Last week was not one of the best for Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The flamboyant entrepreneur received a severe telling off from the SEC after his ill-conceived and very public tweets regarding plans to take Tesla public, a few months ago. Musk was also removed from the position of Tesla chairman (for at least 3 years) and fined $20 million. In an effort to rally his troops after this debacle, Musk has sent out a staff e-mail, that talks about how the carmaker is very close to achieving profitability.
Elon seems to have sobered down a bit after SEC’s crackdown, otherwise the news of Tesla’s impending profitability would definitely have been emblazoned across his Twitter account. Again, Musk has lost quite a bit of his credibility this year, and there are folks who are disregarding this e-mail as a shot in the arm after the recent events.
Be that as may, here is what Musk wrote in his e-mail to Tesla staff:
We are very close to achieving profitability and proving the naysayers wrong, but, to be certain, we must execute really well tomorrow (Sunday). If we go all out tomorrow, we will achieve an epic victory beyond all expectations.
Tomorrow may be a metaphor for the future, but here, Musk might just be speaking literally. Sunday after all, marks the end of the third quarter and Tesla has been hard at work, trying to boost deliveries and get its house in order before the period ends.
Meanwhile, Musk needs to tread carefully now. Over the past few months he has attracted all sorts of bad publicity. From calling prominent analysts stupid, to labelling a cave diver a pedophile quite out of the blue, Tesla investors have been calling upon Musk to stop speaking his mind and focus all of his attention on work. After this spate with the SEC, Musk really ought to take that advice and refrain from any more public discourses.
Tesla, SpaceX and Musk’s other half a dozen or so ventures owe their success in part to his larger than life public image. Hits to that image are almost certain to affect his companies as well. Meanwhile, let’s hope that Musk’s predictions regarding Tesla’s impending profitability come to fruition soon.
