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In the 2015 book ‘Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future’ author Ashlee Vance used an anecdote that has just popped up in the news again. The story revolves around Elon Musk and his assistant of 12 years, Mary Beth Brown.
Feeling that she was entitled to a raise after 12 years, the story goes that she came to Elon to ask for the raise and instead of granting it he told her that he’d be taking over her job for 2 weeks as a test to see if Mary Beth Brown was indispensable as his assistant, and thus deserving of the raise. When the two weeks were up she was offered a position elsewhere in the company but would never be Elon Musk’s assistant again.
This is a cold, hard lesson of knowing your value in the workplace, but it’s also an anecdote that Elon Musk took to Twitter last night to pick apart. He never explicitly says ‘that didn’t happen’ but instead chooses to attack the overall credibility of the book because of minor factual errors. Regardless, it’s interesting to see that this is something that has Elon Musk really riled up:
Ashlee Vance's biography is mostly correct, but also rife with errors & never independently fact-checked, despite my request that he do so
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 11, 2017
Of all the bogus anecdotes, this one troubles me the most. Ashlee never actually ran this story by me or my assistant. It is total nonsense.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 11, 2017
Mary Beth was an amazing assistant for over 10 yrs, but as company complexity grew, the role required several specialists vs one generalist
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 11, 2017
MB was given 52 weeks of salary & stock in appreciation for her great contribution & left to join a small firm, once again as a generalist
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 11, 2017
One other I'd like to correct from the biography: I never said I was a samurai. Said I was ninja. No, that's a joke. Didn't say that either.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 11, 2017
He takes a two-hour break and then gets back to tweeting:
There are dozens of bogus or half-true anecdotes don't really matter & maybe 5 to 10 that do. Guess I could post for those interested.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 11, 2017
Just because I have the outfit and the awesome weapons doesn't make me a ninja. That requires years of training.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 11, 2017
This is about as true as TIME being a paragon of great journalism. Please spend at least 8 seconds checking your facts.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 11, 2017
I guess Business Insider should’ve included a ‘trigger warning’ in their article for Elon Musk? Some Jimmies were definitely rustled. You don’t often see billionaires spending their evenings complaining on Twitter. Well, you don’t often see billionaires who aren’t currently on vacation playing golf in New Jersey spending their evenings complaining on Twitter…I can’t help but wonder what it is about this story that gets Elon Musk so riled up?