Elon Musk, The 21st Century Industrialist

From Parkways To Space: Elon Musk, Entrepreneur Extraordinary
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk answers questions in front of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft Wednesday June 13, 2012 at the SpaceX Rocket Development Facility in McGregor, Texas. The spacecraft recently made history as the first commercial vehicle to visit the International Space Station. The California-based SpaceX is the first private business to send a cargo ship to the space station. (AP Photo/Waco Tribune-Herald, Duane A. Laverty)
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk answers questions in front of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft Wednesday June 13, 2012 at the SpaceX Rocket Development Facility in McGregor, Texas. The spacecraft recently made history as the first commercial vehicle to visit the International Space Station. The California-based SpaceX is the first private business to send a cargo ship to the space station. (AP Photo/Waco Tribune-Herald, Duane A. Laverty)

On Fridays, Elon Musk gathers his engineers in an old hangar in Los Angeles. The building, next to a municipal airport a couple miles south of the Hollywood Park race track and casino, is now a research and development facility for Musk's electric car company, Tesla Motors (TSLA). Musk uses these meetings to check the team's progress and give straightforward, often withering, design critiques. During one such session in July, versions of the Model S sedan and the skeletal frame of a forthcoming sport-utility vehicle, the Model X, sit in a corner. Drivetrain prototypes lay on the concrete floor next to interior cabin mock-ups.

Musk's staff huddles around him as he zeroes in on a sun visor. He hates it. He examines the seam and, noticing how it pushes up the fabric, declares it "fish-lipped." The screws on the hinges feel like knives stabbing him in the eye. He announces he wants to find the best sun visor in the world, and then make a better one.

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