，但事实绝非如此。马斯克将太阳城公司的管理交给了两个表兄弟打理，把太空探索技术公司首席执行官的位子留给了自己。最初，他还只想远程指导一下特斯拉公司的管理工作，结果却发现自己又担任了一份首席执行官的工作。这些日子里，他每周都要在两地之间往返数次，穿梭于太空探索技术公司位于加利福尼亚州霍桑市的总部和特斯拉公司位于帕洛阿尔托的控制中心之间。每周85~90小时的超负荷工作助推了他和科幻小说家贾斯汀·马斯克第一次婚姻的破灭，无疑也部分导致了他和英国女演员妲露拉·莱莉第二次婚姻的失败。为了和儿子们——生于2004年的双胞胎和2006年的三胞胎—— 一起度过宝贵的亲子时光，他常常将他们带到自己的喷气式飞机上，与他共享400英里的上班之路。

马斯克的挫败也具有史诗般的气势。特斯拉公司价值98000美元的敞篷跑车比预定时间迟了几个月才推出。还有太空探索技术公司制造的前三枚火箭也全都坠地烧毁，就像马斯克被迫和朋友们一起观看的那些录像里的情景一样。

“这绝对是一次沉重的打击，”马斯克说，“但重要的是，我们的客户没有一个背弃我们太空探索技术公司。可以说，他们全都持有一种信念。”

马斯克也从未丧失过自己的信念。2008年9月28日，第四枚火箭在马绍尔群岛升入蔚蓝的天空——那是位于夏威夷西南约2400英里的地方。此时，他已没有资金再建造第五枚火箭了。不过没关系。就在飞行了约9.5分钟、离发射控制中心250英里远时，二级发动机如期关闭，猎鹰1号运载火箭成为第一支由私人公司研发的进入地球轨道的液体燃料火箭。发射成功后，他和太空探索技术公司150名员工一起举行了庆祝活动。“这是我一生中意义最重大的一天，”这位首席执行官极其激动地说，“当航天飞机退休后，我们将用它来代替。”

如果说我们很难理解一个人怎么能将1亿美元砸向一个如此缥缈的梦想，那么试想一下，一个人能够毅然决然地将银行账户中最后300万美元投入到一个艰难生存的汽车公司中，该是多么困难。而这正是马斯克的做法。那是在太空探索技术公司成功后的第三个月，当时美国各大银行都在申请联邦援助，通用汽车和克莱斯勒汽车公司正濒临破产。他说自己不得不靠借钱来支付房租。

这是他一生中最为痛苦煎熬的时期，他称之为“糟到不能再糟的人生阶段”。但他却没有退缩。“我要么全力以赴，要么就让特斯拉公司玩完，”马斯克告诉《男士月刊》记者，“我不想在回首往事的时候，说我本来可以做更多的事情。”

永无止境

2012年5月25日，太空探索技术公司的最新火箭“猎鹰9号”将一台笔记本电脑、162袋方便餐、一套新衣服运送给国际空间站上的宇航员们，由此开启了一项与美国国家航空航天局签订的价值(至少)16亿美元的协议。根据该协议，公司还要再执行至少十二次补给任务。同一周，特斯拉公司宣布将于6月开始为S型号电动车订单提前供货，这是一种四门电动轿车，扣除免税额度后的价格约为五万美元。进入2013年后，太阳城公司的首次公开募股有望筹集到两亿美元的资金。

马斯克让我们想起了曾经的美国，那时的美国是一个拥有伟大梦想的国家，那时的我们发奋图强，铺设铁道连接海岸，挖掘巴拿马运河，还有，没错，把人类送上月球。“他有一种不可思议的使命感，”泰尔说，“他正在做的那些事情——如果他不做，将永远不会有人去做。”

关于马斯克在人际关系上的挫折已有很多讨论，但事实是，他对人类本性有着深刻的了解。他知道仅仅制造一辆实用的电动汽车是不够的。要激发世人的想象力，它必须能在3.9秒的时间内从0加速到时速60英里，就像法拉利一样。要创造一种全新的世界观，仅仅到达国际空间站是不够的。你还必须要降低太空旅行的价格，使个人也能承担得起，还要让高端太空旅行者能够踏上火星之旅。

因此，真正的问题不是伊隆·马斯克是否是个疯子。问题是我们竟然怀疑他，我们是不是疯了？如果说历史是最好的裁判，那么马斯克终将证明我们错了。