What Elon Musk's Ultra-Cool James Bond Car Says About Achieving Entrepreneurial Greatness Any rich business owners could have bought the Bond car, but only an entrepreneur would buy it just to see if they can make it do in reality what it did in film.
By John Boitnott Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Science fiction movies can seemingly predict the future. For instance, remember when you first saw all of the amazing gadgets in the 1985 classic, Back To The Future? Nowadays some of them really exist.
We've seen this with Star Trek as well. Even as scientists experiment with "beaming" or teleporting tiny bits of matter, Apple just redesigned its Apple watches. They support phone calls all by themselves now, and are just about as small as what Captain Kirk and crew used to talk to each other remotely on missions.
Some of the wild gadgets we see in the James Bond films have come to fruition as well. The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977 contained one of the most technologically advanced and unique vehicles to have appeared in the movies: The Lotus Esprit submarine car.
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It once was lost...
This futuristic, elegant car is hard to forget. Roger Moore, the actor who took over the role of British Secret Service agent James Bond from Sean Connery, drove the Lotus Esprit onto the screen and into our imaginations. No one had ever seen a car so realistically transform into a submarine, all the while battling the bad guys.
The Lotus was lost after its initial appearance in The Spy Who Loved Me but in 1989 was rediscovered, wheel-less and wrapped in blankets, in a storage container in Long Island, New York. The restored car was exhibited occasionally until 2013 when Elon Musk, in one of the most relatable acts of nerdy fandom ever, bought it for nearly $1 million at a London auction with the intention of making it really do what it had done onscreen.
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...but now it's found.
It's safe to say the Lotus is currently in the right hands. Why? Musk is passionate about innovation, technology and turning ideas into reality. He explains that as a youngster growing up in South Africa he remembers being amazed watching the James Bond character "drive his Lotus Esprit off a pier, press a button and have it transform into a submarine underwater."
In some ways, that amazement turned into disappointment. Musk reveals he "was disappointed to learn that it can't actually transform." But, this is Elon Musk we're talking about, so nothing is off limits. Musk says he's going to "upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real."
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The drive for more.
Musk's passion and determination are real. He loves technological challenges so we can be sure that this idea will probably come true. I mean seriously, have you seen his plans for massive car transport tunnels under LA? In that vein, don't you think Musk would love the idea of everyone driving down to the beach continuing on a little submarine journey, too? You know it's something he's thought about, but he's been too busy landing Falcon 9 rockets to have made it happen just yet.
More importantly, the Lotus case is a good example for why entrepreneurs and influential people should always strive for more. Whether it's the aforementioned tunnels, the Hyperloop or trips to Mars, Musk shows that financial power and influence can do a lot for technological advancement and improvement of life on planet Earth.
Just as he does with his solar-powered Gigafactory or the thousands of Tesla Model 3s being built each month right now, Musk put a lot of money into the Lotus because he had a compelling idea behind it. Spending your money shrewdly is one of the most important things you can learn as an entrepreneur.
To be successful, you must learn from financial risk. Musk had made a lot of bold business moves before he bought the Lotus. Failure was no stranger to him. His SpaceX team just released a tongue-in-cheek video of all the times the Falcon 9 crashed. This is a man who learns from mistakes and sticks to what works for him.
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The Next Level: Courage
The entrepreneurial spirit is the driving force behind the technological advancements of the future. Courage is what separates a genuine entrepreneur from a typical business owner. It's not like Tesla's business strategy aligns with the Lotus purchase. Or does it?
Musk is bold and inventive. This attitude is what pushes Tesla to be the defining electric car of our time. Having a strong belief and passion for something and being bold is a magic mix of characteristics every entrepreneur should want to possess.
Although Lotus' past is pure fiction, it's future may not be. Can we expect some form of advanced Telsa Lotus submarine hybrid car in the future? After all, Elon Musk rarely does not surprise us with the scope of innovation he's creating. And he certainly has courage in spades.
The future might hold some nearly unimaginable things, like traveling from the U.S. to Europe in your car. Who outside of the big screen would have ever thought it possible? Musk. Elon Musk.
