
As the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, the founder of The Boring Company, a space exploration technology company, and the co-founder of OpenAI, a non-profit organization of artificial intelligence, Musk seems to have the skill of being two places at once, and at the same time, he is pushing forward various new technologies. He said that he would not be happy if he did not send mankind away from the earth and set up a colony on Mars.
Musk has made great achievements in the research of space rockets, electric cars, solar cells and killing robots, and has also earned billions of dollars by the way. He is the "Iron Man" Tony Stark in real life.
However, Musk’s life is not always smooth sailing. Let’s see how he changed from a student who was often bullied at school to a legendary tech geek.
1. Musk was born in Pretoria, Africa on June 28th, 1971.
His father said that he "has always been an introverted thinker".
"When many children go to big parties, drink and talk about various sports events, he hides in the library and leafs through various books." Musk’s father and electrical engineer Errol Musk said.
3. Musk’s mother is a professional nutritionist and model.
His mother Maye Musk, a Canadian, has appeared on the cover of Time magazine and the Special K cereal box.
4. After their parents divorced in 1979, 9-year-old Musk and his younger brother Kimbarl decided to live with their father.
In 1983, 12-year-old Musk sold a simple game called Blastar to a computer magazine and earned 500 dollars.
Musk called the game "a very simple little game, but it is more exciting than the recently popular Flappy Bird game."
6. However, Musk’s school life is not easy. He was beaten by bullies and hospitalized.
According to Ashlee Vance in his book Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and The Quest for a Fantastic Future, some bullies threw Musk down the stairs and knocked him into shock.
7. After graduating from high school, Musk moved to Canada and studied at Queen’s University of Ontario for two years.
He lives in Canada with his mother May, his sister Tosca and his brother Kimbarl.
8. However, he finished his studies at the University of Pennsylvania and got a degree in physics and economics.
9. While studying at the University of Pennsylvania, Musk rented a 10-room house with a classmate in his class and turned it into a place where the Brotherhood met at night. This is also the first time he has gained similar experience as an entrepreneur.
10. After graduating from college, Musk is going to Stanford University to study for a doctorate. However, only two days after he arrived in California, he decided to postpone his admission and prepare to try his luck in the burgeoning Internet craze. He never returned to Stanford University to complete his studies.
11. Musk and his younger brother Kimbarl founded the Zip2 website.
The brothers’ father gave them $28,000 to start the Zip2 website. This website provides city travel guides for newspapers such as The New York Times and Chicago Tribune.
12. Although the Zip2 website is operating very well, Musk basically lives in the office and takes a bath in the bathhouse of a local YMCA.
Hard work has paid off. Compaq Computer Company spent $341 million to acquire Zip2 website, and paid in cash and stock. This made Musk earn $22 million at once.
13. Musk then founded X.com, an online banking company.
In 1999, he took out $10 million from the money he earned from selling Zip2 website and founded X.com Company. A year later, X.com merged with Confinity, a financial startup founded by Peter Thiel, and established PayPal, a payment service company.
14. Musk was appointed as CEO of PayPal. However, he didn’t sit in this seat for long.
In October 2000, he had a serious disagreement with the co-founder of PayPal, because he advocated transferring his server from the free Unix operating system to Microsoft Windows. Max Levchin, co-founder and then chief technology officer of PayPal, fought back fiercely.
15. During Musk’s vacation in Australia, PayPal’s board of directors fired him and appointed Thiel as the new CEO.
"This is the fault of the holiday." Musk said when he talked about this experience many years later.
16. However, things took a turn for the better. At the end of 2002, eBay, an auction and shopping website, bought PayPal for $1.5 billion. As the largest individual shareholder of PayPal, Musk made a net profit of $165 million.
17. Even before PayPal was sold, Musk began to plan his next step, including a crazy plan to transport rats or plants to Mars.
As a lifelong sci-fi fan, Musk tried to buy rockets retired from the former Soviet Union to realize the dream of Mars. However, Russian sellers charge up to $8 million or more for each rocket. Musk then planned to design the rocket himself at a lower cost.
18. In early 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, a space exploration technology company. His goal is to build a rocket at a very low cost.
19. SpaceX’s first rockets were named after the Millennium Falcon spacecraft in the movie Star Wars. These rockets are named Falcon 1 and Falcon 9.
20. Another early rocket was named after the song Puff the Magic Dragon.
The name of this rocket is Dragon, which is Musk’s response to the skeptics. Because many skeptics say that SpaceX will never be able to send rockets into space.
21. SpaceX’s long-term goal is to make the colonization of Mars more cost-effective.
He said that SpaceX would not apply for an IPO if the "Mars colonial transporter" he mentioned did not achieve routine flight.
22. Musk has also been very busy on earth, especially his Tesla electric car.
In 2004, Musk first invested in Tesla, an electric car company co-founded by Martin Eberhard. Later, Musk invested a total of 70 million US dollars in the company.
23. Musk played an active role in the development of Tesla electric vehicles. He helped develop the company’s first car, Roadster.
This pure electric vehicle was launched in 2006, when Musk was the chairman of Tesla. He is now the CEO of Tesla.
24. All this seems to be not enough. Musk also proposed to establish the solar energy company SolarCity.
Musk gave his cousins Peter Rive and Lyndon Rive the start-up capital to start SolarCity in 2006.
25. However, Tesla’s operation has not been smooth sailing.
When Eberhard was CEO, Tesla burned money faster than it made money. In 2007, Musk launched a coup on the board of directors, first removing Eberhard’s CEO position, and then expelling him from the board of directors and the company’s top management.
26. In 2008, as the financial crisis severely limited his options, Musk personally invested to save Tesla.
Musk invested $40 million in Tesla and lent it another $40 million. In the same year, he was appointed as CEO of the company.
27. Operating SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity at the same time, Musk almost went bankrupt.
He described 2008 as "the worst year of my life". In this year, Tesla kept losing money, and SpaceX’s launch of Falcon 1 rocket was not smooth. By 2009, Musk had to borrow money to live.
28. In the same year, Musk divorced his wife Justine Musk. Justin is a Canadian writer who has six sons with Musk.
However, around Christmas 2008, things seemed to take a turn for the better.
Musk has two pieces of good news: SpaceX has signed a contract of up to $1.5 billion with NASA to help the latter transport supplies into space. Tesla finally found more external investors.
30. By 2010, things had greatly improved. Tesla successfully went public.
In June of that year, Tesla went public and raised $226 million, becoming the first listed automobile company since the listing of Ford Motor Company in 1956. In order to solve the personal financial crisis, Musk sold shares worth about $15 million.
31. Musk’s magical experience even attracted the attention of outsiders, especially Hollywood.
Tony Stark played by Robert Downey Jr in Iron Man is based on Musk. Musk even made a guest appearance in iron man 2.
32. At the same time, Musk’s personal life changed dramatically.
In 2008, Musk started dating actress Talulah Riley. In 2010, they got married. In 2012, they divorced. In July 2013, they returned to second time around. In December 2014, Musk filed for divorce, but eventually withdrew his application. In March 2016, Riley filed for divorce and was approved in October of that year.
33. At work, Musk can now be described as smooth sailing, especially at SpaceX.
By the end of 2015, SpaceX had completed 24 launch missions, including supplying the International Space Station. In 2016, SpaceX Falcon 9 successfully landed a recyclable orbital rocket for the first time.
34. Musk is still constantly putting forward new ideas. His latest idea is Hyperloop, a super high-speed rail.
Hyperloop is a super-high-speed train running in a vacuum pipeline. Theoretically, it takes only 30 minutes to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
35. Musk recently founded another company — — The Boring Company tunnel excavation company.
The Boring Company was established last year, and its mission is to excavate the tunnel network under the urban ground and realize high-speed and congestion-free traffic. Musk said that he had discussed with the White House to dig a tunnel between new york and Washington, D.C. for Hyperloop.
36. At the end of 2015, Musk co-founded the non-profit organization OpenAI. The organization is committed to studying artificial intelligence and ensuring that it will not harm the interests of human beings.
Musk is worried that the development of artificial intelligence may eventually set off the Third World War.
37. While worrying about artificial intelligence, Musk is still vigorously promoting Tesla’s driverless function.
Tesla’s autopilot system has been launched in its three models, including the Volkswagen Model 3, which was launched earlier this year.
Last year, Tesla spent $2.6 billion to acquire SolarCity. This acquisition brings together Musk’s two green technology companies.
39. For Musk, 2017 was an eventful year, at least politically.
Musk joined President Trump’s Business Advisory Council, which met with strong opposition. At first, he also defended his behavior, saying that being close to the White House could promote new changes. However, after President Trump decided to let the United States withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, Musk finally withdrew from the advisory committee.