Persistence And Envirionment

By 

J. Ogunlela 

Environment and persistence are two critical support needed to bring big dreams to fruition. After Elon Musk, the 49 year old world's richest man had blown up his third rocket, he was almost shattered. In fact he had a nervous breakdown. And as you know, when you fail, everybody becomes your adviser;  people came railing on him. His childhood hero astronaut Neil Armstrong called his dream of a private rocket company "arrogant" and even testified to Congress that such things should be banned as "dangerous". Everybody thought companies that can launch rockets into orbit must be massive - like Lockheed Martin and Boeing and NASA, a state owned enterprise that wastes money like tissue paper. Everybody seemed against him. 

Elon didn't turn to prayer houses or flee to Ikoyi mountains - and I want to make a point of that to my highly theological reading audience - he scrapped all he had left of money, goodwill and nerves and built the fourth rocket which was to wipe away all the terrible days with a single stroke.

The emphasis here is this: notice the word above - goodwill. He had plenty of it. He had a bunch of Stanford graduates in his core team and a handful of investors who still believed in him and who stood by him. These were long distance runners and physics wizards who knew from their mathematics that it could be done. They were not wishy-washy crowds who think money should be made quicky in a portfolio deals in Abuja and then you are off to Caribbean holidays. They were people who wanted to contribute, not just make millions from lottery. They had been raised in an environment that supports productivity, not one that worships money and thinks money comes from fast acts. Not one that thinks God makes quickie billionaires who just become rich through divine favour, not by contributing something exceptional to human development and providing solutions society needs. You see, a busines environment is not just about infrastructure - those are very minor things - it is much more about the human mind, the mentality of the people, the die-hard will to solve a problem and impact life. If they don't have a positive attitude towards life and productivity, then they cannot make progress and of course their lack of infrastructures like roads, power and potable water is immediately explained. 

Elon Musk's fourth rocket flew, passed Max-Q, the zone of maximum aerodynamic pressure and went into orbit. Later he pioneered and  mastered how to make rockets come back and land on their legs, ready for refitting and reuse. This was to cut the cost of flying into orbit from about $120 million to mere $32 million. He is getting NASA contracts that Boeing cannot get - in fact, contracts like taking astronauts to the International Space Station that Boeing spectacularly failed at.

 Building on that cost advantage, Elon decided to launch 30,000 satellites into orbit so that he can make a 1GB per second internet services available to everyone on earth at an affordable cost and that is ongoing as we speak, already available in different parts of the world. (While working on these great ideas, the thought of the Hyperloop occured to him, a technology that will revolutionise land transport, making it as fast as air travel but safer and cheaper. Elon published the idea and said he was too busy to pursue it and urged other people to take it up. One of those that did was Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Atlantic. He tested a prototype a few months ago). The last time I checked, I saw two of those satellites over Nigeria. Our National Telecommunications Company is busy looking for $5billion to implement a natiowide internet coverage, but their idea is totally caught in the distant past if they will just read half a paragraph of what solution Elon Musk has made available. 

Elon Must was valued at $185 billion a week ago as his wealth has been growing at $400m per day since early 2020. That means if you sell his assets, you can fund the Nigerian government for around years at the present range of its budget. You ought to pause to think about such man and his ways. You ought to thank God today that you heard about him.