What is it like to work with Elon Musk?

Here are some of the answer of this question by a former employees of SpaceX,

I've been an engineer with SpaceX for over five years now. I've seen and helped the company grow from less than 500 people in to the powerhouse it is now. I highly doubt that there is a cooler company in the world than SpaceX. Everything that's been said is certainly true. SpaceX really is awesome. What's been said is just one part of what it's like to work with Elon Musk so I'll discuss the side that you won't often hear.

If you want a family or hobbies or to see any other aspect of life other than the boundaries of your cubicle, SpaceX is not for you and Elon doesn't seem to give a damn.

This side of what it's like to work with Elon shows that no one likes working with Elon. You can always tell when someone's left an Elon meeting: they're defeated. These are some of the hardest working and brightest people in the world, mind you. And they are universally defeated. At least in engineering, who knows what HR and finance does.

The reason for this is that Elon's version of reality is highly skewed. It's much like Steve Jobs's "reality distortion field" except Elon isn't great at public speaking. If you believe that a task should take a year then Elon wants it done in a week. He won't hesitate to throw out six months of work because it's not pretty enough or it's not "badass" enough. But in so doing he doesn't change the schedule.

One of the most famous quotes that runs around the office is one from a company wide talk Elon gave a couple of years ago where he said "Not enough of you are working on Saturdays." Of course reality kicks in and either junk product gets flown or something terrible happens. Ultimately the schedule slips--surprise surprise, fatigue is real.

It's understandable. Putting people on Mars is not a small task especially given the overwhelming political obstacles that face SpaceX's mission. Continuously being the underdog, fighting the ULA behemoth and the entrenched politicians that strangely want SpaceX to fail is only a small part of it. SpaceX certainly requires a hard mentality. But so often Elon's leadership is best compared to a master who berates and smacks his dog for not being able to read his mind.

Nothing you ever do will be good enough so you have to find your own value, not depending on praise to get you through your obviously insufficient 80 hour work weeks.

In order to continue working with Elon, you have to learn to ignore almost everything he says and you have to be prepared to be jabbed over and over. "Just six more months and we'll go IPO!" is among his most repeated lines though he stopped trying to sell that a couple years ago as people stopped believing it long ago.

It is a great company and I do love it. But it isn't the pie in the sky, everything's great idea that so many seem to think.

Do people like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook etc. drink alcohol or do they strictly avoid it?

I personally dont know any of these techies you mentioned, but I have mingled with a lot of people who earn equally from different industries. My family have multi-business and hence I hang around with such people often.

Following are my observations over the years regarding millionaire-billionaires and their alcohol habits -

Most of them dont drink.

Now dont jump to the conclusion that they all dont drink because they believe drinking will harm them or hamper their life or religion.

They simply dont drink becasue they dont give weight-age to such things in life. They are more concerned about the next big thing in the industry over simpler luxuries in life. I personally started drinking with my father during attending meetings in office when I was around 17–18. Nobody judged us.

Yes, most of the people I know who are wealthy are not bothered with luxurious things, they only buy luxury which helps them earn more or is something they cannot live without. Like they only fly private when its required for a meeting, or they cannot find next flight within required time-frame. Generally I have found rich to be very-very-very simple people.

Even one amongst them who drink, drink the best available premium single malts, wines and scotch they find, and limit their intake only on basis of their OWN COMFORT zone.

Alcohol doesn’t make them happy anymore. Its just what they do. Its like drinking coffee to them or eating good food.. Just an act that fulfils a given purpose.

I have never seen these people getting drunk and losing it all, even in rare occasion when they do get drunk its only becasue they lost their composure once and let me assure you. I never have seen them repeat it ever again.

They are very discipline, one of the reason they have all the money in the first place.

For such people, their brand image and appeal matters a lot more to them than drinking. So most of them dont drink in public events. I have never seen a “business head/leader’ swaying away in parties. Even when I see one - I am assured that its all an act.

They drink only what they feel comfortable with, and open bar has no effect over their consumption (considering they earn in millions)

The point of it all is that, these people dont give much importance to such things, they do it on vacations and holidays, but during working days, they stick to their schedule and adhere to demands of only their business. If it demands drinking, they drink. Simple. Consider Richard Branson here. he parties to maintain the brand-Image he has created over the years. I love that man for doing what he does with Branding. Vijay Mallya is another one in India.

Frankly in my observations only frustrated people need alcohol to enjoy life. Life is so much beautiful when you are in control, why lose it? Rich people are generally not frustrated. At-least not the ones who are really wealthy, They just love life in my opinion.

I personally love single malts and drink 2 pegs almost every evening watching movie with my wife (yes I watch one movie or read a book every evening religiously, one of the luxuries of having freedom to plan my own schedule, I told you we look at luxuries differently than most people)

But if I ever have to do without drinking even for couple of years for my business. I wouldn't even think twice before throwing away all my single malts.

I hope I had been of help.

Who-is-Elon-Musks-ex-girl-friend find out

in this video he said - he brifly had a girl friend at that time. I am happy (that girls do go through hard time with men) ,sad (for leaving musk) and curious to know.