- Elon Musk gave Walter Isaacson full entry for a brand new biography.
- Current historical past signifies this can be a huge mistake for Musk.
- That is nice information for us readers, although!
I am a journalist. I feel CEOs and politicians and different leaders ought to at all times say sure to no matter entry request folks in my line of labor have.
However an unavoidable reality is that giving a lot entry over a lot time has typically result in catastrophe for the themes.
We have been reminded of that this week by a brand new and fairly brutal profile of CNN boss Chris Licht by Tim Alberta in The Atlantic.
In keeping with the story, Licht gave Alberta hours and hours of on the file interviews over the autumn of 2022, by means of the winter, and into the spring.
Licht took Alberta on a practice trip. He took him to a CNN city corridor. He took him to his fitness center. And so forth. The result’s a narrative that has some media execs questioning if Licht can dangle onto his job.
The mixture of giving complete entry for a protracted time period could be brutal for topics as a result of the story typically adjustments on them.
My favourite instance is Michael Eisner permitting James Stewart in for “DisneyWar,” a very nice nonfiction enterprise ebook that when Stewart started reporting it was about Eisner’s glorious management, however ended as narrative a couple of proxy warfare that led to his ouster.
Rupert Murdoch, John DeLorean, Richard Branson, Dick Fuld, Rudy Giuliani, Nikki Haley, and plenty of others have additionally regretted giving complete entry.
One other actually well-known instance is Steve Jobs permitting Walter Isaacson into his life in a means he’d by no means completed earlier than. Jobs died earlier than the ebook got here out, however a lot of Jobs’s colleagues say he would have regretted the tip consequence.
All of which leads me to one thing actually thrilling on the horizon for us readers: Walter Isaacson’s forthcoming biography of Elon Musk.
The Amazon description of the ebook says, “For 2 years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his conferences, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his household, associates, coworkers, and adversaries. The result’s the revealing inside story, stuffed with wonderful tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the query: are the demons that drive Musk additionally what it takes to drive innovation and progress?”
Two years?
Adversaries?
Demons?
Be careful, Musk.
Admiral Ackbar would love a phrase as a result of…”It is a lure!”
