TESLA CEO Elon Musk has said leadership was never a goal of his, as it doesn’t tap into being creative or innovative – causing internal strife.
In 2020, Musk appeared on a podcast discussing how Tesla became so huge, and he, reluctantly, assumed the position of CEO.
Otherwise, he told Third Row Tesla that he’d rather be on the product production end of things, as it taps into his more creative and innovative side.
“I really didn’t want to be CEO,” Musk said.
“This is misinterpreted like I somehow don’t love Tesla, which I do, it’s just like trying not to go insane with work. I mean the pain level is extreme.”
Musk went on to explain that it all began with being inspired after a test driving an electric sports car, the tzero – and felt he could improve a similar platform with a company named AC Propulsion.
Therefore, he became an investor for Tesla in 2004, and worked closely with the likes of Martin Erberhard, Marc Tarpenning, Ian Wright, and JB Straubel.
As Tesla grew bigger, the need to appoint a CEO also rose to the surface, and Musk was immediately reluctant due to his early developments of SpaceX.
“They made me choose who was going to be CEO, because I really didn’t want to be CEO,” he continued.
“I was trying to make this rocket company work.”
The issue he had with starting SpaceX and then deciding who would lead Tesla was that he felt taking on two start-ups would be too much for him, as he was already working full time with SpaceX.
Working full time with both would double his work load, forcing one man to work 160 hours a week, he said.
“I didn’t think it would be easy, but I thought maybe I could allocate 20 to 30 hours a week and just work on product engineering, and then other people could do the other stuff,” he said.
“But that didn’t work out.”
However, due to his growing passion for electric vehicles thanks to a lack of available products – as hybrid vehicles were emerging from the shadows with the Toyota Prius – he felt there was no other way to realize Tesla’s vision unless he took the helm.
“Running companies hurts my heart, but I don’t see any other way to bring technology & design to fruition.”
Despite not wanting to be the leader of Tesla, he’s taken the company to great heights – having successfully brought the start-up to being the pioneer company of EVs.
