Elon Reeve Musk, born in Pretoria, South Africa on June 28, 1972, is a renowned entrepreneur and inventor who has built a remarkable legacy. He is widely recognized as a co-founder of globally recognized enterprises including Paypal, SpaceX, Tesla Motors, OpenAI, and Hyperloop, among others. As of 2017, Musk positioned himself in the esteemed list of the world’s wealthiest individuals at number 56, with a staggering net worth of 17.4 billion dollars.
In December 2016, Forbes magazine acknowledged his influential presence by ranking him as the 21st most powerful person on the planet. Musk ardently aspires to revolutionize humanity and has directed his efforts towards transformative projects in SolarCity, SpaceX, and Tesla. Notably, he champions the abandonment of petroleum fuels in a concerted effort to combat the adverse effects of global warming.
While Musk has undertaken various groundbreaking initiatives, his grandest endeavor to date is the establishment of a thriving human colony on the planet Mars, envisioning a population nearing approximately one million individuals. With an unwavering determination, Musk strives to push the boundaries of human potential and spearhead a future that transcends the limitations of our earthly boundaries.
During his early years growing up in South Africa, Elon’s parents – a local engineer and a Canadian nutritionist – played a significant role in shaping his upbringing. It was during this time that he developed a love for technology and coding, sparked by his very first computer, a Commodore VIC-20, which he received at the age of 10. This remarkable piece of technology opened up a whole new world for Elon, as he tirelessly taught himself programming skills. Just two years later, at the tender age of 12, he achieved his first taste of success by selling his very own video game, Blastar, for a remarkable sum of around $200. Despite his impressive accomplishment, Elon faced a fair share of challenges during that period of his life. Unfortunately, his unconventional interests set him apart from his school peers, making him the target of bullying. Nevertheless, he remained undeterred and used his hard-earned money to indulge in his passions – science fiction books, comics, and, of course, video games.
Between the ages of 12 and 15, he found himself in a deep state of questioning his existence, which was heavily influenced by the works of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. This phase took a drastic turn when he had to be hospitalized due to physical assaults from his peers. Even at home, things were far from ideal, as he struggled with a complicated relationship with his father. The emotional abuse inflicted by his father, who couldn’t comprehend his son’s struggles, only added to his internal turmoil. Moreover, the requirement of compulsory military service added to his distress. Consequently, at the age of 17, after completing high school in Pretoria, he made the difficult decision to leave South Africa and seek solace with his mother in Canada.
Elon Musk’s ultimate desire was to establish a presence in the United States. This country provided him with a platform to transform his wildest dreams into reality. However, his father had a condition – he would only financially support Musk’s education if he attended a university within South Africa. The opportunity to study abroad emerged during Musk’s time in Canada in 1989, courtesy of his maternal relatives who hailed from North America. By 1992, Elon secured a scholarship at the esteemed University of Pennsylvania, where he embarked on his studies in Business Administration. Concurrently, he also ventured into the realm of Physics. Serendipitously, one of his professors happened to be the executive director of Los Gatos, a reputable company situated in the southern region of the San Francisco Bay, California. Working for this enterprise enabled Musk to gain invaluable experience in ultracapacitors. Subsequently, he continued to refine his skills at Pinnacle Research. Drawing inspiration from brilliant inventors like Nikola Tesla, Musk ultimately determined the domains he would channel his focus towards in the future: renewable energy, the Internet, and outer space.
In 1995, Zip2 embarked on an extraordinary online journey, spearheaded by the Musk brothers, Elon and Kimbal, and their close buddy, Greg Curry. Zip2 dedicated itself to the creation and upkeep of numerous media-focused web pages, which gained splendid popularity. By 1999, their ingenious venture had blossomed into a network of around 200 websites. This success prompted the sale of their company to Compaq in that same year, securing an impressive sum of $300 million. Fueled by this financial windfall, Elon Musk seized the opportunity to establish X.com.
Setting their sights on revolutionizing online payments and money management, X.com aimed to deliver unparalleled security and swift transactions on the internet. Their user-friendly platform brought incredible ease and reliability to the table. Recognizing the merit in joining forces, X.com merged with Confinity in 2000. Specializing solely in facilitating payments between Palm Pilot devices, Confinity shared a similar vision. The following year witnessed X.com’s strategic rebranding into a globally recognized entity known as Paypal.inc, an influential company renowned for its stellar proficiency in international online payment solutions.
As the success of Paypal grew, it didn’t come without its fair share of challenges. Numerous companies, eBay included, actively sought to put an end to Paypal’s reign. Eventually, eBay recognized the potential in Paypal and acquired it in October 2002, shelling out a hefty sum of 1.5 billion dollars. This acquisition paved the way for the birth of other ventures led by former Paypal members, like LinkedIn and YouTube, which have grown into major players in their respective fields. However, Elon Musk, the brain behind Paypal, had his sights set on something even grander – Tesla Motors. This groundbreaking company was responsible for conceiving the first fully functional electric car. And, at the core of Tesla’s operations, lies a profound dedication to solar energy. It all started back in 2003 when Musk stumbled upon a prototype electric car at AC Propulsion. Inspired by this innovative technology, Musk set out to collaborate with AC Propulsion in designing a sports car that shared the same foundation.
Back in 2004, Tesla Motors was born out of the brilliant minds of Matt Tappenhig and Martin Eberhard. Their main goal was to manufacture the AC Propulsion’s model T-Zero cars on a large scale. To make this dream a reality, Elon Musk generously invested approximately 98% of the necessary funds. However, the initial phase posed numerous challenges as the production costs exceeded their initial estimates. Nevertheless, through their sheer determination, they managed to sell enough units to sustain further development. Fast forward to 2012, and Tesla had successfully sold a remarkable 2100 Tesla Roadster vehicles across various countries. Then, in 2015, they introduced the groundbreaking Tesla Model X, a versatile vehicle designed to conquer any terrain.
Elon Musk has another ambitious project in his hands, and this time it involves SpaceX. With his eyes set on establishing a colony on the red planet, Musk embarked on a journey of exploration and innovation back in 2002. His mission? To figure out how to transport a rocket all the way to Mars. Initially, he envisioned reusable rockets that could withstand the rigors of not one, but two trips, serving as reconnaissance missions. Hence, the birth of Space Exploration Technologies in the same year, with the sole purpose of launching rockets and finding ways to make the cost of fuel and materials more affordable, thus paving the way for further advancements. Fast forward to 2008, and NASA signed an agreement with SpaceX for a whopping twelve rocket flights. At present, SpaceX spearheads the development of Falcon rockets that utilize liquid fuel, pushing the boundaries of space exploration even further.