How Elon Musk Winged It With Twitter, and Everything Else – The New York Times

Kimbal Musk and Mr. Gracias, who left Teslas board last year and serves as a SpaceX director, declined to comment for this article.

Today, Mr. Musk oversees or is associated with at least a dozen companies, including public ones, private ones and holding companies such as Wyoming Steel, which he uses to manage real estate. His net worth stands at about $250 billion.

As Mr. Musk established more companies, he collected associates he could deploy across many of the endeavors.

One was Mary Beth Brown, who was hired in 2002 to essentially be Mr. Musks executive assistant. Known as M.B., she soon became a kind of chief of staff, handling media requests and some financial matters for SpaceX and Tesla, as well as helping to manage Mr. Musks personal life, said Ashlee Vance, the author of Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.

That same year, Mr. Musk hired Gwynne Shotwell as SpaceXs seventh employee. As the rocket makers president and chief operating officer, Ms. Shotwell has overseen the companys growth, becoming one of Mr. Musks longest-lasting employees.

At a conference in 2018, Ms. Shotwell explained how she managed Mr. Musk.

When Elon says something, you have to pause and not immediately blurt out, Well, thats impossible, or, Theres no way were going to do that. I dont know how, she said. So you zip it, and you think about it. And you find ways to get that done.

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How Elon Musk Winged It With Twitter, and Everything Else - The New York Times