Case study-4

Two engineers created Tesla Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning they named it after Serbian American inventor Nikola Tesla back then Tesla was called Tesla Motors they saw an opportunity to create an electric car after General Motors were called the EV. Its unclear why GM did this it could have been because of a lack of demand high production costs or pressure from the oil and gas industry either way GM crushed the cars in a junkyard Elon came into the picture when the founders went looking for funding he made millions when the financial services company he co-founded XCOM merged with a rival and became PayPal when eBay bought PayPal in 2002 Elon walked away with $180 million he was very successful but instead of calling it a career he sunk all his winnings into new ventures he put 100,000,000 into SpaceX 10 million into solar city and 70 million into tesla including six and a half at the start and became the chairman of the company's board

2006 was a big year for Tesla the roadster made its official appearance as a good looking fast electric car but there were quality issues and a lot of production problems in the end Everhard was ousted as CEO before the roadster even went into production which didnt happen until 2008 Tesla was running out of money the company budgeted 25 million for the development of the roadster but it ended up costing nearly five times that by the fall of 2008 Tesla had only 9 million left to fund the entire company it was a tumultuous time with multiple CEOs coming and going and in the end Elon was left in charge he said this in an interview about the big decision he had to make do I let Tesla die or do I make it live with a lot of pain and grief he chose to make Tesla live.

But it couldnt have been more painful one of Americas largest banks Lehman Brothers collapsed sinking the world economy into the worst recession since the Great Depression plus SpaceX was close to being bankrupt after three failed rocket launches and he was going through a divorce from his wife Justine Elon said 2008 was the worst year of his life and he never thought he was someone capable of having a nervous breakdown but came close to it Elon fought hard to save his companies he cut 25% of teslas workforce and asked friends to help cover payroll but by December 2008 Tesla was about to die still he didnt give up Ashley Vance wrote a biography about Elon Musk and there is one dinner conversation that Elon had with a Tesla investor that really shows his tenacity during that dinner Ellen said I will spend my last dollar on these companies if we have to move into justines parents basement will do it Tesla barely pulled through in 2008 but needed more money to stay alive that came in May 2009 when German automaker Daimler invested $50 million by taking a 10% stake in the company Daimler and Tesla had already been working on an electric smart car the company also received a $465 million loan from EU S Department of Energy which had a program backing cleantech startups the following year Tesla found a more stable solution when it went public at $17.00 a share despite the problems with the roadster Tesla had achieved something no company had ever done before it proved that electric cars could be cool and fast but the roadster was too expensive for most people costing more than $100,000 so they built another car in 2012 Tesla stunned the world when it began shipping the Model S sedan took everyones breath away the Model S could go more than 300 miles on a single charge

and it was more affordable than the roadster although still expensive teslas problems were still not over in nearly went bankrupt again in 2013 even though the Model S was in high demand customers who put down a $5000 deposit were hesitant about going through with their purchase there were a lot of reasons for this complaints about the interior kinks with the car some of the earliest versions didn't have parking sensors and cruise control which are common in high end vehicles there were also concerns about the resale value clea

When Elon found out about the problem he did three things first he turned every Tesla employee into a salesperson they called everyone who put down a deposit and tried to convince them to go through with buying the car, second he convinced his friend Larry Page the CEO of Google to buy Tesla if the company actually did run out of money, finally Tesla

shut down its factory when orders werent coming in fast enough but did not admit this publicly or else it would have scared investors and sent the stock price plummeting instead Tesla said it was closing down for maintenance which was technically true but not the whole story the strategy worked on may eight 2013 Tesla stunned Wall Street by posting its first ever profit as a public company Tesla made 11 million on 562 million in sales after delivering 4900 Model S is in the first quarter Elon saved Tesla from death again but there were more hardships to come the companys problems were still not over it nearly went bankrupt again

in 2018 this time it had to do with the model 3 elons vision from the beginning was to build an affordable electric car paid for by the more expensive cars the model last in also the model X which came out a few years earlier. Tesla struggled to meet the production targets it initially wanted to produce 5000 models in a week but in the first three months of 2018, it made just 9800 of the Tesla was bleeding money as it tried to increase production of the car it lost a billion dollars in the first half of 2019 and scrambled to raise capital Elon said the company was close to death within single-digit weeks he even slept on the factory floor because he didnt have time to go home and also because he says he wanted to suffer more than any other employee despite the torturous production process Tesla managed to pull through once again it turned a corner in the second half of 2019 by delivering over 92,000 model

threes in the fourth quarter thats an increase from the same. The year before or a year over year of 46% and the latest model the model Y was ahead of schedule Tesla has managed to survive now its looking ahead to many ambitious plans including fully autonomous driving a million-mile battery in driverless cabs called Robo taxis Tesla stock price hovers around

$1000 a share as of the making of this video but the biggest bulls see it going up way more Tesla has endured many near-death experiences and through it, all Elon has never ever given up.

(ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svHnxfAPxLk)

Q1. Mention four incidents that showcase Elon Musks growth mindset nature.

Q2. Mention three strategies that Elon Musk did which showcase his positive approach toward start-uptoad situations.