Interview with Former Tesla Employee, Farzad Mesbahi
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:40 Farzads Reaction to Cybertruck Reveal
03:35 My Initial Reaction
04:56 “How did you go from a Tesla ‘Fan’ to become a Tesla Employee?”
11:47 “How quickly did you realize the difference between Tesla and other companies?”
16:12 “Is there a lot of blurring of the lines between ‘Blue’ vs ‘White’ Collar jobs @ Tesla?”
19:20 “Does the motivation level run as high at the entry level as in management?”
26:40 “Do a lot of people move on from Tesla after 3-5 years like you?”
29:50 “Why do you think more former Tesla employees haven’t started YouTube channels?”
33:00 “What are topics you wish you could discuss if you didn’t have a NDA?”
34:46 “Have you given any thought to finding and interviewing other Ex-Tesla employees?”
36:00 “Do employees resent the way fans think of Elon as Tesla and Tesla as Elon?”
38:50 “If you could rank Tesla vs ‘Normal’ companies on Talent, Motivation and Execution, how would they compare?”
50:10 “Did you ever talk with other Tesla employees about the ‘Big Vision’ of Tesla or is everyone too busy with day to day execution?”
52:50 “Do Tesla employees look at Tesla as a car company, a manufacturing company or a technology company?”
55:40 “Do people not working directly on the cars feel more disconnected from the company?”
58:30 “How do Tesla employees think about better competition starting to emerge?”
01:02:35 “Elon doesn’t like to talk about competitive moats but it seems like the talent, culture and Elon’s leadership are very big competitive moats. Do you agree and do you think that means they will be impossible to catch in next 5-10 years?”
01:08:43 “What does ‘Success’ look like for you personally over the next 1-2 years?”
01:12:39 Conclusion
Likes: 200
Views: 1553
nice to have you back. i’m building a small fleet and will need all your advice to make it profitable.
I love Farzad! He has an incredible story to share about his parents getting out of Iran during the revolution.
13:54 "Welcome to Tesla. Can you help us fix this real quick?" Hahahaha.
I waited 2 days. Kicking myself.
Todd, great interview! I've see all of Farad's videos & appreciate is positive Tesla experience. Todd, please keep these videos coming.
One of the gifts I see that Tesla gives to their employees besides trust, autonomy and freedom is a sense of "THE GREATER GOOD" that becomes highly concentrated around why they all work as hard as they do.
It's the MISSION FIRST and everyone makes a CONTRIBUTION and a DIFFERENCE. Walking away from that energy has to be hard as Farzad briefly describes, BUT they go on to be THE BEST VERSION OF THEMSELVES, because they also learn that they can accomplish more than they had ever thought possible as well as be untethered from the fear of failing.
How much greater would every company be if they instilled, nurtured and promoted these feelings in their workforce? How much faster could we really change the world? No matter what he does or any other ex Tesla employee goes on to do, it will be with the spark that was added to the flame that is the Tesla mission and ethos.
We are all better off if they continue or if they go off to do something else. They have given so much of themselves while they were with Tesla so I am glad, he took the time to look within and choose to pursue his passions. He is blessed to be able to be able to do that as well as to have had so much exposure to talented people that also valued his input.
Valued interview!
Fantastic interview
Thanks for having me on Todd! It was a blast!
Brilliant interview!! Loved your thought through questions and the opportunity you gave him to elaborate so much from those. Truly amazing on both of your parts, congrats!!