like Steve Jobs with Apple and Pixar? like Elon Musk with Tesla and SpaceX? like...

cellis · on March 28, 2011

None of those founders were actually successful with the other project. Steve Jobs bought then sold Pixar, and later sat on its board, owning a bunch of shares but not actually being involved operationally. Peter Thiel is not successful because of FF or CC, he's successful because of Facebook and Paypal (both at different times). With Elon Musk, you may have a case but I haven't read enough details to know.

The main point the gp is making:

Peter Thiel is known for: Paypal and after that Facebook

Elon Musk is known for: Paypal and after that Tesla

Steve Jobs : enough said.

bdotdub · on March 28, 2011

Elon Musk was supposedly almost bankrupt a year or so ago: http://smallbusiness.aol.com/2010/06/22/on-the-eve-of-an-ipo...

pchristensen · on March 28, 2011

Clarification: He was wealthy but illiquid before the Tesla IPO. He did not realize how ungodly expensive his divorce would be - he had to pay for both sides since he was wealthier and his ex was happy to use his money to pay for legal time to maximize her take.

Details: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elon-musk/correcting-the-recor...

barredo · on March 28, 2011

does Steve Jobs spends as much time/effort in Apple as in Pixar? Does Steve tell Pixar animators a thousand "no" till the animation is done "right"? I would guess no.

I think Pixar relies heavily (or at least more) on Lasseter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lasseter) than on Steve Jobs

ps. I would add Carmack with Armadillo Aerospace & ID Software, altough I dont think he is the 'CEO' of both

far33d · on March 28, 2011

Steve worked on-site at Pixar one day a week (Friday) until the Disney acquisition. Day-to-day management went through the executive team, primarily Ed Catmull for technical and operations, and John Lasseter for creative direction.

barredo · on March 28, 2011

Thanks for the clarification :-)

ryanhuff · on March 28, 2011

When your company (Square) is under competitive threats from multiple directions, you don't decide to start dating another company, even part time.

rudiger · on March 28, 2011

Clarium Capital has been performing terribly for years.

However, I agree with your general point (that it is possible for one person to focus on two large projects).

Herwig · on March 28, 2011

Still, Executive Chairman and CEO are two rather "big" titles. If he can juggle both and be successful I will be impressed. We will never really know how much effort he puts into each role.

pixx5 · on March 28, 2011

Steve Jobs spent 99.999% of his time at Apple.

rotoscoped · on March 28, 2011

What's going wrong with Tesla or SpaceX? They both seem successful to me.

earlyresort · on March 28, 2011

The parent comment is trying to point out that it is in fact possible to focus on two things at once.

rotoscoped · on March 28, 2011

It's hard to tell because, as others have said, it's not clear that everyone on the list is successfully focusing on two projects.

keiferski · on March 28, 2011

I think that's the point - Musk is running both successfully.