Musk's "dual" traits determine the future direction of Tesla?

I remember discussing the Tesla stocks I bought during an earlier Twitter conversation. At that time, I had sold about half but still kept the other half.

I sold half because I read Duan Yongping's comments on Tesla from over a decade ago. Duan Yongping believed that some traits of Musk could pose a fatal risk to the company. For investors who hope to hold stocks for the long term, buying such stocks is inappropriate. So after realizing this issue, Duan Yongping decisively sold all his Tesla shares.

I kept the other half because I think Musk is a genius, and companies like Tesla are too rare. Moreover, the future path for Tesla is indeed very broad, so it felt a bit regrettable to let it go completely. I couldn't be as decisive as Duan Yongping.

However, since then, I occasionally find myself thinking about this company, paying attention to trivial news about Tesla, and sometimes feeling restless. This feeling is very unpleasant. This is not investment; it is simply self-consuming. So not long after, I sold the remaining half as well.

Although I have completely exited, I still keep an eye on Tesla's news. I am still very interested in its future direction and development ideas, but my mindset has become much calmer now.

In April, I heard a tech blogger comment on an important decision Musk made during the production process of Tesla's autonomous ride-hailing service, Cybertaxi.

The commentary was very sharp and incisive.

While listening to the commentary, I recalled Duan Yongping's evaluation of Tesla (Musk), and then suddenly thought that Musk's actions during that decision-making process might be the "traits" that Duan Yongping described as potentially having a fatal impact on the company?

Recently, his former entrepreneurial partner Peter Thiel mentioned in an interview that Musk may now be more concerned with transforming society rather than landing on Mars—perhaps Musk now believes that without transforming the existing society, even if humanity can migrate to Mars, it would merely be relocating Earth's society to Mars and recreating another Earth there. This is far from his hope of creating an ideal new civilization on Mars.

Now, for various reasons, Musk has fallen out with Trump again.

This series of actions has fully reflected certain characteristics of his personality, and these characteristics may not only affect Tesla but also all the tech companies under his command.

I once wrote in an article that I wonder if his ending will turn out to be like Shang Yang. But now I believe his ending may be even more tragic than Shang Yang's.

For a startup, its corporate culture and genes are implanted by the founder; whatever traits the founder has will reflect in the corporate culture.

The reason a genius like Musk could establish Tesla and lead it to where it is today is that he has fully leveraged the positive elements of his character. However, how far Tesla can go next may face increasingly uncertain factors.

There are reports that Tesla's board is trying to get rid of Musk. But even so, will Tesla be better off without Musk?

I have my doubts.

Because this is like two sides of a coin; losing one side inevitably means losing the other. If Musk leaves, it may reduce uncertainty, but Tesla will also lose that courage and wisdom to explore the unknown.

Now I have completely given up on Tesla. For me, such a company is more suitable for distant observation; I would rather stand back and admire the miracles it creates.