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Comment by jaxytee | Hacker News Reader

Between running Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity, and conceptualizing the hyperloop, Elon is the yang to Steve Job's "Focus on one thing" yin.

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Elon is not the only example. John Carmack is another one. Video Games, Rockets, Cars, you name it. When you are curious AND efficient at learning & developing solutions, you often end up breaking new grounds. There are tons of examples out there of people successful in many fields.

But then Jobs had Apple and Pixar/Disney. You can have more than one company as long as you have the right people running it for you.

I think the point is that Jobs himself only ran one company at a time, though he had many successes. Elon is doing at least three things at once (Chairman of the board of Solar City. CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX), and the Hyperloops looks to be a fourth.

FWIW, in the case of Solar City he consistently emphasizes in his interviews that he has to basically "just show up at board meetings and hear the good news" and that most of the credit goes to the guys in charge there. But anyway, I'm deeply impressed by this guy, especially since he is not only CEO but also Chief Designer at SpaceX and Product Architect at Tesla.

I was mainly referencing Solar City which he doesn't really run.

A good example of someone who doesn't focus on one thing and is hugely successful is Richard Branson. Virgin Group has more than 400 companies.

Incorrect. Steve was CEO of Pixar and Apple at the same time. He found it to be exhausting. In Isaacson's book Steve believe this weaken his immune system which led to his cancer, which Isaacson discredited.

Jobs never planned on leaving Earth, and shall remain, stuck as dust on this planet, as Elon makes his peace with the universe on Mars.

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