Tesla's Musk reveals 'excruciating' year
Electric carmaker Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk admitted to The New York Times that stress is taking a heavy toll on him personally in what he calls an “excruciating” year.
The newspaper said Musk alternated between laughter and tears during the interview in which he said he was working up to 120 hours a week and sometimes takes Ambien to get to sleep.
“This past year has been the most difficult and painful year of my career,” he said. “It was excruciating.”
The interview published Friday offered rare insights into Musk’s personal life and thinking. He stood by his tweet last week saying he might take Tesla private and that he had secured the funding to do so.
Asked if he regretted it, he said, “Why would I?”
Musk has a reputation for being an eccentric visionary. But his out-of-the-blue announcement of a potential $72 billion buyout of the publicly held company raised a huge ruckus and pushed Tesla’s shares up 11 percent in a day, raising the company’s value by $6 billion. They’ve fallen back but remain elevated.
