Elon Musk is quite close to being a superhuman who made the impossible possible in a short span of time. His name is synonymous with Tesla and SpaceX – his electric car and space exploration companies that manage to create a media frenzy quite often. He has become a household name today, being the richest man on the planet and his eccentric concepts and claims. He was disregarded as an outrageous man by many until he finally triumphed in his larger-than-life ideas.
This business magnate and investor is one of the most creative inventors today who channels most of his resources into the advancement of futuristic technology. Elon Musk manages to create headlines every now and then with crazy mergers and deals, the last one being the merger of Twitter and then calling it off because of some discrepancies. If this futurist genius intrigues you, read on to dive deeper into his life summary in short.
Early Childhood and Education
Elon Musk’s parents, Maye Musk and Erron Musk welcomed him into the world in the year 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa. Kimbal, Musk’s younger brother, was born in 1972; Tosca, his younger sister, was born in 1974. In 1980, Elon’s parents divorced, but he stayed to live with his father. Two years later, he changed his mind and moved to Canada with his mother, siblings, and other family members.
He attended Bryanston High School and Waterkloof House Preparatory School for his early education. Later, he received his diploma from Pretoria Boys High School. He attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, for his undergraduate studies. He eventually changed schools and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in both economics and physics.
Youth and Initial Jobs
As a teenager, he had a keen interest in programming and computers. Elon Musk sold the source code for Blastar, a BASIC-based video game, to PC and Office Technology magazine in 1984 when he was just 12 years old for about $USD 500.
Musk believed that applying for citizenship in Canada rather than South Africa would be simpler after graduating from high school. He first attended Queen’s University in Ontario before transferring to Penn in 1992 to further his desire. Nevertheless, he did not acquire this American citizenship until 2002, despite attending school in Pennsylvania.
Despite being born wealthy, Elon received no benefits from his father after his parents’ divorce. He worked odd jobs there until he had enough money to attend college. He had a job that involved cleaning boilers.
Initial Successful Ventures
Musk was granted admission to Stanford University in 1995. He spent 48 hours in college before deciding to leave to start a business career. He and his brother Kimbal founded Zip2, a provider of web software. This business offered a digital Yellow Pages phone book with maps that were accessible online. In 1999, Compaq paid $307 million to purchase this startup. Considering that he owned 7% of the business, the deal netted him $22 million.
He also co-founded the internet bank X.com in the same year. In 2000, X.com and Confinity merged, and as a result, PayPal was born. eBay later purchased PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002.
To eliminate competition, Max Levchin and Peter Thiel’s Confinity and X.com were combined in the same year. Musk made a comeback as the combined company’s CEO. Theil left the company because of the rift he caused by preferring Microsoft software to Linux. However, the board once more replaced Musk with Theil in 2000, citing technological problems and a disjointed business strategy. In 2001, the business adopted the name PayPal under Theil.
Later in 2017, Musk bought the domain X.com from PayPal as it had a sentimental value for him.
Tables Turned at the Brink of Bankruptcy
Tesla Motors and SpaceX ended up going bankrupt to having $1.8 billion in the bank in a matter of 3 days. In 2008, when both businesses stood on the brink of failure, Musk had to decide whether to divide his remaining resources between the two or concentrate all of them on just one. He chose to divide his money. Due to impending failures at both companies, the following week was quite challenging.
However, funding of about $20 million came through on Christmas Eve. NASA called SpaceX the following day with a $1.6 billion contract. The situation was reversed within a day, and both companies were saved from bankruptcy.
In 2013, Tesla was a failing business. Musk decided to sell the business to tech behemoth Google for $11 billion. A disagreement over the specifics of the takeover led to the deal falling through. Musk was also in discussions with Alphabet CEO Larry Page. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, was contacted by Musk for a takeover but rejected the proposal.
Tesla’s sales eventually began to gradually increase, and the remainder is history.
Donations and Charities
- The sufferings of the Thai football team that was trapped in an underground cave for 18 days in 2018 had an impact on the entire world. Musk had sent a “kid-size submarine” to the nation to aid in the extensive rescue operation as rescuers started a risky retrieval process of the kids and their trainer from the cave over the weekend.
- Khan Academy received a $5 million donation from Elon Musk in January 2021.
- In October 2019, Elon Musk gave YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson $1 million worth of trees ($1 per tree), as part of his campaign to collect $20 million from other YouTube stars for a fundraising effort to combat climate change.
Interesting Tidbits from Elon Musk’s Life
- It has been said that Musk is a “thrillionaire.” This is a brand-new label for businesspeople who want to put their wealth to bring science fiction to life.
- Elon Musk, then 28 years old, became ill with one of the most dangerous types of malaria while on a holiday in South Africa in the year 2000. He lost 45 pounds and required six months to fully recover.
- Ad Astra is a private school run by Elon Musk for his children at the SpaceX headquarters. The Latin phrase means “to the stars” when translated. Young kids of SpaceX employees and Musk’s five boys attend this school. It has been in operation as a non-profit since 2014.
- The customized Lotus Esprit created for James Bond in the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me, “Wet Nellie,” is now the proud property of Elon Musk.
- A public letter calling for the outlawing of artificially intelligent weapons has the signatures of Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and Stephen Hawking.
Life Lessons from this Great Visionary
- Elon Musk advises the youth and aspiring entrepreneurs to have a powerful vision of their goals.
- He also tells people to think big and execute their ideas well.
- Elon Musk suggests entrepreneurs seek out constructive criticism.
- Lastly, he tells them that they should consider failure and spring back with a backup plan.
The powerful and extremely foresighted man teaches us that even dreams can come true if you work hard and execute your plans well. He is someone who has made space travel possible shortly for the common man. He is someone who has made it possible to ride in a car that drives on its own. He has many more seemingly impossible dreams that he is working to bring to reality!
