If youâve ever been to the SXSW Conference, you know itâs full of many surprises. This year none was bigger than the announcement that Elon Musk would be speaking. As soon as the email went out, I knew I would wake up as early as I had to in order to get tickets to see him talk. It didnât matter if it meant waiting in line for hours or that I would miss the Melinda Gatesâs keynote (that was poorly scheduled right after his). And I wasnât the only one that felt this way.
When I got in line - 4 hours before he was scheduled to speak - people were already wrapped around a couple sides of the Austin Convention Center. There was a clear feeling of excitement in the air. And let me tell you, this excitement wasnât for nothing; he delivered. It was an inspirational talk that covered everything from his biggest failure to his announcement that SpaceX is currently building âthe first Mars interplanetary shipâ and that theyâll âbe able to do short flights, sort of up-and-down flights, probably sometime in the first half of next year.â (Mars here we come!!)
After the talk, one thing was clear â Elon Musk is having a moment. He is no longer just an entrepreneur with some successful companies. Heâs reached a Steve-Jobs-like status as one of Americaâs great innovators.
As soon as this thought crossed my mind, dots began to connect between Jobs and Musk. Having read both of their incredible biographies (Walter Isaacson's on Jobs and Ashlee Vanceâs on Musk), itâs obvious to me that theyâve achieved far more than any of us mere mortals. Theyâre the only people of our generation who have been able to significantly alter multiple industries (personal computers, music, and phones for Jobs; and space travel, earthly transportation, and sustainable energy for Musk).
And their biographies reveal that theyâve been able to achieve this because of their relentless pursuit of their powerful personal purposes. Jobs was always trying âto make tools for the mind that advance humankind.â While Musk is currently trying to save our species by helping us create âa self-sustaining civilization on another planet.â
However, if you read my previous article detailing Elon Muskâs life, you know there's a dark side to him; and this is where the dots that my mind was connecting between Musk and Jobs gets scary. While the companies that these two men founded have been widely successful, their employees havenât always had the nicest things to say about them. Just consider some of these quotes:
âIf Elon was not happy, you knew it. Things could get nasty.â âHe can be a downright liar about when things need to get done. He will pick the most aggressive time schedule imaginable assuming everything goes right, and then accelerate it by assuming that everyone can work harder.â
â[Jobs] had this uncanny capacity to know exactly what your weak point is, know what will make you feel small, to make you cringe.â âHe had these huge expectations, and if people didnât deliver, he couldnât stand it. He couldnât control himself. It had a hurtful effect. It created a fear factor.â
While it might be easy brush off these comments as just a couple of disgruntled employees, there are plenty of other examples that point to a larger pattern of both of these guys being, well, assholes. Which leads me to the ultimate question that Iâve been struggling with since Elonâs talk.
Do you have to be an a**hole to be as innovative as Jobs and Musk??
Iâm not going to lie; this hasnât been an easy question for me to grapple with. Even just thinking of them as jerks didnât really feel great to me (I donât want other people reading this to think Iâm being a jerk). But it kept nagging at me. Both of the greatest innovators of our generation are equally as inspiring as they are kind of assholes to the people around them.
After giving my thoughts some time to percolate, I believe there are three reasons that ultimately lead me to answer this question optimistically.
- Haters gonna hate. When you try to change the world in such a profound way, youâre always going to have people that view what youâre trying to do as bad simply because itâs different. As an innovator, this different view of the world can sometimes get you a bad reputation. Youâre telling people that current world isnât good enough. For Jobs and Musk though, they ultimately had larger purposes that are both innately good so I have to conclude that part of their asshole appearance was just because they were trying to change the world.
- Everyone loves drama. Because we live in a reality TV world, drama sells. For both Jobs and Musk, this drama has made them more popular and thus has made their innovation status reach new heights. I certainly canât argue that if both Jobs and Musk were the nicest guys in the world that they wouldnât be viewed as great innovators. But I do think that because they have a bit of an asshole side to them that the media loves to pay attention to them and this makes us talk about how great they are. I think people like Woz, Gates, Brin, and Page donât get as much love when it comes to innovation because they stay out of the limelight.
- Thereâs no âIâ in team. Weâve reached a point where the innovation challenges facing our society canât be accomplished alone. This means that anyone looking to become an Innovation Legend must have a great team and must be able to motivate them. Both Jobs and Musk clearly chose to lead with clenched fists and sheer force. But I fundamentally disagree that a great leader canât also be genuinely nice. Just because both of them had more of a harsh way of treating their employees doesnât mean that we canât treat our team with respect in order to accomplish anything we set our minds to.
So where does this leave me? It leads me to conclude that no, you donât have to be a jerk to become an innovation legend. Some of the drama around Jobs and Musk certainly helped elevate their status. And some of the hate they get is also unjustified simply because they want to change the world. To be honest, though, it kind of stinks that both of their management styles have been so harsh that this question even has to be pondered. It doesnât feel great to be inspired by guys that donât always treat their teammates with respect.
Why Iâm still inspired by both of them is because their overall purposes are focused on helping millions of people improve their lives. They feel at times in order to achieve this that they have to be jerks to a particular person at a particular moment in the innovation process. Itâs all for the greater good.
As I sit here finishing this article, I am even more inspired than when I first started. I believe there is still another level of legendary innovator status yet to be reached. If we can have an inspirational purpose at the same level of both Jobs and Musk but also have a different management style full of love and compassion than I think our teams can achieve even greater things. I canât wait to see the day that someone can attain that level. To infinity and beyond!
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