My Massive Takeaway From The Elon Musk Ebook By Walter Isaacson

There’s one factor that appears to drive Elon Musk.

You would possibly assume it will be taking a visit to Mars, or presumably saving the planet as soon as all of us begin driving electrical automobiles. After studying a brand new biography about him, I am satisfied probably the most well-known entrepreneur of our era has one major purpose.

He desires to earn a living.

The e book Elon Musk, by Walter Isaacson, makes this abundantly clear. Musk is completely pushed, but it surely turns into apparent that he’s pushed primarily by success and revenue. That’s why he sleeps on the ground on the Tesla factories, that’s why he has partnered with NASA, that’s why he’s sending satellites into area. When Musk determined to purchase Twitter, lots of the experiences indicated that he needed to create an open discussion board at no cost and unfiltered dialogue.

I doubt that was the one motivation.

What appears to be extra seemingly is that Musk is intent on constructing the X every little thing app, a spot the place we retailer our cash and conduct our private enterprise on-line.

I’ve typically questioned why Musk has made so many huge modifications at Twitter, together with renaming the corporate. He all the time appears so random and impulsive. Isaacson does try some clarification about why Musk needed to purchase Twitter within the first place, particularly one lengthy part within the e book that implies the richest particular person on the earth simply likes to stir the pot. I’ve my very own theories. The grasp plan appears to be associated to getting access to our bank cards. What has began with 330 million folks utilizing Twitter would possibly decline quickly when he begins charging us for the X app, however at the very least he’ll have our bank card information.

It’s not likely about bots (which can’t be monetized) and even subscriptions (which is likely to be coming quickly), it’s about constructing the X “every little thing” app. There’s a cause 1.3 billion folks use WeChat — it makes life simpler. Musk is aware of everyone seems to be impulsive after we use these multipurpose apps, and as soon as we will publish in public, purchase merchandise, ship cash and message our pals utilizing the X app, he has us proper the place he desires us.

At the very least, he has me. I have a tendency to love solely a handful of apps, and if every little thing was all bundled into one—social media, banking, messaging—I’d seemingly begin utilizing it. After utilizing smartphones for thus a few years now, it will get tiring having to handle so many apps. I’d say 90% of the apps on my cellphone sit idle more often than not; I haven’t used a few of them in years.

I wrote lately about how Musk tends to interrupt issues all the way down to their primary components, after which he rebuilds them the way in which he desires. The brand new biography paints an image of somebody who does that with electrical automobiles, rockets and every little thing else he touches. What we is likely to be witnessing is a significant rebuilding of a preferred app into what he desires it to be.

And what’s that precisely?

It begins with our bank cards. As soon as we begin paying for the app, we’d begin utilizing it extra. We’ll change into vested within the app as a result of we all know if we pay a subscription payment we should always attempt to garner as a lot utilization as doable.

Musk would possibly really be onto one thing there: If we begin paying for the app, we’d use it extra, pondering that we should always derive some profit out of the expense.

We’ll see if the X app is interesting sufficient to make us need to begin paying for it.