‘Overnight success’ does not exist in real life, behind every successful person is a long story of their unending hard work, failures, and successes. Learning about these stories can help many other people to benefit from them and become entrepreneurs themselves. Researching and studying about the life of successful people inspires and ultimately motivates a man to start working harder for a better life. The world knows about a long list of successful billionaires like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, etc. But 50-year-old Elon Musk is not only known for being one of the richest men on the globe. He is certainly one of the most inspiring entrepreneurs in the world as well.
Whenever you hear the name of Elon Musk, the first thing coming to your mind about him will be “Innovative Mind”. He has always been a guy who loves technology and wants to use technology to make the earth a safe place to live. Elon Musk also wants people to be able to live on Mars as an alternate, just in case something disastrous happens to the earth. He is surely a man with a kind heart towards his fellow human beings. In this article, we will try to look at the life of Elon Musk closely and get to know all the things about him that you should be knowing.
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Who is Elon Musk?
Elon Musk was born on the 28th of June in 1971, in South Africa. He was a curious kid who always wanted to be innovative. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania at the age of 24, and later dropped out from the University of Stanford from a Ph.D. program to become an entrepreneur. Musk was the founder of X.com in 1999 which later became PayPal. He also founded SpaceX in 2002 and Tesla motors in 2003. He became a millionaire in his 20s due to which he is an inspiration to many young entrepreneurs.
The 2nd richest man in the world:
Every year, a list of wealthiest billionaires according to their net worth is declared by an American business magazine called Forbes. These billionaires are in constant competition to be on top of the list to achieve the rank of “Richest man in the world”. To be on the list of billionaires requires extreme passion, dedication, and hard work. It also requires you to have unique choices and make the decisions that prove to be in your favor.
According to Forbes, there were almost 2000 billionaires in the world during 2020. The goal of all these billionaires was to achieve the title of being the richest man in the world. At the start of 2021, a list of “richest men in the world” was released that declared Elon Musk on top of this list. However, this list keeps fluctuating and changes as soon as the net worth of the person changes. The net worth of Elon Musk in 2021 is around 176.9 Billion dollars.
Things you should know about Elon musk:
1. Parents of Elon Musk:
Musk was born in South Africa. His father Errol Musk was a South African electromechanical engineer while his mother was a Canadian model and dietician. Elon’s parents got divorced when he was 10 years old. Elon never had a good relationship with his father and he claims that his childhood was awful and terrible.
2. Trustworthy siblings:
Elon has two younger siblings named Kimbal Musk and Tosca Musk. Elon has been very close to his brother all his life. Kimbal and Elon created their first company together named Zip2 Corporation which shows their high level of trust in each other.
3. Childhood of Elon Musk:
Elon was an extreme introvert due to which he was severely bullied in his whole childhood, it was so bad that once he ended up being in the hospital. His loneliness urged him to come closer to the computers, he bought his first computer at the age of 10. Soon enough at the age of 12, he developed a game which was called ‘Blastar’, he sold that game for $500. The game is currently available to play online. It certainly was an achievement to develop a game at such a young age. After that, there was no looking back for Elon, his love for technology and computers kept on growing.
4. Elon’s $1 / day budget:
Elon was 17 years old when he lived off on a budget of $1. It was not because of poverty or charity, he did it as an experiment. He wanted to test his patience level and be prepared for every circumstance in his life, making food his last priority.
5. From South Africa to America:
Since he was a kid, Elon had a very clear image of his future. He wanted to be in the US before his adulthood because that was where all the innovations in technology were taking place. His mother was Canadian, so he got admission to a Canadian University which he used as a stepping stone towards the US. Later on, Elon Musk got excepted to the University of Pennsylvania which allowed him to live in the US for 3 years. After that, he wanted to live in California and to achieve his goal, he applied to the University of Stanford for a Ph.D. He left the University just after 2 days and created his first company called Zip2 corporation in 1995. He became a US citizen in 2002.
6. First company start-up:
Musk was always aware of the potential the internet had, so he knew that the internet will be a revolutionary thing. As a result, he wanted to invest and create a company on the internet. In 1995, after borrowing the money ($28,000) from their father, Elon and Kimbal started a company named Zip2. The purpose of this company was to provide the business directory including the maps. At that time not too, many people were agreeing with the idea the Musk brothers had, so they did not believe them at first. With time many big companies signed a contract with Zip2 when they understood the importance of the internet. In 1999, this company was sold for $307 million, and Elon was able to take $22 million home which made him a millionaire at the age of 27.
7. Family Life:
Elon met his first wife Justine Wilson at the University of Queens in Canada and they tied the knot in 2000. The couple lost their first child due to SIDS, and after that, they had 5 sons. They got divorced in 2008. Elon still misses his sons and called them “love of his life”. Soon after his divorce, Elon started dating actress Talulah Riley. Riley and Musk got married in 2010 and after two years they got divorced in 2012. The couple remarried in 2013 and then again Riley filed for divorce in 2016. In 2016, Elon started dating the actress Amber Heard but they broke up a year later. Elon began dating the musician Grimes in 2018 and the couple welcomed their first son in 2020.
8. Inspiration for Iron man:
The superhero Tony Stark a.k.a Iron man was inspired by Elon Musk’s intelligence and innovative ideas. The actor Robert Downey Jr. who played the character of Iron man spent time with Elon to get inspiration for his role. Some parts of Iron man 2 were even shot in SpaceX and Musk also had a special appearance in the movie.
9. Companies owned by Elon Musk:
Musk was in his 20s when he first launched his company and after that, there was nothing that could stop him. He has launched and owned many companies including Zip2 corporation, X.com, SpaceX, The Musk Foundation, Tesla Motors, Solar City, Open Al, Neuralink, The boring company, and Thud. He does not particularly own all of these companies now. He sold some of his companies years ago.
10. Charitable works of Elon:
Elon owns The Musk foundation and AlOpen which are non-profit organizations. Elon keeps donating his money to these organizations as well as to many other organizations like Future of life institute and Sierre club. He tries to donate as much money as possible. In 2002, Elon signed a donation pledge according to which he will donate at least half of his fortune to charity.
Contributions- towards a better world:
The inventions done by Elon Musk are always the talk of the town, and they are a regular topic of discussion among business leaders and consumers. Musk has founded many companies, each with a different vision in his mind. His visions always seem impossible to achieve but he has proved that he can do anything he strives to do. Musk comes up with revolutionary ideas and his ultimate goal is to make the world a better place to live. He is a role model for young entrepreneurs. Some of his achievements are discussed below:
- TESLA:
Elon Musk was always against the use of fossil fuels, due to which he created his electric vehicle manufacturing company in 2003. In the start, the Tesla vehicle was sold for as low as $80k but now it costs as low as $31k depending on which model you buy! Elon wanted to make the car accessible to as many people as possible in the world to ensure greenhouse gas prevention. Tesla has been a hit in the US and the company claims that they have hit the milestone of selling 5,00,000 cars in the year 2020.
- Giga factories:
Elon’s goal is to change the direction of the world towards sustainable energy. Giga factories are designed to run on solar and wind energies. The purpose of these factories is to produce Lithium-ion batteries that are used in the manufacturing of Tesla vehicles. These factories help in the mass production of Tesla cars because they cut the production cost up to 30%.
- SpaceX:
SpaceX came into being in 2002 with the vision to help humans become multi-planet species. The idea seemed stupid at the start but it was Elon’s biggest desire to be able to send people and colonize Mars. The first 3 rocket launches failed in SpaceX, and the team finally succeeded with 4th SpaceX wants to normalize space travel, which they have nearly accomplished now.
- The Boring Company:
The Company started as a hobby for Elon but the vision is huge. It focuses on the new methods of transportation. Since the ultimate goal of Elon is to make the world a better place, he wants to encounter the problems like weather, the safety of pedestrians, and noise. Elon believes that tunnels are the better solution to all these problems. Working on this idea will not affect the current infrastructure of the city.
- The Hyperloop:
The Hyperloop is a high-speed method of transport that covers long distances in short periods. It consists of pods zooming through tubes at 700 mph. Musk also wants the hyperloop to be solar-powered. Some scientists claimed that it is an unrealistic goal but Elon has already proved them wrong from time to time.
- The Musk Foundation:
Elon runs a charity with the name of Musk foundation that donates $200k to $600k annually. Most of the money is spent on disaster relief and as we all know Elon some of the money goes in preserving the energy by donating solar power systems around the globe. With this charity, Elon also tries to promote science education in places where education is not easily accessible.
All of the above achievements of Elon Musk have been innovative and unique. He strives to make the best use of technology to be able to colonize other planets. His visions have helped the world in many ways.
Lessons from the life of Elon musk:
Elon Musk is an inspiration to all the entrepreneurs in the world. Since Elon became an entrepreneur when he was very young, his impact on young entrepreneurs is huge and therefore he is on of their inspiration. It is always a good idea to know about the life of successful people and learn from their experiences. Here we have a few lessons from the life of Elon Musk that you should also follow to be successful:
- When Elon came up with the idea of electric cars, the world was fully indulged in the usage of fossil fuels in the car and his idea seemed impossible. But Elon always dares to challenge reality and goes against the normal life to invent something new. Today, Elon has been successful in changing the mentality of people and he is running a successful business of Tesla motors.
- Elon has also faced a fair share of failures in his life. His company SpaceX did not succeed in the beginning, they launched 3 rockets and none of them were successful. But Elon took it as a learning opportunity and did not give up. He created an alternate plan and went ahead with the 4th rocket launch. This time, it was a success and SpaceX earned a contract worth $1.6 billion from NASA.
“Failure is an option here. If you are not failing, you are not innovating enough” – Elon Musk.
- The people who want to bring change in the world do not think about money, they think beyond money and fame. Money should always be a byproduct for you, just focus on the impact of the product that you want to invent. Your invention should have the ability to make a difference in the world and push the world towards being better.
Elon has taught us to have self-belief and do not worry about what other people have to say. Be patient, keep doing great things and then prove to the world that you were right! So, make sure you learn these qualities from his life before starting a new venture.
Conclusion:
The most successful people in the world have the greatest stories to tell, through which they inspire other people. Elon Musk is an inspirational figure for the whole world because he wants to make the world a better living place. His ultimate goal is to be able to travel and colonize Mars. He has an extremely innovative mind and he keeps coming up with unique ideas. His life is full of lessons that teach us a lot about life and the world. So, all entrepreneurs can learn many life-changing lessons from his life and implement them in their own lives to become successful just like Elon Musk!
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