Elon Musk Reveals The Secret To His Massive Success.

Some people read fiction just to enjoy the rhythm of the dizzying barrage of words. Or as writer Annie Dillard says, “You may read fiction to enjoy the multiplicity and dazzle of the vivid objects it presents to the imagination; to hear its verbal splendor and admire its nimble narrative; to enter lives not your own; to feel, on one hand, the solemn stasis and immutability of the work as enclosed art object – beginning and ending the same way every time you read it, as though a novel were a diagram inscribed forever under the vault of heaven – and to feel, on the other hand, the plunging force of time compressed in its passage, and that compressed passage like a river’s pitch crowded with scenes and scenery and actions and characters enlarged and rushing headlong down together.”

Advanced rockets

This is especially true for billionaire Elon Musk, whose reading has, since childhood, been about getting new ideas, igniting others and re-imagining the world.

With a $70.5 billion fortune as at July 11, 2020, Musk became the fifth richest person in the world, leapfrogging ahead of even famed investor Warren Buffet (“the Oracle of Omaha”).

Musk is the brains behind Tesla – the electric carmaker and Space X – a company that manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. Space X stunned the world when, in May this year, it successfully sent two astronauts to the space station – the first private company to do so in attempt to explore space tourism.

Whenever anyone asks Musk how he learnt to build rockets, he says, “I read books.” And indeed, space flight, long a fascination for him, was kindled early by the science fiction and fantasy books he read as a child growing up in South Africa.

And the stuff of his childhood imagination from the books he read was made real when “NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley floated from their SpaceX Dragon capsule into the International Space Station on May 31”.

In an interview, Musk once said, “In terms of science fiction books, I think Isaac Asimov is really great. I like the Foundation series, probably one of the all-time best”. Isaac Asimov’s Foundation books are a set of seven titles in the series. Musk also read and recommends the fantasy novel by J.R.R Tolkein entitled, The Lord of the Rings.

The novel is about “a man named the Dark Lord Sauron who had in an earlier age created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power as the ultimate weapon in his campaign to conquer and rule all of Middle-earth.”

As a publisher and parent, I have seen firsthand how teachers and parents struggle to inculcate good reading habits in children and so Musk is an especially good role model in that respect. I have also seen from experience, as an avid reader, the benefits of reading fiction.

One clear benefit, experts aver, is that reading fires up the brain as one is trying to imagine things when reading. This is very important because reading, unlike watching movies, makes the reader visualize images and scenes from the words they are reading.

Another benefit is that most people who read pick up a lot of vocabulary along the way. Sometimes parents and teachers struggle to teach children new vocabulary but the truth is that, this can’t be separated from reading.

When a child or anyone reads, their vocabulary will naturally be better and they will know how to use the words appropriately. When people don’t read, they will always hesitate when trying to describe their thoughts or emotions either verbally or in writing as they can’t find the right words to fit their situations.

Disastrous consequences

This, of course, can have disastrous consequences if one is trying to express themselves in an examination or in a job interview (to say nothing of life-threatening situations where a wrong turn of the phrase could make a difference between life and death). In some situations, good vocabulary choice could literally save lives.

Reading also improves memory, as one has to remember details like characters (what they do or how they change as the story progresses), plot, settings and other things like conversations and the back story.

Some studies have also suggested that reading can help to slow mental decline in one’s later years, thus guarding against memory loss.

Reading is also, obviously, fun. And anything one enjoys could reduce stress and bring relaxation. This is very important as a pastime, especially during this corona virus pandemic, as delving into books can take one to new and alluring lands, away from the frightening, muffled voices of people trying to talk behind their surgical masks and the whole reality of being shut off from the rest of the world.

Another great benefit for people like Elon Musk is that reading is for gathering new ideas from both the dead and the living. As we get new ideas, we process them and this encourages analytical, critical and creative thinking that could lead to innovation or new ways of problem solving. We should definitely read more; the benefits are obvious.