“Is Twitter a career killer?”– before asking this question we should try to understand why celebrities use Twitter? Well, perhaps mostly to increase their “brand value” or “individual value as a brand” by staying closely connected with the current affairs. Now, there are a number of tech entrepreneurs who either do not have or care to use Twitter very frequently. They might be considered old school but their establishments do not quite depend on their reputation or popularity. Moreover, some people like to stay out of trouble with media gossip by keeping their personal opinions private. We talk about “freedom of speech” but no one talks about the consequences of such a privilege. Giving too much information (TMI) through a continuous conversation or making bold frank remarks has caused a lot of people negative publicity in their career on public platforms.
Our “beloved” President Donald J. Trump is in the news quite often for being too impulsive and giving TMI on Twitter. However, (perhaps following the same footsteps) the person who has been completely insane on Twitter this year is none other than Elon Musk. No other CEO’s company finance depends so much on their own personal reputation as Elon Musk’s reputation does. His recent “pedo” comments and a false (rather unofficial) claim like “funding secured” for Tesla going private have been causing Tesla stock a lot of misfortune. He is almost losing his position as a chairman from the board as of right now.
And those are just two of the basic examples of his recent tweets. I am already assuming you guys have heard about the whole fiasco with him recently, so I’m not elaborating on that. But why is he behaving so erratic lately? It might be due to his workload. After all, trying to achieve too many ultra-ambitious goals simultaneously is hard even for a superhuman type genius like Elon. But it could also be that he is deliberately trying to get out of Tesla’s board. He is overwhelmed and bored with it.
I am not going to question his mental state or the reason for his recent eccentric behavior. But I think people are also putting undue weight on their personal conduct more than the service which he provides to society. Everyone is turning to behave police for him as if each and everyone is a prophet themselves. This is another perspective of the corporate monkey story where Elon Musk is the proven trailblazer monkey in town and all the old monkeys are waiting to drag him down with every opportunity they can get.
So don’t make a bad tweet today, the world does not have the capacity to hear your brutal honesty or crude sarcasm in the name of “freedom of speech”. And especially if you are a potential outlier, be ready to be heavily scrutinized by society.
EDITING TO ADD: Despite having a rough year (2018) Tesla has proven to be profitable, putting all the naysayers to rest (well, at least for a while). I should say, this experience has been part of Elon Musk’s personal learning curve.
My World 