Elon Musk

“Heroes arrive when we need them most. They define us and point us in a direction... And as long as we need examples of how to live, as long as we aspire, we will never be too old for heroes” (Granger).  In David Granger’s article “Boy Do We Ever Need a Hero,” he describes how although society believes that heroes are for kids, they are actually important to people of all ages because they serve to inspire the population and lead people to the correct path. Superheroes in particular are sometimes treated as deities because they can be larger than life beings that act as role models for society. Nevertheless, heroes from real life are also role models. In order to be inspiring and admired by others, heroes must display traits that are valued by society. However, every society values different traits, and as a result heroes from different cultures act differently. But what is the general definition of a hero? I believe that a hero is someone who uses his or her traits and values to make the world a better place, be it through technological advancements or helping to make people’s lives better. Heroes can range from ordinary people who display kindness, bravery, and humility in their everyday lives to people who selflessly risk their own lives to save others. Anyone can show acts of heroism, but in order to be considered a hero, one must continuously display these traits. Many of our modern heroes often improve society or inspire people, but that is not all that a hero needs to do. In addition to being inspiring, a hero will persevere through all difficulties and show courage to try new things that can benefit society despite any possible repercussions.

Elon Muskhttps://money.cnn.com/One person who demonstrates these traits is Elon Musk. Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. He is a social entrepreneur who is the CEO of various well-known companies, and from those companies, he has become a billionaire. One of his early companies was X.com, which eventually merged with PayPal. The profit from the merge contributed to Musk’s newer companies, such as SpaceX and Tesla Inc. SpaceX was started in 2002, and it currently works to create less expensive, reusable rockets in order for space exploration to become more efficient. Tesla, started in 2003, is a company that not only creates high quality electric sports cars, but is also aiming to make the cars more affordable to the general public. Musk’s efforts in his companies show his heroic traits of perseverance and courage: perseverance is the ability to continue a task despite any difficulties or challenges, and courage is the ability to do something that may be unfamiliar or challenging. Elon Musk’s companies are successful due to his perseverance in the face of difficulty and his courage to try new things and make advances in underdeveloped industries; through his companies, he is able to enhance the world’s technology and open up new paths for humanity.

Although many of Musk’s goals are considered impossible due to their complexity, he disregards what others think and continues to persevere through all obstacles, eventually advancing society by presenting humanity with new ways to live. Musk has goals that he wishes to achieve, but they are difficult to even begin progress on; nevertheless, he is ambitious and thinks beyond whatever barrier he faces. When News Editor Jeffrey Hill asked Musk if he was planning to work on services other than launching rockets, the latter responded:

“I look far ahead, but things are increasingly less defined as we go further out. My long-term goal is to lower costs and improve reliability to the point where we can make life multi-planetary. How do we get there? I'm not entirely certain. We're going to keep upgrading the size and capability of our rockets, carry people and payloads into orbit and ultimately beyond” (Executive Q&A).

Even though Musk’s goal is so out of reach that even he himself is not certain how to achieve it, he does not give up and continues to work on what he can do: improve the rockets by making them more reliable and bring people and supplies into space. This demonstrates his perseverance because Musk does not abandon hope even when facing such a difficult task. His tenacity through near impossible situations is an important trait for a hero because this allows him to be successful in advancing humanity’s space technology where others have failed. These improvements in technology will lead to more efficient means of space travel and exploration, and will ultimately result in establishing human civilization in space. In addition, SpaceX develops rockets that are less expensive than traditional rockets due to the fact that they are reusable. Although less expensive, these rockets must be just as reliable as previous rockets, but it is not easy to create reliable rockets, as seen with the first launch vehicle Falcon 1:

“The first was a failure because the engine caught on fire. During the second test in March of 2007, his rocket SpaceShipOne went 180 miles above Earth and reached only Mach 3 because of a mistake in the design of the fuel tank... Despite the setbacks he faced with the Falcon 1, Musk began building other more powerful rockets, such as the Falcon 9, while working on the Falcon 1” (Elon Musk - Newsmakers).

Falcon Heavy Demohttps://chicagotonight.wttw.comThe Falcon 1 experienced multiple failures; however, Musk was not willing to give up on his goals, and he not only continued working on and refining the first rocket, but also began to develop more rockets. This demonstrates his perseverance because although failure is disheartening, Musk continues to work towards his goal. He is tenacious when facing problems and does not allow defeat to disturb his mindset, which helps him on his journey to provide society with efficient methods of space travel. Musk’s perseverance also enables him to introduce new concepts to society, such as reusable rockets. These rockets further develop space exploration technology and will eventually allow humans to colonize other planets, which is his goal for SpaceX. All in all, Musk’s perseverance allows humanity to further develop its technology, leading to new ways for humans to live.

Musk also demonstrates courage by stepping foot into new or underdeveloped fields that result in making the general public’s lives better and more convenient. His second company, X.com, is an example of when he entered a new industry in which success was unlikely, but he was ultimately able to be successful in:

“Musk's ambitious original idea was to offer, via the Internet, all types of financial services... At the time, online banking had not been developed and was seen as a hard market to break into... In March of 2000, Musk merged X.com with another new online financial company, PayPal... Early in 2002, Musk took PayPal public, raising $750 million” (Elon Musk - Newsmakers).

Musk often sets his goals in areas that aren’t well developed, in this case, online banking, and although the market was known to be difficult to start in, he shows his courage by taking the challenge in order to fulfill his goal of having financial services available through the internet. X.com later merged with PayPal, which was able to gain a large profit due to its widespread use. Since Musk had the courage to take a chance and start a company in an underdeveloped market, the market eventually grew and has become a convenient and easy way for society to manage money. After Musk made a significant profit from PayPal, he continued to make advances in newer fields: “... He used his profits to launch Tesla Motors, a company devoted to the production of high- performance electric cars. Although that goal had eluded the biggest names in the automotive business, Tesla cars captured the imagination of the public” (Elon Musk - Encyclopedia). Musk’s abundant wealth allows him to make the world more advanced by boldly exploring new industrial territories. Despite the fact that electric cars by other companies were not very widespread or efficient, he daringly dove into the market, and as a result, his company Tesla became a well-known brand that is known to manufacture high quality electric cars. The emergence of Tesla as an electric sports car company was a new concept that only happened due to Musk’s courage to take risks in unfamiliar fields. As a result of his courage to take challenges, the world’s vehicle technology has been improved, and it benefits the environment when more people buy these efficient electric cars. As can be seen, Musk proves that he is a hero due to his courage to make advances in relatively new markets such as online banking, electric cars, and space exploration, which are all beneficial to the world.

Tesla Model Xhttps://www.slate.comElon Musk’s perseverance in tough times and his courage to take risks allow him to lead his companies to success and in turn, show humanity new paths in technology and new approaches to life. Musk displays perseverance by never giving up, which can be seen in his efforts with SpaceX. Society has often considered his dreams as impossible to reach; it believes that only a miracle could make Musk’s dreams come true. However, he continues on to achieve his goals and benefit society, so although he has experienced multiple failures in his current endeavors, SpaceX is destined for success. Furthermore, Musk demonstrates the courage to try starting businesses in underdeveloped, markets despite the risks. X.com and Tesla are examples of companies founded in times when their industries were not well developed, but they were both successful and helped make people’s lives more advanced and convenient. In addition to his various achievements in technology, Musk is an inspiration because he never gives up no matter how difficult, or even impossible, the obstacles are. The SpaceX website states that, “SpaceX is like Special Forces... we do the missions that others think are impossible. We have goals that are absurdly ambitious by any reasonable standard, but we’re going to make them happen. We have the potential here at SpaceX to have an incredible effect on the future of humanity and life itself” (SpaceX). Musk has passion to attain his dreams, and as a result, he has the perseverance to achieve the impossible. He is proof that anyone who is passionate about a goal and is willing to work hard for it can reach it, no matter how challenging the goal is.

My father recently bought a Tesla Model X, and after riding in it for the first time, I was astounded. Not only does the vehicle drive just as well as any gasoline car, it also has a self-steering mode. I could not believe that such advanced technology all stemmed from a single company, and it ended up in my father’s possession. The experience of riding in the Tesla gave me an inspiring example of the effects of hard work. Recently, I often feel like I will never amount to anything, and I might not make a difference in even a single person’s life. This is discouraging to say the least, and as a result, it is easy to think about giving up on the things that I thought were important to me. After all, anything that I can do, others can do better. However, Musk has triumphed in seemingly impossible situations and made an impact in many people’s lives. He is able to do that because of his perseverance and courage, and I finally realized that if I fight through difficulties and take risks, I can achieve great things as well. For this reason, Musk is an inspiration and a hero to me. I personally will not outgrow Musk as a hero, but society will never outgrow heroes either, because they reveal the right paths and directions. Elon Musk reveals the right direction because he uses his heroic traits not only to accomplish his goals, but also to improve society, which allows him to achieve what seems impossible. However, in the end he is not a deity, just a human. Despite that, he shows that even a human can create miracles.