«Power Play game: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century»: the startup that created the world’s most popular electric cars

More and more Ukrainians are turning away from the name — Elon Musk. The man at the helm of the most prominent private space company in history is increasingly burying himself and the remnants of his already shattered reputation with new kinky posts on social media site X. Musk also runs Tesla. The game-changing automaker that created the world’s most popular electric cars. We have already written about the book «Takeoff: Elon Musk and the first desperate years of SpaceX»tells the story of the dedicated people who have worked and are working at SpaceX. The book «Power Play game: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century» by «Our Format» is also about people. But it has Mr. Musk in it. However, I ask you to wait and not close this material, and be sure to read the book.

«Power Play game: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century»

Pluses:

good quality of the publication; the plot is built like in the best bestselling novels; an interesting documentary and comprehensive history of the creation of the most popular electric car manufacturer; many different facts about Tesla's secrets; the book reveals the actions of Elon Musk, some parts of his personal life and the despotic management format

Minuses:

there are a lot of events and key people whose names are not remembered at all; the last third of the book slows down, which slightly affects the impression of the finale

9/10

Rating ITC.ua

It is here that the most serious flaws of the scandalous billionaire, his shortcomings in managing the company, strange whims, dangerous actions, and fraud with the law are revealed. After reading «The Bet of the Century», I realized that Tesla often achieved results not because of Musk’s actions, but in spite of them. Although he also had a hand in the success, the lion’s share of the work was done by the fans of his business, whom the ungrateful leader fired in bunches.

Power Play game: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century

Author Tim Higgins
Translator Roman Klochko
Publisher Our Format
Language Ukrainian
Number of pages 424
Cover Solid
Year of publication 2023
Size 140×210 mm
Website nashformat.ua

«Power Play game: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century» — a detailed history of the company from its founding in 2003 to 2021 inclusive. This is a thorough research that describes literally all the actions of the famous automaker from the startup stage to the current status of one of the most expensive car companies in history.

Despite its documentation and attention to detail, the book is interesting to read. It is structured like a full-fledged bestselling novel — there are always ups and downs, Tesla is constantly facing the most serious challenges that the company does not overcome, but at the last moment everything works out. This leads to the next problem, then it almost destroys the company, then it is solved, and so on in a circle.

That is, on the one hand, we have a well-thought-out and working «wave of events» that swings the story and always keeps the reader in suspense and makes them turn page after page. On the other hand, the author almost didn’t have to adjust reality to this ready-made recipe for interest because Tesla was actually on the edge of the abyss many times, but each time it overcame it and emerged victorious.

The company has always had problems with the quality of its cars, and its employees are used to long working days without days off and vacations, chaos on the assembly line, and the cynical and insolent behavior of the boss, who actually fired people when they passed by the car shop just because he was in a bad mood.

Elon Musk has been the cause of his company’s failures, setbacks, and fiascoes many times. But thanks to people, top professionals and fanatics, dedicated to their work, Tesla has been getting better and better, despite the spokes in the wheels that their boss constantly stuck in.

Another serious problem for the Tesla team was the boss’s crazy ideas. Some of them turned out to be failures, such as the excessive robotization of the car assembly shop, which led to a mad rush of production, but some of them really became breakthrough solutions. But the main thing here is different — Musk always singled out and bragged about all his successful ideas, and blamed someone else for the unsuccessful ones and fired them.

At the same time, thanks to his stubbornness, arrogance, ability to inspire people, gather many desperate professionals around him, and an incredible level of self-confidence. It was Elon Musk who was able to see the future in a niche startup and do everything necessary to make it grow into a giant in the automotive industry.

He has lied to shareholders and customers, he has cheated with securities, he has written inappropriate tweets, he has insulted and fired hundreds of people. He has survived almost all of its founders, he has secured funding from the US government, he has made loud statements and made fantastic promises. However, Musk also invested all his money, lived on credit, and sometimes paid his salary literally out of his pocket.

Elon Musk was and still is a revolutionary clown who single-handedly created an incredible demand for electric cars. Just like with SpaceX, Musk asked the right questions, rejected established formulas, and made things much simpler and more efficient. On the one hand, this allowed for the birth of the most innovative electric car in recent years and brought this niche into the mainstream. On the other hand, it led to an enormous number of mistakes, breakdowns, broken fates of workers and managers, scandals, violations, etc.

«Power Play game: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century» is well-published. It has an easy-to-use layout, nice yellow paper, and a comfortable font. I would like to highlight the main picture. It attracts attention and is definitely better than the one in the original American edition. There it is not at all clear why it is there and why it is so. And here, «Our Format» has definitely done some extra work, so we have a case where the cover of the Ukrainian edition is better than the original.

Conclusion:

«Power Play game: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century» — A well-written, easy-to-understand book for those who want to know the reasons for Tesla's rapid rise, the motives of the people who worked there, and a little insight into Musk's actions. It also explains the financial, design, and management decisions that contributed to this success.

As the author himself notes, he has repeatedly asked Elon Musk for interviews, comments, etc., but he always refused, but wrote only one thing: «Most (but not all) of what you read in this book is *nonsense». Judging by the actions of the billionaire, who is unpleasant for Ukrainians, almost everything he speaks negatively about turns out to be something really cool. This book is another example of that.