Former SpaceX director warns Twitter employees: Get ready to face both ‘personalities’ of new boss Elon Musk!

Sharing with Insider, Jim Cantrell said Musk called him in 2001 and introduced himself as an “internet billionaire”. Tesla boss expressed his desire to prove that humans can be an interplanetary species, so he contacted Cantrell to find and buy Russian rockets. The plan to buy rockets in Moscow later failed, Musk realized that he could start a rocket company on his own and SpaceX was born.

Cantrell was the Vice President of Business Development at SpaceX from December 2001 to September 2002. He said that during that time he and Elon Musk had many conflicts, even Musk scolded him. Cantrell realized he had to change who he was in order to continue working there.

Jim Cantrell, former CEO of SpaceX. Photo: CEOworld

“Working with Elon is like working with two different people: “Good Elon” and “Bad Elon”, and you never know which Elon you are about to face, Cantrell said, “Elon kind” is very funny and charming. He will bring you big ideas and you have to be a part of it. And “evil Elon” will scream at you when frustrated. No one is good enough and nothing is good enough for this Elon.”

Cantrell cited how “evil Elon” fired Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde and Advisor Sean Edgett shortly after the billionaire bought the company last week. before.

The American businessman recalled his time working with Elon Musk: “Once, Elon called me up at 3 am to ask where I was because he was at the office. I said I went to bed 3 hours ago, I need more sleep, but Elon wants me to be there immediately because I have work to do.”

Cantrell predicts the future of Twitter’s new boss will ask employees here to improve productivity and work efficiency. Elon Musk himself also said that he has increased from 78 hours to 120 hours since taking over the social network Blue Bird.

What Cantrell admires when working with Elon Musk is the foresight of this billionaire. With SpaceX as the goal of sending humans to Mars, and Musk wants his employees to fully agree with that plan.

“I still remember when I was building a missile tank, there was a bitter conflict between us. I gave him an estimate of the containers, and Elon thought it was too expensive. He yelled at me in annoyance. Elon asked me to go to Salt Lake City and look at the truck tanks, then go to a local steel mill to research and see if we could outsource them. It’s not that Elon doesn’t trust my judgment, but he knows there is another way to approach the problem,” Cantrell shared.

Although he learned a lot from his boss, Cantrell felt that he was not respected. He didn’t need his salary to be yelled at, so Cantrell decided to leave.

Many major changes in the Twitter apparatus since Elon Musk took over the company. Photo: ST

According to the former SpaceX CEO, employees at Twitter need to decide if they are 100% aligned with Musk’s mission. If there are employees who don’t fit that vision, as an owner, Musk can completely fire them.

“If you fit Elon’s vision and are immune to a powerful boss who demands your time, it will be a very interesting journey. It depends on what people want out of life – not everyone considers their career the most important thing,” Cantrell said.

Billionaire Elon Musk has officially taken over Twitter since the end of October after completing a $44 billion acquisition. Since the social network Blue Bird has a new boss, about 3,700 employees have been laid off.

In addition, Musk’s team began giving Twitter employees big assignments with tighter deadlines. According to Insider’s Kali Hays, some employees see this as a test to determine who’s working hard. Many employees had to sleep in the office to meet deadlines. Musk himself is no stranger to sleeping at work and calling himself a “Nano-manager”.

One workplace culture expert once told Insider that Musk’s “authoritarian leadership style” would be “a stark contrast to the open-mindedness and flexibility inherent in Twitter’s culture.”

According to Insider