A new book on Elon Musk, published this week, has revealed that a young Musk told an investor 30 years ago that he is the ‘reincarnation’ of Greek conqueror Alexander the Great. It was at a lunch that Derek Proudian, then at Mohr Davidow Ventures, met a young Musk 30 years ago. The moot point was bankrolling Musk’s first startup Zip2 which aimed to bring the Yellow Pages online. Musk told him Zip2 was going to be the biggest company ever.
“No—you don’t understand,” Mus said. “I’m the reincarnation of the spirit of Alexander the Great.”
Proudian was not willing to give any importance to what young Musk was saying but Musk kept on saying that he had got the samurai spirit. “I’ve got the samurai spirit,” he said. “I’d rather commit seppuku than fail,” the book titled Hubris Maximus by Washington Post’s Faiz Siddiqui says, as reported by The Daily Beast.
‘I know how ruthless he is’
Proudian said in the book he did not take the words of 23-year-old Musk seriously but now that he looks back he knows how smart he is and how ruthless he is. “I am really concerned because I know how smart this guy is and I know how much money he has and I know how ruthless he is, and it’s playing out in front of my own eyes,” he said.
‘Elon Musk cannot stand being told what to do’
Ross Gerber, a former Tesla investor and one of the company’s biggest cheerleaders, told Siddiqui that Musk cannot stand being told what to do—even by the Securities and Exchange Commission. “He just basically has a complete disdain for any authority period,” said Gerber, whose relationship with Musk eventually soured. “I have a completely different opinion about the hubris of thumbing your nose at the people that could really hurt you.”
The book has details of the time when Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022. When he called the executives for a meeting, it was bizarre. “One high-level exec recalled waiting for 90 minutes outside of Musk’s office. When he was finally allowed to enter, Musk was watching a YouTube video on his phone. There ensued an awkward 10 minutes of silence during which the executive waited for Musk to acknowledge his presence,” the Daily Beast report narrated.
Siddiqui wrote how whenever he tried to reach Musk for a story, Musk would invariably say “Give my regards to your puppetmaster,” referring to Post’s owner Jeff Bezos.
