Maye Musk says she still had to mediate Elon and Kimbal’s fights after they became startup founders

Maye Musk said she helped her sons navigate the early days of building their startup, Zip2.

In her memoir, "Timeless," released September 15, Maye described her sons' differing management styles and the family meetings she held to help them work through disagreements.

She recalled an incident when her sons clashed over an underperforming employee at Zip2.

Her eldest son, Elon Musk, was "about the facts," even as a kid, she wrote.

"When it came to managing employees, he once again saw the facts. If you're not working effectively, you should be fired. Simple," Maye wrote. However, her other son, Kimbal Musk, "was always focused on people."

"He would have a warm, personal relationship with the employee in question, and therefore wanted to first understand why they weren't performing and then help them improve," Maye wrote.

Their contrasting approaches sometimes caused friction, but also made the brothers effective business partners, allowing each to complement the other's strengths, she wrote.

The brothers also had regular family meetings with her, so she could help mediate their differences.

"During our meetings, I'd help them come up with compromises and decide on their next steps," Maye wrote, adding that they would revisit the same issues the following week to discuss what had happened and how to move forward.

Maye said she didn't realize "how important the meetings were to them" until she tried to cancel one to go to a barbecue, and "Elon wouldn't have it."

"I ended up giving in and helping the boys discuss and resolve their issues," she wrote.

Beyond mediating her sons' disagreements, Maye said she used her savings to help cover their early business costs and took on the domestic labor to support them.