Sunday, June 2, 2013

Letter to a friend on Wall Street

Thanks for the display of success on Solar City's stock.

  Elon Musk started Paypal, Tesla, SpaceX and has now taken over SolarCity; a problem solver with bold ambitions, but not strictly for personal gain. Elon Musk is one of the most forward thinking, practical, bold and adventurous thinkers who has ever lived. He's got the golden touch because hardly anyone else has leadership skills anymore, such as Charles, your brother.

 Everyone in power in Washington, the place we Americans yearn for and expect practical leadership, is up for short term gains while covering their asses. Their audacity displays itself in a way that shocks us at their greed and avarice (greed squared) as they appear so powerful that they don't see us as anyone who will interfere with their CYA tactics. If gun laws are such a great thing, prove it in Chicago! Show us and convince us with a track record....No that would be too transparent, because they're full of it and don't care if they flaunt it in front of us, because they have absolutely no respect for us. We are just cash cows to set up a platform for the cool kids. And more than half the country is glad to get a replacement for Jacky-O in Camelot. Why did I stick my head in that sewer when I started out praising a leader?  Please recognize that the Chicago way may work in Chicago but reconsider for the country, please?  Chicago is one of the most beautiful and fun cities I've been to.  Visiting in the winter and seeing the ice build up on the edge of the lake is an added bonus.

 Elon's modesty while in practical problem solving mode is appealing. His attention is on where the rubber meets the road, solving problems.  Who ever would have thought a private enterprise could improve on rocket fuel engines that NASA spent years and billions maintaining and has figured out how to reuse a rocket shortly after it has landed? But he's moved on to the next problem because praise is the last thing on his mind. He just wants to get the next thing done! That is the American spirit and that's why he's here!

 Then there's Paypal: Years before anyone saw a need, he had filled it.

Self agrandizement drives many of our so called leaders who, with a smooth and cool manner, lure us in. We can be overwhelmed from time to time and willing to let someone else pick up the slack on their expertise.  We don’t have very many Will Geers or Mark Twains to protect us from ourselves in our hectic lives.  But with a lack luster economy we can feel as though we're slowly sinking in a morass, with  family values pushed to the back burner.  Of course, families are going about their business engendering good values while the visible leadership is hindered by trying too hard to claim the moral high ground to pad re-election campaigns.


 So I thank you for reminding me there are true clear thinkers, Elon Musk, Sergy Brin, Thomas Sowell, Steve Jobs, Larry Elder who ignore the limelight while they're out creating. It was a good tip in more ways than I can describe