The biography, by Walter Isaacson, portrays Mr. Musk as a complex, tortured figure.
Firing people. Talking of bankruptcy. Telling workers to be “hard core.” Mr. Musk has repeatedly used those tactics at many of his companies.
To a degree unseen in any other mogul, the world’s richest man acts on impulse and the belief that he is absolutely right.
Two new books, Eric Berger’s “Liftoff” and Tim Higgins’s “Power Play,” explore Musk’s terrestrial and extraterrestrial pursuits — and what has made him so successful.