Musk, now the richest man in the world, born in Pretoria, South Africa was bullied throughout his childhood. Once he was hospitalized when a bunch of boys threw him down a flight of stairs. At the age of ten, Musk developed a keen interest in computer programming and sold the code for a video game he created to a tech company for around 500 USD when he was only 12 years old.
He left for Canada in 1989 figuring it would be easier for him to enter and live in the United States (which was his dream) from Canada, where his uncle lived. On reaching Canada, Musk couldn’t locate his great-uncle and had to stay in a youth hostel working odd jobs. Later he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.
Musk launched his first start-up Zip2 with his brother Kimbal. They rented an office space, where Musk slept on the couch. “We couldn’t afford more than one computer.”, Musk said in an interview. “We showered at the YMCA. The website was up during the day and I was coding it at night, seven days a week, all the time.” With some help from angel investors, Zip2 hit big and sold for 307 million USD in 1999 (Elon bagged 22 million).
After Zip2, Musk co-founded another company named x.com, (later PayPal) another huge success. Following everything when the company sold to eBay for 1.5 billion, Musk received over 100 million USD. Musk was always fascinated by rockets. He had read a lot about space but still wasn’t someone like ‘the most knowledgeable man about space’. He was just curious to learn more. He learned about space from many engineers and with the wealth he had accumulated he started a company SpaceX that would build affordable rockets (buying a rocket was expensive).
At the same time, Musk invested a huge amount in Tesla Motors, an electric car company, and became Chairman of the company. Musk just worked and worked. He was involved in various ventures and worked 16-20 hours a day! But his good fortune turned awry. Tesla’s first electric car, the Roadster’s shipment was getting delayed and people who had prepaid were getting frustrated. SpaceX failed 3 launch attempts and, the fourth was probably the last attempt SpaceX had left. Musk’s marriage was falling apart. Everything was going wrong, but he remained optimistic and hustled until he pulled through.
Today, Musk is CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and a large share-holder in various other companies. He works toward placing humans on Mars by 2024 with his Mars program-Colonization of Mars. Personally, he is my biggest inspiration due to his strong work ethic, optimism, and goals for the future.
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