Billionaire inventor, investor and futurist Elon Musk is best known for founding SpaceX and for co-founding Tesla Motors and PayPal. At SpaceX he is the CEO and Chief Designer, and at Tesla Motors he is Chairman, CEO and Product Architect. Musk is also Chairman of SolarCity.
Billionaire Jeff Bezos built Amazon from a scrappy online bookseller into an e-commerce empire, shook up the print publishing world with the Kindle e-reader and also started a space travel company. Two days ago he stunned the world when he bought the iconic Washington Post.
What's more, just last month, they both just bid on the same NASA space shuttle launch pad. And, if Elon Musk gets some rest, he's talking about tackling ground transportation with the Hyperloop Transport System.
That makes these two men responsible for changing the space travel and flight Industry, the auto industry, the electronic payments industry, the book publishing industry, the e-commerce industry, and the newspaper industry.
Both are visionary yet each takes the long view of history and industry. And it is not easy to change an entire industry. Let's be really clear on that.
Steve Jobs' Apple also holds a position of industry 'royalty.' No one knew they needed an iPad until Steve made one up. No one knew they needed apps, either, and now they're part of daily life for many. Interesting that the Jobs movie is out soon. Here's the trailer.
Say what you want, but all are pretty impressive. They are today's titans of industry, sharing a title that goes back in American lore. They've brought HUGE changes to these industries and there's undoubtedly more to come.
It must be amazing to think that big, right? To conquer space exploration or to really build an electric car that everyone wants, or to even think of buying the Washington Post, for goodness sakes, takes a certain something most of us don't possess.
It's sure fun to watch. Maybe, after they colonize Mars, they can turn to education and healthcare?
Beverly Macy is the CEO of Gravity Summit LLC and the Host of Social Media Radio. She teaches Executive Global Marketing and Branding and Social Media Marketing for the UCLA Extension and speaks extensively on the subject of disruptive technology and social business. Email her at beverlymacy@gmail.com