Is the 'troll-a-thon' targeting Tesla's Elon Musk justified?

The media appears to enjoy bashing Tesla and Elon Musk right now. It's like someone invited the press to a "troll-a-thon" gone wild — journalists just can't stop themselves. James Francis (via Tech Central) gives some examples: "Elon Musk is out of control! We need to take him away from Tesla! He needs to be reined in! Please, will someone think of the shareholders?"

Above: Tesla's Elon Musk at SXSW (Flickr: thaddeus cesari)

Francis admits, "Don’t get me wrong. Musk is making mistakes. He should sleep more and tweet less, though I could argue that for just about every working professional today. But how quickly we forget that he helped usher in electric cars, something that had been attempted for a long time... He helped revolutionize space travel, cutting costs up to a tenth of what they were. And as everyone clamors for self-driving car dominance, he has helped make intelligent cars the norm." 

"Is Musk doing too much? Probably... [and] sometimes there is a price to be paid for that; sometimes there isn’t. Great things are not accomplished in careful steps... The person who tamed fire was not an administrator," Francis writes. "But you know what? The man has been doing great things. I’d rather support him instead of trying to judge... Who really cares if Tesla isn’t making a profit or is behind schedule? Google now sells ads. Microsoft sells cloud bytes. Amazon sells trinkets. Now it’s Tesla’s turn to change the world." 

Above: A look at what Elon Musk is up against, and what he's accomplishing (Youtube: Chris Collins)

As pundits pontificate on CNBC and Bloomberg about Musk's poor leadership skills, Francis says, "I’m not convinced that Tesla is at that stage yet where it needs a 'grown-up' behind the wheel. The iconoclastic impact it is rendering upon the transportation world continues, and that means Musk has more to do. But since we live in a world that loves to tear down its heroes as eagerly as it supports underdogs, we are only too happy to jump on every Musk misstep as vindication for our doubts."

Let's not forget, "Musk has accomplished more in just the past year than whole countries manage in a generation. And we were fine with that, until we weren’t. Now it’s a crime that he won’t march to the sound of our drums. If you aren’t a Tesla stockholder, none of this has anything to do with you anyway. And if you are, please take a moment. Tesla is a risky venture, plus you should be diversified. Let genius do what genius does. Stop whining because of 'optics'. The world has enough managers. What we need, more than ever, are mavericks."

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Source: Tech Central