It's a fascinating tale of how Tesla was transformed under Musk's visionary leadership, becoming a game-changer in the global automotive industry. But this book isn't just a big, glowing tribute to Musk. Guess what? There's another meaning to the term "game of thrones"! Tesla has had its fair share of ups and downs along the way. It's been a rocky road for Tesla, with some tough internal battles over personnel and direction along the way.

Guess what! 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of Tesla. In September 2023, the 5 millionth electric vehicle under the Tesla brand rolled off the production line! This was a huge moment for the company, as it also meant that its market value exceeded that of the five established car manufacturers: Toyota, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and General Motors. It's so great to see how well Tesla is doing! Its rise has also brought considerable revenue to its Chinese suppliers and attracted the imitation of China's "new forces" in car manufacturing. Given all this, it's easy to see why most people would say it's all down to the personal talents of company CEO Elon Musk.

But here's an interesting fact: the company Tesla was not actually founded by Musk. Guess what? Even the name "Tesla" wasn't actually coined by Musk! The company's very first battery developer was an engineer named Straubel. The first product manager was the lovely Eberhard, who was an internet entrepreneur. Guess who designed the Tesla direct sales store? It was Blankenship, who came from Apple! Guess who designed the best-selling Model 3? Another old "Apple person," Field! The lovely people I mentioned have two things in common: they all admired Musk and were able to make significant contributions to Tesla's development at a certain stage with their expertise. Sadly, when they left Tesla, they basically had irreconcilable differences with Musk. In fact, they even went to court, which affected the company's stock price.

I really don't think Tesla would have grown to be the huge success it is today without Musk's financial investment, personal enthusiasm and precise vision. But do you think this company could have succeeded if it had only had Musk? This book, "Extreme High Voltage", is here to answer this question for you! The lovely Higgins, who's a veteran reporter for the Wall Street Journal covering the technology and automotive industries, spent seven years interviewing dozens of Tesla's early core employees. The history of Tesla's development as told by them is so much more than just Musk's legendary "overbearing president". It's also the story of those former partners trying to "tame" Musk. It's thanks to those early employees with their respective expertise and their ability to stand up to Musk's bad temper and stick to their own views on some major issues that Tesla was able to expand so much more quickly than it otherwise might have done. Even if it could have survived the initial crisis of survival, it would have grown much more slowly without them.

It's really interesting that Musk himself, who Higgins also interviewed, has a very negative opinion of the book! He said that what Higgins wrote was "mostly nonsense", bless him. Higgins, for his part, has also responded to this challenge in a public forum. He said that Musk always wants everyone to believe that he built the Tesla car lying on the factory floor and that he is the sole inspiration behind it. I don't think that's quite right. It can take a lot of time and effort to turn a good idea into a successful public company. It's so important to have a great leader who's determined and has a vision, but it's also vital to have fantastic collaborators and executors. When we all work together to explore and innovate with the goal of making a good product, we're all closer to success! Even if it means engaging in direct debate, it's worth it to make sure we're all on the same page. And this is something we can all apply to our daily lives too!

I'm really excited to share the main content of this book with you in three parts! First, let's take a look at the amazing contributions of the core founders during the early days of Tesla. In the second part, I'll help you understand what the right choices were for Musk when it comes to developing Tesla, as well as what challenges he's faced along the way. In the final part, I'll give you a quick overview of all the amazing new changes Tesla has brought to the automotive industry and who deserves the credit.

Part 1

Before I dive into the heart of this book, I'd love to ask you a question. Guess what! The first practical electric car was built way back in the 1880s, around the same time as the first petrol-powered car. Have you ever wondered why petrol-powered cars were the dominant players in the car market for more than 100 years?

Do you know why that was? It was all down to the battery. The first generation of electric cars had lead-acid batteries, which were pretty basic! These batteries were affordable, but they didn't have a lot of energy, took a long time to charge, and didn't last very long. It's easy to see why lead-acid batteries just couldn't compete with the stable and durable fuel-powered vehicles. But then something really exciting happened in the 1990s! Lithium-ion batteries were invented! These batteries were originally designed for music players and laptops, and they're pretty amazing! They have a high energy density, charge really quickly and have a much longer lifespan than lead-acid batteries. So, if you were to install a few thousand laptop batteries in a car, do you think that would help to clear the "narrow path" of electric vehicles?

The lovely person who came up with this idea is Straubler, a battery expert who graduated from Stanford University. He's been on good terms with American racing car enthusiasts since his student days, and has gained a wealth of experience by modifying several fuel-powered sports cars into low-noise electric versions. In 2003, Strobl had a brilliant idea: he wanted to develop a concept car powered entirely by lithium batteries, drive it across the United States, and show more people what an amazing field electric vehicles are. However, Strobl didn't have any start-up capital and needed a financier to pay for his idea. The person he found was 32-year-old Elon Musk.

In 2003, Musk had just sold his shares in his first company, PayPal, and was already a billionaire! However, he was really focused on his "space dream" and wasn't that interested in getting involved in car manufacturing. Musk was so supportive! He gave Stroubel $10,000 to keep tinkering with lithium batteries for cars. If things had continued like this, it's entirely possible that Musk might have incubated a battery company instead of an automobile brand! As luck would have it, Stroubel didn't shut down his sports car modification business. He was delighted to receive a new order of 250,000 US dollars from a man named Eberhard.

Guess what! Eberhard's background is actually very similar to Musk's. He was also an internet entrepreneur in the 1990s and made a small fortune as a result – lucky guy! Do you know why he approached Strobl? It's such a funny story! In 2003, Eberhard divorced and gave most of his assets to his ex-wife, which left him with only a few hundred thousand US dollars. Like many other young folks in Silicon Valley at the time, he was planning to treat himself and use the money to buy a convertible sports car. But Eberhard was really particular about cars. He was looking for a car that was fast, quiet and not too expensive. As luck would have it, the only vehicle that could possibly fit the bill was an electric car. However, at that time, there were no electric sports cars for sale in the United States. The good news is that Sträubli's conversion team was willing to take the order and use the latest lithium battery technology! After visiting Sträubli, Eberhard had a brilliant idea: could the lithium battery sports car be turned into a mass-produced industrial product?

This wasn't just a passing fancy for Eberhard. He had previously worked in the electronic reader industry and was very familiar with the "original design manufacturing" model, which we often hear referred to as ODM. Eberhard was convinced that the ODM concept, which had originally come from the electronics industry, could also be used in car manufacturing. After all, the automotive industry is a huge one, with suppliers all over the globe. All you need to do is find the right manufacturers and commission them to design and assemble, and you can build a car even if you don't have your own factory! The only things that need to be developed from scratch are the battery pack and the motor, which Stiebel can take care of for us. Eberhard also had a great idea about sharing the costs. He thought that they should only build high-priced two-door sports cars, sell each for 80,000 US dollars, and target high-net-worth customers who are willing to "try something new". This means that the whole project can pay for itself in just a few years!

This was a big change for Eberhard, who went from being a car buyer to a car maker! In July 2003, he set up his electric car company in Delaware and named it after the wonderful Nikola Tesla, the "father of alternating current". Eberhard later earned the nickname "Mr. Tesla", which was a lovely way to honour Nikola Tesla. Strobel, on the other hand, took his wonderful team and developed the batteries and motors for Tesla. However, the new company still lacked money, and a lot of it. Eberhard thought that at least 25 million US dollars would have to be raised within three years in order to build a production-ready electric sports car. He just didn't have the funds himself. And guess what? The investor he found after looking high and low was Musk!

At first, Musk wasn't keen on getting involved in the day-to-day operations of Tesla. He was totally on board with Eberhard's idea of building a high-priced sports car that was cool enough to attract attention and open up the high-end market first. So, even though Musk invested a whopping $6.35 million in Tesla's Series A financing on his own, he didn't end up becoming CEO. The first generation of Tesla products, the Roadster, was lovingly developed under the guidance of the company's founder, Eberhard. Eberhard had his eye on a small sports car from the British company Lotus called the Elise. He had a great plan! He was going to buy the chassis of several hundred Elise sports cars, ask the British team to make a few tweaks to the design, and install a battery pack and motor developed by Strobe. The great thing about this whole project is that the entire vehicle was produced in the UK and shipped to the United States for sale. That way, there was no need to build a special factory!

But, as often happens, a few problems soon popped up. Tesla decided to outsource the overall design of the new car to Lotus, but unfortunately, Lotus wasn't very optimistic about the new company and set a very high price, which unfortunately exceeded the budget from the very beginning. Oh, and there were also a few hiccups with the batteries. Strobel bought 7,000 laptop batteries from LG in South Korea, popped them in the safety frame they'd developed themselves, and installed them in the prototype car. But when LG heard that they were going to use laptop batteries to build a car, they were a little worried about high-temperature spontaneous combustion accidents that might affect their reputation. They kindly let Tesla know that they wouldn't be able to be a supplier to them. Sadly, by the spring of 2006, the money raised in the Series A round had already been used up. The prototype Roadster still hadn't been built, and there was a full two years' gap from the mass production that Eberhard had envisioned.

I'm sure you've noticed by now that the original Tesla team had one serious problem: no one knew anything about finance! Stroubel was a technical whiz, and Eberhard was a product genius, but neither had ever built a car before! The budgets they drew up were basically just theoretical, and almost every expense was overspent. At this point, Musk decided to step in and help out. From February 2006 to May 2007, he led three rounds of new financing, raising nearly 100 million US dollars and successfully extending the "life" of the Roadster – what a star! But, bless his heart, Musk wasn't so polite to Eberhard. In August 2007, he brought in an external CEO and asked Eberhard to take on the role of technical president. The real founder of Tesla is now focusing on just one project: the Roadster.

In trying to attract investment for Tesla, Musk also discovered another little hiccup: Eberhard wanted to build a "small but beautiful" company that only targeted high-end customers. It's tough for a car company with annual revenue of at most 30 million US dollars to attract investors chasing high returns because it has a large initial investment. So, to attract more investment, we need to make the pie bigger! So in the autumn of 2006, Elon Musk put his heart and soul into drafting a 10-year "three-step" plan. The first step was to get the Roadster out there and let people know what Tesla is all about. The second step was to produce a high-end family sedan that would be right up there with the BMW 5 Series, as well as an SUV. These two cars were the later Model S and Model X. Musk set their prices at just 45,000 US dollars, making them affordable to middle-class American families. At this point, Tesla was all set to go public! And then, finally, there was the Model 3. This was the one that was going to be affordable enough for ordinary car buyers to get their hands on. Elon Musk was convinced that Tesla would usher in a golden age of electric vehicles.

But there was one thing that had to happen for all of this to work out: the Roadster had to be a success. And this unlucky sports car was always paying the price for the big dreams of the founding team. Eberhard was a real trooper, working hard to produce a prototype in July 2006. Stroubel also did a great job negotiating a battery supply agreement with the Japanese company Panasonic. However, there was still one more hurdle to overcome. The batteries had to be produced in Japan, assembled in Thailand, then shipped to the UK, placed in the chassis, and only then could the finished car be loaded into a container and sent to the USA. This complex network drove up Tesla's costs, which even exceeded the pre-sale price of $80,000 per car – a lot of money! On top of all that, Tesla didn't have any stock to sell, so they didn't have any cash flow to generate, even months before the new car arrived! However, suppliers couldn't be owed money. This meant that the company's accounts were weighed down with tens of millions of dollars in payables, and it was on the brink of bankruptcy. Unfortunately, this led to a further deterioration in relations between Musk and Eberhard. In January 2008, sadly, Eberhard was asked to step down from the board of directors.

The Roadster, a gorgeous, pricey sports car, turned out to be a bit of a mixed blessing. It caused quite a stir when the Roadsters finally started rolling off the production line in February 2008, more than a year behind schedule, and with the price tag now at $110,000. Over the next four years, Tesla managed to sell 2,450 Roadsters, which was a great start to its ten-year plan! But, sadly, the company also showed its weaknesses in finance, supply chain and sales. These would be Musk's new challenges, and we're here to cheer him on!

Part 2

I hope you enjoyed reading about Tesla's early days in the book "Extreme High Voltage". In the first five years, Stroubel was in charge of core technology, Eberhard managed products, and Musk was there to invest. It was so lovely to see how clearly they all knew what they were doing and how they worked together so well! However, as no one in the group had any experience in the automotive industry and the development of the Roadster hit a few snags along the way, the "trio" eventually decided to go their separate ways. In 2008, Musk took on the roles of CEO and chief product manager himself, and brought in lots of experts from outside the company to help him. Straubel was still there, doing a great job of leading the development of the battery pack and motor. The wonderful folks at Tesla also began to speed up into the second and third stages of their fantastic "three-step" strategy.

I'd love to know what Musk was up to during these two stages! The first thing on his mind was to raise investment. As we've already chatted about, the Roadster's development was hit by some hiccups along the supply chain, and costs weren't quite as tightly managed as they could have been. Even though the price was increased later on, the profit was still limited and unfortunately not enough to support the development of the second-generation model. To keep the company afloat, Musk even flew all over the world to beg for money! In 2009, he applied for a $465 million loan from the US Department of Energy, which was spent entirely on the research and development and production of the Model S. In the same year, Tesla also sold 10% of its shares to German car manufacturer Daimler, in exchange for $50 million in emergency funds. These two investments, along with the $187 million raised in the first five years, were basically all the external income Tesla received before its IPO.

I bet you're wondering: isn't Musk a billionaire? I can't help but wonder how his company could possibly lack money! And let's not forget that Elon Musk is not just one person. He has many other entrepreneurial projects on the go! He's also working on SpaceX, which is going to build rockets and spaceships. That's another money-burning project! In the autumn of 2008, both Tesla and SpaceX had a bit of a rough time financially. It was a really tough time for the US too, as the financial crisis hit us all. Money was tight for everyone. Venture capital firms were even prepared to abandon Tesla or split off the research and development department and sell it to a traditional car company for cash. Thankfully, Musk came to the rescue! He managed to get 20 million US dollars from SpaceX, which was also struggling financially. In the first five years of Tesla, the company managed to raise an impressive 187 million US dollars. But here's where it gets really impressive! Musk himself contributed 70 million of that, which was already the limit of his cash flow. Musk later said that 2008 was a really tough year for him. At one point, Tesla was so cash-strapped that they only had enough money to pay their employees for three weeks. Even Musk's own living expenses were sponsored by friends.

However, poor Musk! His eccentric personality also caused a lot of trouble for Tesla's financing. In 2009, Tesla was gearing up for an IPO, but poor Elon was caught up in a divorce lawsuit. In order to get a smaller share of the money from his ex-wife, he ignored his lawyer's objections and openly "cried poverty" in court, saying that he was on the verge of bankruptcy. It was a difficult time for him. This was really quite the blow for Tesla, and understandably had a huge impact on the valuation. During the IPO roadshow, Musk also often popped out of the room for various reasons. He even snapped at a representative of Goldman Sachs, "I'm really sorry, but I don't have time for this. I've got a rocket waiting to be launched!" It's also worth mentioning that when Tesla officially went public in 2010, it hadn't even built a single Model S, its second-generation model. They were really relying on storytelling to attract capital! At this time, Musk said he had to go work on the rocket first, which unfortunately scared off another group of people.

However, it's not that Musk is always unwilling to listen. His second big decision was to build his own factory, which he made after getting some great advice from his long-time partner, Strobe. Strobe thought that the reason for the big cost overruns in developing and making the Roadster was that Tesla didn't have enough control over the supply chain. Its suppliers were all over the globe, with super long delivery times and a tendency to raise prices, making it really tough to stay on top of everything. So, the solution was to build their own factories, especially for battery packs and motors. These lovely new factories will only produce the parts that Tesla needs, and they'll be located right here on American soil so that we can keep a close eye on things and make sure everything's going well. And that's how the amazing "gigafactory" concept was born! Musk took the Stroubel concept and ran with it! In 2010, he bought an old Toyota factory in California and made a public announcement. He said that he would not only produce battery packs there, but also set up a fully automated assembly line to help reduce Tesla's production costs right from the start. Musk was really excited and said that once the California factory was up and running, it would be producing 5,000 new cars a week! It was going to be his home base.

So, the cat was out of the bag! But, now the big question was: who would run the new factory? Musk obviously couldn't do it on his own, bless him! He picked up a great idea from Tesla's British executive, Rollinson, called "special forces". Rollinson said that the way a traditional car company usually operates is a bit like World War I, where a group of generals hundreds of kilometres apart remotely control thousands of recruits charging into the line of fire. This approach isn't just inefficient, it's also too costly for a new player like Tesla to emulate. When Tesla builds a new team, it would be great if they could set up an airborne regiment or a special forces unit! It's so important to keep the team small, with the person in charge staying on the front line and making adjustments according to the situation at any time. Elon Musk was so inspired by this idea of a "special forces unit" that he used it when planning Tesla's own factory. And the lovely Field is the commander of the unit!

Before joining Tesla, Field had gained a wealth of experience across different industries. He'd worked as a development engineer at Ford Motor Company and as a vice president at Apple under Steve Jobs, so he was experienced in both hardware development and team building. Musk gave Field two tasks: he had to work with Straubel to get the California factory up and running smoothly, and he had to oversee the development of Tesla's third-generation Model 3. While the factory was being built, the second generation Model S was also going to be produced in small batches from 2010. Fields was there to help out with any issues that popped up on the production line. I think it's fair to say that from 2011 to 2018, Fields was effectively the number two at Tesla. He was really hands-on with the second and third steps of the "three-step" strategy.

However, things took a turn. The relationship between Fields and Musk gradually developed into a love-hate relationship. This is something that's related to Musk's management style. Higgins, the author of this book, noticed that Musk has a lot on his plate, with Tesla and SpaceX both demanding his attention. He often travels back and forth between the two headquarters to make sure he's there for both. He sometimes takes a little break from the office for a few months, and sometimes he stays at the factory for weeks on end, which means management has to jump into action to make sure he's taken care of. This style is more friendly to the technical department, but it can be a bit of a rollercoaster for Fields, the "housekeeper". It seems that Musk was a little out of the loop when it came to the number of new employees that the company had welcomed during the intervening months. But as soon as he got back to the factory in California, he gave Fields a bit of a talking to, asking him if the production capacity of the new car had met expectations. He also came up with a lot of new ideas, which made Fields feel a bit overwhelmed.

For instance, something similar occurred in 2016. That autumn, the fully automated assembly line and industrial robots that Tesla had ordered finally arrived! However, the new workshop, which Musk had personally selected, was unfortunately too small for the equipment to be deployed, which resulted in a slight decrease in production speed. When Musk heard the news, he immediately rushed into the factory, giving everyone a bit of a scolding and even firing a few engineers on the spot. He was so convinced that he was right that he wouldn't even admit that he'd made a mistake. Thankfully, Field was there to step in and replace the robots with temporary additional manual assembly lines to stabilise production capacity. Unfortunately, this didn't stop Musk from nitpicking and stripping Field of management authority over the factory. By the summer of 2018, sadly, Field was finally asked to leave by Musk. And between 2016 and 2018, more than 50 vice presidents-level executives left Tesla.

It's a sad but familiar tale at Tesla. Time and again, we've seen the same pattern play out. First, there's the search for top talent. Then, there's the heartbreak of losing them. It's a story that's unfolded time and time again over the past 20 years. And it's not just Eberhard and Field who have experienced this. Sales executive Blankenship also had a similar experience. Blankenship is a retail expert who once helped Steve Jobs build the world-renowned Apple store system. He was a great guy! Musk was keen to bypass car dealers and sell Teslas through the internet and directly-operated stores, so he brought in Blankenship to take the lead. Blankenship joined in 2010 and did an amazing job! He opened more than 50 stores in the United States in less than three years, which helped Tesla achieve its first quarterly profit and a 200% increase in the company's stock price. However, Musk soon asked Blankenship to retire early because he felt that Blankenship had too much power and would affect his control of the company.

It's really interesting to see how, during the early days of Tesla, Elon Musk was so inspired by Apple Inc. He loved their approach and brought in a whole bunch of folks from Apple to help him out. However, in 2014, when Apple itself began planning to build cars and poached people from Tesla, Musk made a big fuss, saying that Apple had only poached the "trash" from the Tesla team. The lovely author Higgins also wrote about this incident: In 2015, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, gave Elon Musk a call to ask if he could buy Tesla. Musk replied with a smile, "Not unless I'm made CEO." Cook said that after the acquisition was complete, Musk would of course remain CEO of Tesla. Musk then replied with a smile, "No, I'd love to be CEO of Apple." Cook was pretty taken aback and hung up the phone. Just picture it! How would Musk be happy to work under Cook?

And that's what the lovely book 'Extreme High Voltage' has to say on the matter! Musk made some big decisions for Tesla, including how to finance the company, where to build new factories, and who to hire. I'm happy to say that these decisions were spot on! However, poor Elon was a bit of a worrier, which caused a few hiccups along the way. Sadly, this meant that Tesla's "procrastination" began to become more and more serious. The launch of the Roadster, Tesla's first product, was delayed by a year and a half. This also meant that the company's IPO was postponed by two years. The second generation, the Model S, had a prototype in 2009, but it wasn't until three years later that mass production began. The third generation, the Model 3, saw pre-sales kick off in the spring of 2016. It was a bit of a slow start for production capacity, which only caught up 12 months later. It took eight years, but Musk finally delivered on his promise to build 5,000 cars a week!

It seems that Tesla's procrastination is mainly caused by team members struggling to understand Elon's intentions. But surely he must take some responsibility for this too? The lovely author Higgins has done some analysis on this. Higgins says that the automotive industry has always been a long-cycle, low-profit, high-risk industry that requires adequate cash flow to support it, which is totally understandable! It's tough out there for an established car company like Ford. They produce over 1.4 million units a year and bring in nearly 160 billion US dollars in revenue. But here's the thing: the profit on most of their models is only 2,800 US dollars. And it takes four to five years to develop a new car! To make sure it can weather any storm, Ford keeps more than 20 billion US dollars in cash on its books year-round, seeking stability above all else.

Musk, on the other hand, is running Tesla with the vision of "disrupting the automotive industry" – and he's doing a great job of it! He truly believes that he can change the business model of traditional car companies. He's already doing it! He's raising funds, building factories and building cars at the same time. This is great news for everyone involved! Not only does it shorten the research and development cycle, but it also improves profitability. But as it turns out, there are some things that just can't be disrupted, like initial capital investment. Tesla used to have a bit of a problem with its production capacity, which was mostly down to a lack of funding. The fully automated assembly line, which Musk was really excited about, also took two years from completion of procurement to stable operation. This is why we have to accept that there are limits to what we can achieve through innovation. Even Musk has to face up to this, bless him.

Higgins also gives credit where it's due, saying that Tesla has brought a series of "disruptive innovations" to the auto market during its rise. The first thing to mention is the company's product view. The lovely Eberhard, who was Tesla's first CEO, decided that the company's first product should be a high-priced electric sports car. People who use this kind of vehicle are usually really interested in new technologies. They see themselves not just as consumers, but also as lucky testers of new technologies! So, even if Tesla's early models weren't quite perfect, users would have been really understanding. Once users have a good experience, they'll be happy to help the brand spread the word, too! And then there's Musk, who's taken this a step further. He's done so much for the company! Not only has he made it so that you can get software upgrades and charge your car at home with the affordable models, but he's also been spreading the word about Tesla's exciting new projects, like the battery revolution and driverless cars. This is why Tesla is no longer just seen as a car company by users and investors. It's now seen as a high-tech company like Apple or Google! Higgins thinks that if Tesla is valued like traditional car companies, its market value could be 90% smaller.

And we can't forget about Tesla's efforts to expand into overseas markets! It's so interesting to see how traditional car companies already entered overseas markets on a large scale in the 1990s! However, they simply started out by trying to reduce labour costs, and they took things one step at a time. But Tesla didn't stop there! They quickly built on their success at the "Gigafactory" in California by opening similar factories in Texas, USA, Brandenburg, Germany, and Shanghai, China. The Shanghai Gigafactory is still a bit new, having only been completed in 2019. It's expected to be producing 750,000 units by 2023, mainly for the Chinese market, which is very exciting! It's so lovely to see that Musk's "three-step" strategy has finally come to fruition after more than ten years!

And that's a wrap on the main content of Higgins' book, "Extreme High Voltage"!

From its early days in 2003 to its successful IPO in 2010 and now to becoming the global leader in the electric vehicle industry, Tesla has really come a long way. It's one of the most successful technology companies of the early 21st century! We can't forget that all of this is down to the passion, vision and action of the company's leader, Musk. But we all know that Musk alone couldn't have made Tesla. And we can't forget Eberhard's business know-how, Stroubel's technical know-how, Field's coordination skills and Rollinson's organisational skills! Thanks to the combined efforts of all these wonderful people, Tesla has become a business legend and has transformed the global automotive market.

And the great thing is, us ordinary people can also gain valuable insights from the business story of Tesla. From the very beginning, Musk and his car-building partners have made product strength their top priority. They were really passionate about using the latest technology to create the most unique electric car and were willing to engage in frequent debates and even conflicts to do so. This "product power first" mindset is something we can learn from in our daily work, especially when starting a business. In addition, even the discerning Musk could not do without the assistance of professionals at each stage of Tesla's development. This awareness of drawing on the strengths of others is also something we can actively cultivate.