Focus Leadership Blog

Name: Elon Musk. No, really.

Occupation: CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors; Chairman of SolarCity

Career Highlights: After wisely observing that oppressing black people as part of the South African military "just didn't seem like a really good way to spend time," Musk emigrated to Canada, enrolling at Queen's College, then studied at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School - he left with undergraduate degrees in economics and physics. It's safe to say he recovered nicely from being named "Elon Musk." Went to grad school at Stanford for a cup of coffee, then dropped out to start Zip2 with his brother Kimbal. Went on to found X.com and co-found Paypal, the sales of which made him quite wealthy. Now spends his time running companies that make space launch vehicles and electric cars, so pretty much everyone younger than 13 reveres him as a living god for having such awesome jobs.

Dominant Pattern(s): Visionary; Elon's pretty good at establishing companies built around developing concepts/technologies, and perhaps even better at knowing how to profit from them. He's also not as much of a hyper-aggressive Driver as our other profiles thus far; after discovering which one of his employees leaked Tesla's then-delicate financial situation to the press, Elon allowed him the option of apologizing to the company and resigning, rather than pressing charges against him. Had it been Vince McMahon at the helm, that employee would have been fed to sharks live on pay-per-view.

Recommendation(s) for Improvement: This guy needs an Organizer tune-up. As good at Elon is at big ideas, he hasn't shown us much follow-through, considering the alpha position he's held within his various companies. People buy his ideas based on their potential, for the most part, and not their bottom-line performance (aside from Paypal). He's also quite paranoid and resorted to entrapment schemes to keep other Tesla Motors secrets from leaking. Elon's able brain clearly needs a little structure - a couple of posture exercises will do nicely. Exercising the pivot point where the ribs meet with stretching and diaphragm circles will do him a world of good, as will a course of Bach fugues.