To the general public, Elon Musk is many things; self-taught rocket scientist; intrepid entrepreneur; more recently, an overzealous, inconsiderate boss; but to those who know him well, he’s something more — a salesman of legendary stature.
In his startup course at Stanford, Peter Thiel, the (in)famous venture-capitalist and an old friend of Musk’s, divided salespeople into five ranks: amateurs, mediocrities, experts, masters, and grandmasters. To give an example of the latter, Thiel used Musk.
“Time constraints make it impossible to relate all of Elon’s many great sales victories. But if you don’t believe that sales grandmasters exist, you haven’t met Elon,” Thiel said.
It’s natural that this side of Musk isn’t obvious. Good salesmanship, Thiel said, is hidden. Unfortunately for Musk, Ashlee Vance’s new biography of the grandmaster gives a peek at the man behind the curtains.
In December of 2003, SpaceX was barely more than a year old. Its engineers were already working backbreaking hours building rockets, but Musk decided that the company needed a PR victory. Engineers from Texas were called back to California headquarters to build a prototype of the Falcon 1.
