I just started reading the biography of Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity. It’s a book I wouldn’t start without a great review like this one. The story is similar to the one of many other successful entrepreneurs but somehow all of them keep me thinking about how useless it is to look at them as a model. People became more and more passionate about this type of books and stories, but the reality is that Elon, like Steve Jobs, and many others, has been influenced by a specific path, a specific youth and a set of experiences you can’t replicate or follow to reach the same destination.
It’s not really the point of reading such a book, but more and more people, specially in Silicon Valley, usually look at these people as examples and models – something they should follow and try to imitate. They are great, no doubts, but you cannot take them as models, as you cannot do it with the majority of entrepreneurs. It’s mostly about their story and their struggles and that’s how they usually end up in something not common for 99% of the rest of us.