This question came from Elon Musk near the very end of a long dinnner
we shared at a high-end seafood restaurant in silicon Valley. I'd gotten to
the restaurant first and settled down with a gin and tonic, knowing Musk
would--as ever--be late. After about fifteen minutes, Musk showed up
wearing leather shoes, designer jeans, and a plaid dress shirt. Musk stands
six foot one but ask anyone who knows him and they'II confirm that he
seems much bigger than that. He's absurdly broad-shouldered, sturdy, and
thick. You'd figure he would use this frame to his advantage and perform an
alpha-male strut when entering a room. Instead , he tends to be almost
sheepish. It's head titled slightly down while walking, a quick handshake
hello after reaching the table, and thenbutt in seat. From there, Musk needs
a few minutes before he warms upand looks at ease.
Musk asked me to dinner for a negotiation of sorts. Eighteen months
earlier, I'd informed him of my plans to write a book about him, and he'd
informed me of his plan not to cooperate. His rejection stung but thrust me
into dogged reporter mode. If I had to do this book without him, so be it.
Plenty of people had left Musk's companies, Tesla Motors and SpaceX, and
would talk, and I already knew a lot of his friends. The interviews followed
one after another, month after month, and two hundered or so people into the
process , I heard from Musk once again. He called me at home and declared
that things could go one of two ways; he could make my life very difficult
or he could help with the project after all. He'd be willing to cooperate if he
could read the book before it went to publication, and could add footnotes
throughout it. He would not meddle with my text, but he wanted the chance
to set the record straight in spots that he deemed factually inaccurate. I
understood where this was coming from. Musk wanted a measure of control
over his life's story. He's also wired like a scientist and suffers mental
anguish at the sight of a factual error. A mistake on a printed page would
gnaw at his soul---forever. while I could understand his perspective, I could
not let him read the book, for professional, personal, and practical reasons.
Musk has his version of the truth, and it's not always the version of the truth
that the rest of the world shares. He's prone to verbose answers to even the simplest of questions as well, and the thought of thirty-page footnotes
seemed all too real. Still, we agreed to have dinner, chat all this out, and see
where it left us.