Elon Musk is famous for his incredible wealth, bold claims, and wild ideas. The man is usually making headlines and recently broke the internet for naming his baby boy with singer Grimes X Æ A-12. Not only this name intrigued people but also they were confused about how should it be pronounced.
Other things that make Elon Musk so popular is his billionaire companies – SpaceX and Tesla. While SpaceX is known for its space transportation and aerospace manufacturing services, Tesla became the first company to successfully launch electronic cars and revolutionize the automobile sector.
Some of the ideas of this great man include Hyperloop – a futuristic transportation system, colonization of Mars, affordable space travel, low-cost satellite-based internet access to all the people, and linking human brains to computers. These make Elon Musk probably the most unique and controversial entrepreneur of our time.
Valued at more than $37 billion, this forty-eight-year-old billionaire living in Silicon Valley has some secrets. Let us unravel them.
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Musk Made A Video Game At The Age Of 12
When Musk was 12, he wrote code for Blastar, his video game. It was a science-fiction inspired video game, similar to the classic Space Invaders. He also managed to sell it for $500 when its source code got published by PC and Office Technology, a South African publication. The game was the first product Elon Musk had ever sold. You can still play this game online.
He also cured his fear of darkness by studying physics at a very young age. Musk read that darkness was just the absence of photons and it was silly to be scared of it. He was even bullied as a child due to his interest in science.
Musk Fed Himself For $1 A Day
While he was studying, he would survive on cheap ramen noodles. He had also turned his place into a nightclub and threw massive parties at night. He and his friend would charge $5 per person and sometimes as many as 500 people would gather in their rented large house.
Elon Musk Dropped Out Of His Ph.D. In Just 2 Days
Elon earned two bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Physics after moving to Canada with his brother, sister, and mother from South Africa. Then, he rolled in a Ph.D. course at Stanford University but within two days, he dropped out to start Zip2 Corporation along with his brother. He borrowed $28,000 from his father to form an online city guide for the newspaper publishers. That was before Google Maps, and in 1999, he sold the company for $22 million.
Musk Bought A McLaren F1, Did Not Ensure It And Crashed It
He bought the car for 1 million dollars in 1999 and did not get the insurance, and eventually crashed it. Musk also owns the Lotus car from 1977 The Spy Who Loved Me and wished to convert it into a submarine.
He Is The Real Iron Man
Robert Downey Jr used Elon Musk as his inspiration for the character Tony Stark is his 2008 film, Iron Man. In fact, Tony Stark was just a more flamboyant version of Musk.
Musk Was The Founder Of Paypal
After Zip2 Corporation, Elon formed X.com, an online payments/financial services company, which was later called PayPal. After the sale of PayPal, Musk had $180 million in hand. Then, he put $70 million in Tesla, $100 million in SpaceX, $10 million in Solar City.
He Had Married The Same Woman Twice
Elon Musk got married to actress Talulah Riley in 2008 but the couple announced their separation in 2012. However, they again remarried in 2013 but went on to divorce each other in 2014.
Tesla Was Nearly Sold To Google
Fortunately, this did not happen. But in 2013, Musk almost sold Tesla for $11 billion to Google. According to the author of Elon Musk, Ashlee Vance, Musk reached out to Larry Page, the CEO and co-founder of Google for a takeover when Tesla’s future was looking unfavorable.
Musk proposed that Google purchase Tesla for $6 billion as well as assure him that they would spend $5 billion more in factory expansion. He also insisted to let him run the automobile company for 8 years. However, Model S sales began picking up, and just at the last hour, the deal was canceled. Currently, Tesla’s worth is more than $100 billion.
Musk Wants To Die On Mars
Elon Musk once said that he wanted to die on Mars and has been working on reducing the inter-planetary transportation cost from $10 billion to $100,000. He even wants to colonize Mars. He wants to send 1 million people on Mars so that our species can have a better hand at survival.
Elon Fears AI
Musk believes that AI poses a serious threat to humanity. He has even compared conventional AI to summoning a demon. So, he believes that putting electronic chips in people’s brains would fend off an AI attack. He has even founded Open AI, a nonprofit to research ways so that robots do not kill all humans.
Elon Musk Wants To Make Eliminate Fossil Fuel Consumption
The gigafactories can produce a significant amount of batteries and having 100 factories would be completely sustainable from an energy standpoint. Elon wants the world to shift to sustainable energy, which would require a lot of batteries, and so, he is creating such gigantic gigafactories.
He Has 3 Official Nationalities
Elon Musk was born in South Africa but moved to Canada when he was 19, and became a citizen. In 2002, he became an American citizen as well. He has described himself to be patriotic to America and has donated to both Democrat and Republican parties.
He Wants To Bring Everyone Online
SpaceX’s Starlink is a project that aims to install more than 4,000 satellites in the Earth’s orbit, which will allow him to provide everyone with free internet.
The Bottom Line
Elon Musk is a man with crazy ideas and strong will power. The man who once survived on less than a dollar a day is now amongst the richest people on the Earth, and probably, the most respected entrepreneur. He is an inspiring leader and undoubtedly an unbeatable businessman.
