Breaking Bad: Redefining Success by Changing the Story

The Art of Shaping Beliefs to Drive Innovation and Influence

Between 1997 and 2003, Tom Gage, Alan Cocconi, and the team at AC Propulsion developed three prototypes of what they called the Tzero—a lightweight electric sports car built to go fast. The Tzero could hit 0-60 mph in just 3.6 seconds, putting it on par with many of the world’s high-performance sports cars.

In January 2004, Tom Gage famously emailed Elon Musk to ask if he’d like to test drive the car. Musk, a car enthusiast who was seriously interested in electric vehicles, agreed. Immediately after driving the Tzero prototype, Musk told Gage he needed to make this a real product. “That could really change the world,” he said after driving it.

Gage wasn’t sure. He thought the best move might be to make a cheaper, slower, boxier vehicle for production, one that would compete with the run-of-the-mill sedans on the market.

But Musk disagreed. “Everyone thinks electric cars suck, but you can show that they don’t,” he said.

When Gage pushed back, Musk decided he’d do it himself. “Okay,” he said. “If you guys don’t want to commercialize Tzero, do you mind if I do?”

Gage ultimately relented, but he disagreed with the plan to build a sports car. He thought it was too risky and wouldn’t have mass-market appeal. And in the end, he was absolutely right: Tesla’s first cars were not built for mass appeal.

Musk said so himself. In a 2011 interview with Wired magazine, he reflected, "Starting a car company is idiotic, and an electric car company is idiocy squared. But the reason we did it was to show the car industry that an electric car could be as good or better than a gasoline car. And that’s the reason we started with the sports car."

What Musk realized, which Gage and others missed, was that the Tesla Roadster and the Model S, the first two cars they released, were built for one purpose: to change the story a specific type of luxury car buyer told themselves.

To purposefully break the car already sitting in their garage. The car that told everyone (most importantly themselves) that they were wealthy and smart enough to own it.

Is there room for a Tesla in Ag?

My friend Patrick Honcoop recently wrote a great article posing the question, “Is There Room for a ‘Tesla’ in Agricultural Equipment?” In it, Patrick lists all the things that have made Tesla unique. He lists their technology-first approach, vertical integration, direct sales, limited options, luxury brand, etc.

These things are all important, but I feel they somewhat hide behind product features and company tactics instead of extracting the truly repeatable strategy that Tesla employed.

It wasn’t as though the major car companies didn’t have the resources to build the product Tesla has built—they did. And it wasn’t as though they didn’t know how to do it—they did.

Ford and GM failed to launch Tesla because they were not interested in breaking the cars in their customers’ garages. They were unwilling to curate a story that moved their customers away from the status quo.

What Musk understood—what the established car companies missed—was that launching a new category required rewriting the narrative in his customer’s mind. Tesla wasn’t just selling an electric car; it was selling a new kind of status, an identity tied to technology, environmental consciousness, and the thrill of high performance.

This is not just about a new go-to-market or a new feature set.

It’s about making a specific set of generous choices on your customer’s behalf to help them use your product and your brand to become who they want to be.

Our mission as companies should be to generously re-write the story inside the heads of our ideal customers so that they can defeat the false beliefs holding them back from success.

When you create something truly transformative, you’re not just introducing a new product—you’re offering people a new way to see themselves and the world around them. That’s the opportunity in front of us. The real innovation isn’t just in technology or performance; it’s in the story you tell and the beliefs you inspire.

Tesla didn’t simply make electric cars; they made believers. And that’s what the agriculture industry really needs today. We have the tools, the technology, and the expertise. What we need now is the courage to break the mold, to stand out, and to change what’s possible in the minds of our customers.

Make something different. Make people care. Make fans, not followers.