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Elon Musk Is Fighting Depression Caused by Model 3 Production Issues

The Tesla Inc. is the product of the effort of thousands of people, each playing its part in taking the company where it is today. However, nobody can argue that if it weren't for Elon Musk's work rate and determination, the EV-maker could have had a much different fate.
Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk 1 photo
Photo: YouTube screenshot
They say a team is as good as its captain, and that shows very well with Tesla. Back when it was still any good, the Top Gear show used to have a very good tagline: "Ambitious but rubbish," and even though we wouldn't call Musk "rubbish," you have to feel like his ambitions aren't always matched by his actions.

Of course, it's easy to set easily-achievable goals for yourself and sleep soundly during the night knowing you performed to the required level, but that's not what drives humanity forward. Pushing yourself is. Trying to get the most out of you, even if sometimes you'd rather be having a beer at the bar with your friends or, indeed, sleeping.

Back when the Model X, the world's first electric SUV, was going through similar "production hell," Musk said he set his sleeping bag at the end of the assembly line in the Fremont factory and got some much-needed shuteye there. It sounded funny, but he wasn't even joking.

He's definitely a hands-on type of CEO, and despite having plenty of quirks, it's this involvement and dedication that makes it so hard not to like him. Well, if you're a simple worker asked to remain after-hours who doesn't share his workaholism, then you might feel slightly differently.

It's all about the Model 3

Now that the Model 3 is having its difficult irksome debut, it's time for Musk to take out his sleeping bag once more. The CEO has been spending a lot of time at the Gigafactory in Nevada, and recent reports showed why: the main bottleneck holding the Model 3 production back had to do with the machines assembling the battery modules for the electric sedan.

Last week, Musk held a conference call with analysts from the battery factory, and the discussion took an unexpected personal turn. "I always move my desk to wherever — well, I don't really have a desk, actually. I move myself to wherever the biggest problem is in Tesla," Musk said, quoted by CNBC. "I really believe that one should lead from the front lines and that's why I'm here."

Earlier in October, Musk posted a picture on Instagram with him together with some of the Gigafactory team camping on the plant's roof at night. Quite idyllically, the image showed the men roasting marshmallows and drinking whiskey around a campfire. Doesn't that look like a place you'd like to work in (22 hours a day)?

"I am personally on that line, in that machine, trying to solve problems personally where I can," Musk said during the call. "We are working seven days a week to do it. And I have personally been here on zone 2 module line at 2:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning, helping diagnose robot calibration issues. So I'm doing everything I can."

It gets worse before it gets better

After painting this gloomy picture and presenting himself as the kind of CEO that works side-by-side with the rest of the employees, Musk needed to reassure everybody - and particularly the investors. So he suggested things are already looking brighter.

"Let's say level nine is the worst, OK? Well, we were in level nine," he said. "I was really depressed about three or four weeks ago when I realized that we're kind of in level nine," he said. "I was sort of quite down in the dumps." Well, that's what lack of sleep does to you.

"We're now in level eight and I think we're close to exiting level eight," he concluded, which is great news for everyone except Tesla's competition, but also leaves the company with seven more levels of hell to climb out of. But perhaps it's like going up a flight of stairs in complete darkness: it's only difficult until you find the first step, then the rest come naturally.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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