There are many entrepreneurs who have made billions of dollars for themselves and investors. They have brought ground breaking products to the market, thought outside of the box and in many cases change lives forever. However, entrepreneurs and stock market investors are not always the best mix!
Thinking outside of the box
Any investor will look for stability and the ability to look forward with a degree of certainty with perhaps a little flair for the unexpected. Random thoughts, ground breaking services and life changing products change lives but they can be extremely volatile in nature and not always successful. There are times when an entrepreneur’s ability to think outside of the box is “taken for granted” and sometimes factored into share price ratings. Even with the best will in the world, no entrepreneur can keep throwing out ground breaking ideas on a regular basis forever and a day. At some point they will slow down, the ideas may not be big enough to make an impact on the company and investors might need to reconsider their positions.
The above description seems to be in some way derogatory to entrepreneurs when in reality it is investors who often take too much for granted.
Elon Musk and Steve Jobs
Elon Musk and Steve Jobs are perhaps the two best-known entrepreneurs of our time, people who brought ideas to the market which others had not even thought of. In many minds it was taken for granted that Elon Musk would merge his Tesla Motors operation with that of Steve Jobs Apple to create not only a huge technology company but a deep pool of potentially endless ground breaking ideas. Unfortunately, Steve Jobs passed away and the merger seems to have been put on hold with many believing the opportunity has now passed and it will never happen.
It is very easy to speculate how these two individuals would have worked together, are friendships and business always the best idea, but it would certainly have been an interesting journey.
Fighting the fight
Elon Musk is currently fighting fires at Tesla amid concerns about the company’s production capacity and slow delivery of its new Model 3 vehicle. We saw an array of new ideas just a couple of weeks ago but many believe these announcements were brought forward to deflect from the issues surrounding production. In recent years Elon Musk has managed to raise billions of dollars from investors and while it would be wrong to suggest that progress has not been made, it has not always been an easy journey.
Over the years analysts have been extremely derogatory with regards to their thoughts on Tesla and Elon Musk. It is fair to say that on numerous occasions Steve Jobs, more in his earlier career, experienced the same backlash. In time the man behind Apple managed to convince analysts he was the man for the job, forward thinking and would take Apple to another level. In reality that is exactly what he did and his legacy will live on for many years to come.
Whether Elon Musk, who has made massive strides in the electric car market, will be afforded the same respect looking back in years to come remains to be seen. We do know, like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk will never deviate from his own business plan and ideas. To say it is his way or the highway is a little harsh but in reality while he has made himself a multibillionaire there are also many employees and investors who have enjoyed the fruits of his labour.