Dear Elon,
Congratulations on your initial public offering of SPCX.
Google’s AI says, “The blockbuster debut briefly made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire on paper.”
The words “briefly” and “on paper” dim the dazzling brightness of the word “trillionaire” a little, but still, it’s a pretty big deal.
I’m sure that Errol and Maye are super-proud.
You’ve come a long way since you started Zip2 with your brother, Kimball, in 1995.
Who would have ever thought that a company that created online city guides for newspapers would sell for $307 million after just 3 and 1/2 years in business?
Your 7% was only worth $22 million, but still, that’s a lot of pocket money for a 27-year-old boy.
Your decision to partner up with Ed Ho, Harris Fricker, and Christopher Payne to create “X,” and then merge with your biggest competitor so that all of you could survive the bursting of the dotcom bubble, well, that was another brilliant move.
It worked out well for Max Levchin and Peter Thiel, too. You and Thiel and Ho, Fricker, Payne and Max created Paypal at exactly the right time.
Well done, all of you!
But of all your accomplishments, the one that impresses me the most is the frictionless website that you built to sell cars.
Every Tesla owner that I have ever met has admitted to being marveled by how easy it was to buy a new Tesla. Five minutes online and $500 on a credit card leaves the customer sitting there, mildly stunned, asking themselves. “Did I really just buy a car? Can it really be that easy?”
Elon, when people marvel at something, the thing that marvels them can rightfully be called marvelous.
Elon, your Tesla website is marvelous.
And the car is marvelous.
Except for one thing. Can we talk about that one thing for a moment?
Shortly after my wife Pennie bought her Tesla, I saw that we had a sheet rock screw embedded in the center of the tread in the right rear tire.
Pennie said, “No problem, Tire Service is one of the things that my Tesla app says they can do right in our driveway.”
So she pulled out her phone and quickly ordered and paid for Tire Service.
When the tire guy showed up he said, “Yep. That’s definitely a sheet rock screw and it’s definitely an easy fix, but I can only do tire rotations. Take this to the Tesla service center and I’m sure they will do it for free.”
When Pennie got back from the service center, she said that your service manager told her that the tire could not be fixed because it had a scuff on the sidewall, so he sold her a $400 new tire.
Obviously, I should have gone with her.
Was she cheated out of $400? Yes. In my opinion, she was cheated out of four hundred dollars.
Have we been cheated by other people for more money than that? Yes.
Life goes on.
Elon, you and I both know that no car on earth – not even your Tesla – is equipped with onboard sensors that can monitor the depth of the tire tread on a tire. So I can only assume that this annoying “tire tread” warning light that has been front-and-center on our dash ever since she visited your service center was most likely put there by the same aggressive salesman who already sold my wife a tire that she did not need.
I’m sure you can understand why I will never visit another Tesla service center.
Can we resolve this like honorable men?
Elon, I will Venmo you another $400 if you will tell your service manager to press the button that will make the annoying “tire tread warning” light disappear from the dash of my wife’s car.
You can keep the tire. I don’t need it, just like I didn’t need the first one. But I really do need that annoying dash light to go away.
I will even Paypal you the $400 if you prefer.
Again, congratulations on briefly becoming the world’s first “on paper” trillionaire.
– Roy H. Williams
Chris Flakus has been recruiting executives for 30 years. Today he is offering practical advice on how job candidates can land better positions and how companies can hire and retain better employees.
His message to jobseekers is straightforward:
Stay relevant by demonstrating
1. adaptability
2. curiosity
3. a commitment to lifelong learning.
His recommendation to employers is equally clear: Hire, develop, and reward people who embody those three qualities.
Listen in as Chris explains to roving reporter Rotbart and deputy rover Maxwell how in today’s rapidly evolving, AI-influenced workplace, technical skills remain essential, but character distinguishes those who succeed. The magic will start the moment you hit the play button at MondayMorningRadio.com