Why Elon Musk Admires Edison More Than Tesla?
And what’s the big deal in it?
Being the CEO of Tesla, there should not be a second thought in the mind of a normal individual who has followed science a bit on who is the role model of Elon Musk. I too used to think that who else than the great Nikola Tesla can be his greatest role model. But sooner than much later, recently I got to know that Nikola Tesla isn’t the one whom he admires the most, it’s Thomas Alva Edison.
If you are shocked, don’t worry, so was I when I heard him say that. Follow along to know why he said that and what’s the hidden message for us in the era we live in today.
The founding of Tesla
If Elon Musk isn’t a great fan of Nikola Tesla then why is the company’s name kept after him?
The name of the company is indeed kept after Nikola Tesla as it uses AC induction motors which is an architecture Tesla developed, but Elon Musk isn’t the founder of this company.
Founded in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning as Tesla Motors, the company’s name is a tribute to inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla. In February 2004, via a US$6.5 million investment, X.com co-founder Elon Musk became the largest shareholder of the company and its chairman. He has served as CEO since 2008. — Wikipedia.
So that was the first reason that the thought we had might not be correct. But later after becoming the CEO of Tesla Motors, he revealed that he is a bigger fan of Edison than that of Tesla, though he considers both of them as his role model.
The reason
“Edison brought his stuff to market and made those inventions accessible to the world.” Says Elon Musk.
Nikola Tesla, who once worked for Edison, was often a rival of Edison as Tesla came up with the Alternating Current that is being adopted more widely than Direct Current.
Though Tesla is known for a variety of ahead of his time inventions, he lacked one very important skill that Edison possessed, Marketing. Bringing the inventions to the eyes of the public.
No matter how great your discoveries or inventions are, it’s worth nothing to the people if they can’t realize their importance. And that's exactly where Edison outplayed Tesla.
Probably, if Tesla would have brought his inventions to the eyes of normal people and made them realize their importance, he would have gained the respect he deserves much before his frugal death and we would have seen these wireless technological advancements much before.
The importance of knowing this fact
So after reading all this stuff, you might say, Oh… cool, so why should I bother?
The reason is, if you can’t express yourself, you are only worth the work you do, nothing else. What do I mean? If you write a story and keep it to yourself, you are only worth writing that story, but if you share it with your friends and colleagues, you are worth the knowledge and wisdom your story spreads too.
The same can be translated to many other parts of life, and in the end, that’s how an entrepreneurial mindset is born. If you can provide value to the consumer with what you have created you’ll be worth much more than just your creation.
And that’s why Nikola Tesla didn’t get so famous and rich. If he could have shown the power of Alternating Current to the public during his lifetime as Edison did with the Direct Current the life of Tesla wouldn’t have been so frugal. And neither would this quote have come into existence.
The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine. ― Nikola Tesla
I hope you enjoyed and learned something new, thanks for reading!!
If you liked it, you might also like…
If you liked what you read, you can join Medium with my referral link and enjoy unlimited stories for just $5 a month. The deal is, you get to read unlimited stories on Medium by various amazing writers and in return, I’ll get a commission when you join using my referral link. Thanks for your time!!