Canadian-American inventor who founded the electronic payment company PayPal and the private space company SpaceX, creator of launch vehicles and spacecraft.

Since childhood he thought in a special way

Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971 in Pretoria. The developed scientific city in which Musk was born is the administrative capital of South Africa.

Elon's father, Errol Max, was a civil engineer by profession. Mother, May Musk, appeared on the catwalks and was a professional model from the age of 15, and later became an expert in the field of nutrition. Elon's parents lived in the same area of ​​Pretoria and had known each other since childhood. As soon as the lovers turned 18, they got married. 9 months after the wedding, they had their first child.

The future inventor became the first and eldest child in the family. Elon has a brother, Kimbal, and a sister, Tosca.

According to his father, Elon has always been an introvert and loved reading. While most children prefer to have fun and play games, Elon spent all his time in the library. Due to the fact that his behavior was different from his peers, they made fun of him and mocked him in every possible way. So, after another squabble with the boys, he was taken to the hospital unconscious, and the doctors had to repair his broken nose.

Once, at the age of 3-4 years, he asked: “Where does the whole world begin and end?” Questions like these made me understand that he thinks in a special way,” Ilon’s father shared his memories in one interview.

When Elon was 9 years old, his parents divorced. First, the mother took the children and left with them to another city in the country. However, Elon and his brother Kimbal after some time moved to their father, in the suburbs of Pretoria.

First entrepreneurial experience

At the age of 9, the boy received his first computer as a gift. It was from this time that he began to be interested in programming. Musk learned the BASIC programming language, completing a six-month course in less than a week.

The results of his childhood hobby bore fruit: at the age of 12, Musk sold his first game called “Blastar” for $500. As planned, the player fired at rows of aliens with a laser cannon.

Musk himself later said about his first development: “a trivial game... but certainly better than Flappy Bird” (we are talking about a popular and simple mobile game released in 2013).

Formation of worldview

The goal of Musk's current developments is to preserve the consciousness of humanity in the Universe, even if the Earth dies. Musk himself has proclaimed himself a pioneer of deep space. These kinds of thoughts began to form in Elon as a teenager.

Then he delved into the literature of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and other philosophers in search of the meaning of life. At the same time, Douglas Adams’s book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” came into his hands, which talks about aliens destroying the Earth to build a hyperspace highway. Turning the last page, Musk realized: “Only one thing makes sense - the fight for universal enlightenment.”

His ex-wife Justine Musk told Esquire magazine: “Elon is not afraid to take risks. If necessary, he is ready to sacrifice himself."

Moving to Canada and doing odd jobs

After graduating from school, Musk entered the university in his hometown. However, due to political instability, it was decided to move to his mother’s homeland - Canada. According to other sources, the move allowed Musk to avoid being drafted into the army.

May helped her son obtain Canadian citizenship and solve the housing problem.

In Canada, Elon enrolled in a bachelor's degree at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. During his student years, the current businessman had a hard time. The inventor's biography says that he managed to live on $1 a day. In Canada, he worked on a farm, as a lumberjack and as a boiler room cleaner at a sawmill station.

At this time, he and his brother tried in every possible way to make useful contacts. Different ways young people looked up the phone numbers of successful entrepreneurs and invited them to lunch. One of those who did not ignore the brothers’ proposal was Peter Nicholson, head of the Bank of Nova Scotia. He was impressed by the tenacity of the young people and invited Elon to work at the bank.

Moving to the USA

In 1992, Elon fulfilled his dream by moving from Canada to the USA. There he entered the University of Pennsylvania and simultaneously majored in physics and economics.

During his studies in the USA, Elon Musk lived in student dormitory, which he rented together with his classmate Adeo Ressi. Young people turned the hostel into night club, which, it should be noted, was popular. However, Musk himself did not take part in the parties and simply went to his room to play video games.

In May 1997, Elon received a bachelor's degree in physics and a bachelor of science in economics.

After graduating from university, the 23-year-old decided to continue his studies and get a PhD at Stanford University. After studying for some time, Elon abandoned the idea in order to develop his entrepreneurial aspirations in the field of the Internet and outer space.

In 2002, Musk became a United States citizen.

First major projectZip2

Elon and his brother Kimbal founded the first company called Zip2 in 1996. The brothers received money in the amount of 28 thousand dollars for the development of the startup from their father.

The organization was engaged in the production of software that gives news publications the opportunity to post content on the Internet and offer their clients additional paid services. Elon spent all his time in the office in order to save money on rent, and invested all his available funds in the company.

At that time, the Internet was experiencing a boom period, and on this wave the brothers managed to attract investors. The company developed successfully and two years after its creation was sold for $307 million. Elon owned 7% of the company, and he earned about $22 million from its sale. Elon invested half of his fee into the creation of his next project.

Revolution in bank payments

In March 1999, Musk founded X.com. A year after its creation, the company merged with Confinity (both systems specialized in electronic payments) and received the name PayPal. The company grew rapidly and in 2002 its shares were listed on the stock exchange. In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by online auction site eBay for $1.5 billion. Musk managed to earn $175 million from this deal (11.7% of the company’s shares). The available funds allowed Musk to bring to life the ideas that originated with him as a teenager.

In July 2017, Musk bought X.com from PayPal due to the company's "sentimental value" to him. The cost of the deal was not disclosed.

The idea of ​​sending rodents to Mars

In 2002, Elon Musk founded the first private company to fly into space. The young businessman invested $100 million in its development. Few believed that a private company could compete with the world's large government space agencies. Idea creation of SpaceX was born out of Musk's childhood dream of sending rodents or plants to Mars. At the initial stages, Elon even tried to purchase decommissioned Soviet Dnepr missiles for these purposes. But the seller allowed the purchase of only one and asked for $8 million, which Elon thought was too high a price. Then he seriously thought about creating his own version of the rocket. According to Elon’s idea, the cost of human space flight should have been reduced by 10 times.

The first vehicles of Elon's private company were the Falcon 1, named after the Millennium Falcon spacecraft from the film " star Wars" (Star Wars), and the SpaceX Dragon ship, named after the song "Puff the Magic Dragon".

In 2006, SpaceX won a NASA competition and in 2008 a $1.6 billion contract was signed for 12 launches of the Falcon 9 carrier and Dragon spacecraft to the ISS, as a replacement for the Space Shuttle after the termination of their launch program in 2011.

SpaceX's long-term goal is to colonize Mars. In January 2016, at an investment forum in Hong Kong, the inventor announced that his company hopes to fly to Mars in the next 3-5 years.

In September 2017, Elon Musk posted a video on his Instagram about a new idea for using SpaceX rockets. It consists in using rockets and spaceships to fly to anywhere on earth instead of airplanes.

New generation cars

In July 2003, Elon invested in the newly created Tesla company, which specialized in creating electric cars. From the very beginning, Elon Musk took part in the formation of the company's long-term development strategy, actively participated in the design of the car and joined the board of directors.

Over the entire period of the company's existence, the developers have managed to achieve colossal results: they have created cars that are capable of moving exclusively with the help of electricity. The minimum distance that an electric car can cover is 300 km. The creators of Tesla are developing parts for other electric car manufacturers. A whole network of “electric” filling stations has been created.

Despite the fact that Tesla has faced both major financial problems and technical operational problems, Musk does not plan to stop there and has already spoken about his intentions to add a truck and a bus to the line of electric vehicles.

Solar power plant for everyone

In 2006, Musk founded the company SolarCity, which specializes in the production of solar energy. The company is a subsidiary of Tesla. Both organizations are aimed at combating global warming.

By 2013, SolarCity had become the second largest supplier of solar energy systems in the United States. SolarCity supplies solar power plants for both industrial and home use. By the beginning of 2018, SolarCity's capitalization was estimated at $3 billion.

Personal life of Elon Musk

The Canadian-American inventor was married twice.

He met his first wife, Justine Wilson, while studying in Canada. The couple got married some time after graduating from university. In 2002, the couple had a son who died of sudden infant death at 10 weeks. In 2004, the couple attempted to have children using IVF. As a result of this, twins Griffin and Damian were born. In 2006, triplets were born to the couple in the same way. Over time, the relationship between Justine and Elon began to deteriorate, and the couple filed for divorce in 2008. On this moment ex-spouses maintain relationships and raise children together.

The businessman married the English actress Talulah Riley for the second time, with whom he began dating immediately after the divorce. The relationship between the spouses did not work out: they separated several times and then got back together. Finally, in 2016, the couple decided to separate completely.

After this, the businessman was in a relationship with actress Amber Heard, who had just gone through divorce proceedings, for almost a year. In August 2017, they separated.

Today, Elon Musk's fortune is estimated at more than $20 billion. Musk ranked 12th among tech businessmen with $20.7 billion, ahead of such businessmen as Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen ($20.5 billion) and Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt ($12.4 billion).

Elon Reeve Musk (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa) is an American entrepreneur, inventor, co-founder of PayPal, founder and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, member of the Board of Directors of SolarCity.

His personal fortune, according to Forbes, is $20 billion (as of March 2018).

In the Forbes list for 2017, the businessman:

• #12 Tech Billionaires
• No. 21 on the list of “The Most Influential People on the Planet”
• No. 30 among the “Richest People in the United States.”

Elon Musk is taking on the development of global industries for humanity: solar energy, automobile and rocketry. Over the past decade, he has made the greatest contribution to these industries. The Model S electric car released by Tesla accelerates to 96 km/h in 2.28 seconds, and the spent upper stages of SpaceX's Falcon launch vehicles successfully return to Earth and are ready for reuse.

For his contribution to the commercialization of space, Elon Musk was awarded the Heinlein Prize and received $0.5 million (2011). Fortune awarded him the title of "Businessman of the Year" (2013), and The Wall Street Journal - "CEO of the Year" (2013).

Elon Musk's main goal is space exploration and the colonization of Mars. In this he sees the salvation of humanity

How did a guy born in South Africa into the family of an engineer manage to make a fortune to realize his fantastic ideas? What turned yesterday's student into a successful billionaire innovator? The biography of Elon Musk will tell you about this.

Childhood and family

Parents

The future inventor was born on June 28, 1971 in the capital of South Africa, Pretoria. Elon was the first child of the Musk couple, the eldest of three children.

Musk's mother, (born 1948), was a model and nutritionist with Canadian-British roots. May was a good student and loved science; From the age of 15 she studied at a modeling school and entered the finals of the Miss South Africa competition. Her portfolio is growing, May is still invited to photo shoots by glossy publications.

Father Musk Errol Musk, worked as an engineer on large construction projects and made good money.

Musk's parents lived on the same block and first met when May was 11. Errol became May's constant admirer: "He fell in love with my legs and my teeth," she comments. Dating periodically while studying at the university, the couple legalized their relationship in 1970. 9 months after the marriage, Elon was born, then the Musks had a boy, Kimbal (1972) and a girl, Tosca (1974).

The family lived in one of the largest mansions in Pretoria and lived the lifestyle of wealthy whites whose wishes were carried out by black servants.

Little Elon was teased because of his non-standard name; the boy was named after his great-grandfather on his mother’s side, John Elon Haldeman. Elon believes that he inherited the ability to take risks from his grandfather, the son of John Haldeman. Grandfather Joshua Haldeman (1902-1974) was an extraordinary man. With his wife and children, he traveled on a single-engine plane across Canada and North America, and in 1954 he covered 48,000 km on a flight to Australia and back! Haldeman was obsessed with exploration and adventure and died when the plane landed.

Elon in childhood

Elon grew up as a curious and gifted boy. Sometimes he “withdrew into himself” and did not hear when they spoke to him. His parents were worried: was he developing deafness? But the child’s condition was not related to hearing, but to a peculiarity of brain functioning: Elon could mentally imagine pictures with great detail.

In 2010, Tesla became the first US auto company to hold an IPO since 1956.

In 2012, a network of electric Supercharger filling stations was launched for long-distance trips. Supercharging stations use solar energy and provide “zero” cost per trip for Tesla owners.

In 2014, a Tesla Model S “ran” a distance of 5,500 km from Los Angeles to New York in 76 hours, recharging only at branded gas stations. The mileage is included in the Guinness Book of Records for the time spent by an electric car on recharging.

Tesla is increasing the number of “Gigafactories” – factories for the production of batteries for electric vehicles. Elon Musk claims that to provide the energy potential of the entire planet, about 100 gigafactories will be needed.

In the Russian edition of the life story of I. Musk “Tesla, SpaceX and the road to the future,” the head of the department of entrepreneurial leadership A. Komissarov in the preface is amazed at the capabilities of the Tesla Model S: “How could a person with zero experience in the automotive industry create the perfect car?”

To understand what this car is like, look at the reaction of people who drove it for the first time in their lives. In the video, acceleration to hundreds in 3 seconds, latest models accelerate in 2 seconds and this is not the limit, very soon the updated Tesla will accelerate in 1.9 seconds:

Video: Reaction of people who drove Tesla for the first time

SolarCity: The sun will rise tomorrow

SolarCity (2006) is an energy company that develops and installs solar power systems, a subsidiary of Tesla, which bought it in 2016. Founded by Peter Rive and his younger brother Lyndon, who are Elon Musk's cousins ​​(the sons of his mother's sister).

The idea to launch a solar energy project belongs to Elon Musk, who is the Chairman of the Board of Directors.

The company installs solar power plants for private households and enterprises, and installs charging stations for electric vehicles.

Elon Musk's projects: vacuum train, drilling company, neural interfaces

Hyperloop– high-speed pipeline passenger transport project. To move the capsule through the tunnel, from which the air has been partially evacuated, it is supposed to use mainly “green” energy: wind and sun. The capsule is expected to reach a speed that is 2 times the speed of the aircraft.

Elon Musk has been involved in the project since 2015; SpaceX and Tesla jointly released a capsule, which during testing accelerated to 355 km/h. Other companies are also involved in this project, for example, Virgin Hyperloop One, where the investor is also involved in the design of high-speed transport.

In the summer of 2017, Musk received permission from the US government to open construction of a hyper-tunnel between New York and Washington D.C. It is planned to cover a distance of 250 km in less than 30 minutes.

The Boring Company(2016) - another transport project of a businessman. The infrastructure and tunnel drilling company plans to dig tunnels for both platform cars and the Hyperloop vacuum train.

Neuralink(2016) is a neurotechnology company developing brain-computer implantable interfaces. Research in the field of neural interfaces (i.e., connections between a computer and the human brain) is important in the treatment of brain diseases.

OpenAI(2015) – non-profit organization for artificial intelligence (AI) research, where Musk is a co-founder. The company’s activities do not involve banning AI developments, but are aimed at controlling this area. The project is aimed at making the results of scientists’ work accessible, thereby avoiding the emergence of malicious AI. Elon is predisposed to gloomy scenarios for the development of AI: he fears that machines could gain power over people. In 2018, Elon resigned from the Board of Directors, but plans to financially and consultatively support OpenAI.

Entrepreneur founded a charitable organization foundation Musk Foundation(2002). In 2015, the Charitable Foundation donated $10 million to the Oxford Institute for the Future of Humanity for research on AI control. Musk also helps financially to eliminate the consequences of the hurricane in Alabama and the tsunami in Soma (Japan).

Personal life of Elon Musk: three weddings, two wives, five children

Elon Musk and Justin have a baby (Nevada Alexander) in May 2002, but 10 weeks later the child dies from “sudden infant death syndrome.” In 2004, they again made an attempt to become parents, thanks to the IVF method, twins Griffin and Xavier were born. In 2006, the family was replenished again: the IVF procedure brought the birth of triplets: Damian, Saxon, Kai.

Justin admits that Elon “was always missing something.” When she objected to his demands: “I’m your wife, not an employee,” Elon replied: “If you were my employee, I would fire you.” The couple divorced in 2008; the wife initiated the separation. She calls married life with Musk “unreal”: parties with celebrities, a huge mansion with servants. But the ex-wife recalls the emptiness inside: even while at home, Elon’s thoughts “wandered” elsewhere. She called herself Elon’s “starter wife”.

The reason for their divorce is sometimes cited as Elon’s passion for British actress Talulah Riley, but the billionaire himself denies this. The decision to divorce, according to him, came before he met Talulah. At their first meeting in 2008, the girl seemed to Elon to be “one of the kindest and gentlest people.”

Elon and Justine continue to raise their sons together; Musk spends 4 days a week with the children.

Elon has an active life position: if he doesn’t like something, he creates a product that suits him. He did the same with education for his children. Musk believes that education should develop individual abilities and “did not see that regular schools could do this.” In 2014 he founded experimental school“Ad Astra” (Latin for “to the stars”). Most of the students' parents work for SpaceX, the school is quite closed (no website on the Internet).

This person evokes admiration, respect and envy. His success is natural: talent, charisma and business sense are complemented by efficiency and the ability to correctly set priorities. Key milestones: computer company Zip2, PayPal, TeslaMotors, SolarCity, SpaceX.

The story of Elon Musk is interesting because, by birth, he was not a candidate to become a famous billionaire. He was born in South Africa, in the family of an engineer and nutritionist. Despite the fact that the boy was smart and developed since childhood (he went to school a year earlier than his peers), even his parents admitted the fact that his son’s contacts with his peers did not go well. He himself would later say: “I was a little nerdy kid, quite smart... so during school I just read a lot of books and tried not to get in people’s way.”

The guy compensated for his lack of friends by constantly reading everything he could get his hands on: from Spider-Man comics to encyclopedias. At the age of 17, after graduating from school in Pretoria, the future billionaire makes the bold decision to start an independent life in the USA.

In 1989, he boarded a plane to Canada, realizing that his parents would not be able to help financially, and he would have to rely on himself. For a whole year, Elon lived a difficult life: he worked wherever he could, earning a living. Entering Queens University in Ontario changes the situation. The talented student attracted attention, and in 1992, his dream of coming to the United States came true, thanks to receiving a scholarship to study in Pennsylvania. At the University of Pennsylvania, Elon received a bachelor's degree in business in a year, devoted the second year to studying physics and also received a bachelor's degree.

The story of serial businessman Elon Musk

The term appeared relatively recently and is used to refer to entrepreneurs who apply their talent to launch various, sometimes unrelated, projects.

Elon's first project- computer game Blastar, the creation of which brought 500 in 12 years. Initially, Elon and his brother were going to rent the development in the gaming room. They did almost everything for this:

• found a room to rent;
• We agreed with a machine provider who could supply the equipment.

However, it was not possible to obtain city approval: the parents did not know about their sons’ idea, and the young entrepreneurs were under 18 years old.

Second start-up more successful. To open the Internet company Zip2, Elon leaves graduate school at Stanford University after spending only two days there! The decision is explained as follows: “I realized that nothing was happening at Stanford, so I called the teachers, said that I wanted to start my own company and agreed that if things didn’t work out, there would be an opportunity to return back.”

As part of Zip2's activities:

• a platform was developed that allowed newspapers to provide commercial services to clients;
• Many printed publications, including authoritative ones, are being transferred to the digital era;
• The first online city directory is created.

The degree of success of the idea is easily assessed by numbers: Zip2 was sold to Compaq for $307 million and $34 million in securities. Musk joined the Silicon Valley millionaires when he was only 28 years old, receiving $22 million.

This transaction went down in history as the largest financial transaction conducted in cash.

The third part of Elon Musk's business story- PayPal electronic payment system. Initially, the startup was called X.com, after merging with the competitive company Confinity on a parity basis, it received the name PayPal. Musk's contribution to the development of the company is invaluable:

• development of a fundamentally new business model;
• competent, talented advertising, close to viral;
• bringing the payment system to the first positions.

All this has changed the principle of shopping: today we can no longer imagine how we can do it without the help of the Internet. Previously, it took a week to make a purchase using a card; PayPal processes the payment in a few seconds. The value of the idea is evidenced by the purchase of the company by a competitor - Ebay - for $1.5 billion. Musk sold his stake in the company for $180 million.

The billionaire's fourth project- TeslaMotors can rightfully be considered one of the most brilliant. Starting with the fact that Musk invested all his savings into the project and ending with the fact that he personally participated in the development, proving that he is not only a businessman, but also an inventor. At first everything went great:

• the release of the debut model of the Roadster sports car, in the development and design of which Musk personally took part (the development of the battery module was often carried out in his garage, the design of the headlights, as well as the body material, were the merits of the billionaire inventor);
• receiving the GlobalGreen award for contribution to environmentally friendly production;
• changing the image of an electric car: inconvenient, small cars, after Musk’s team worked on them, turned into prestigious high-speed sports cars;
• attracting new investors, such as Larry Page, Sergey Brin, etc.

The situation worsened in 2007, when there was talk of opening an assembly line. It turned out that management miscalculations led to the fact that the cost of the electric car would be twice as high as what was included in the estimate - $92 thousand. Technical shortcomings were also identified (the transmission concept proposed by General Director Eberhard turned out to be erroneous and required serious improvements).

There were several weeks with zero bank accounts. I had a choice: take all the capital left over from the PayPal sale and invest it in Tesla, or Tesla will die. (Quote from the 2014 film “Billionaire Elon Musk: How I Became a Real Iron Man”).

An entrepreneur takes matters into his own hands, saving the company from bankruptcy:

• fires Eberhard and senior managers who made major mistakes;
• invests in Tesla all the money he had at that time - $20 million;
• ruthlessly reduces the number of company employees, leaving only those who are necessary;
• negotiates with suppliers, bargaining for every cent;
• attracts investors in traditional and non-traditional ways (fortunately, there are many of these, you just need to wisely look for options);
• is looking for any means possible, even selling his favorite McLaren F1 car.

Soon the whole world was talking about a fundamentally new means of transportation, environmentally friendly, stylish and almost perfect. More details about the sources of investment can be found in Table 1. In 2016, it became known that there was a fatal accident in America involving the innovative Tesla sedan. This reduced the share price by 3%, but everyone is sure that the company’s development cannot be stopped.

The company's profits up to and including 2015 had negative dynamics, that is, the company operated at a loss. According to the billionaire, profitability will increase significantly when sales reach a million cars a year in 2020. So far, the increase in losses is associated with lower prices in key regions for the company: Europe, China, and the USA. The Model S and Model M electric cars are currently available for sale.

A logical continuation was the opening of gas stations for electric vehicles from Tesla Supercharger. The idea is that they will be available worldwide, making electric cars more affordable.

Fifth project: SpaceX.

Long term, I'd really like to go to Mars. This is SpaceX's primary goal. (Quote from the 2014 film “Billionaire Elon Musk: How I Became a Real Iron Man”).

The most ambitious project supported in the United States at the government level. The company was founded in 2002, its goal is the ability to travel to other planets using modern high-tech rockets. Departure point - Mars.

The achievements in this area are already colossal:

• cost reduction by 10 times;
• creation from scratch of a rocket and three types of liquid engines;
• a change in the concept of space flights, from now on the goal is the colonization of space, and not occasional flights there.

Today, Musk’s “crazy” idea is not only generally accepted, but is also supported at the state level. NASA has awarded SpaceX a contract for 12 missions to deliver cargo to the ISS.

How did Musk manage to reduce the cost of flights? When a theodolite was needed to level the surface of a rocket, Musk did not order it from government agencies; he bought it on eBay, saving $25,000.

Human delivery to Mars is planned for 2026.

“Personal style” of Elon Musk and success story

Elon Musk never had a choice whether to do or not to do. The question was: what to do next? (Quote from the 2014 film “Billionaire Elon Musk: How I Became a Real Iron Man”).

Elon Musk is not a man with business acumen. He is a dreamer who works to ensure that his projects, even the most fantastic ones, become reality. However, in difficult situations he acts like a tough businessman who does not look at personalities. An incomplete list of situations when the actions of an entrepreneur, which seemed crazy to others, led to stunning success:

• investing money not just in innovative, but in revolutionary projects;
• the ability to see one step ahead where others did not see prospects;
• the desire not just to make money, but to change the world.

To make the idea of ​​an electric car attractive, Musk changed people's worldviews. From now on, driving electric cars is easy, convenient and prestigious! A whole network of gas stations serving this type of car was also built.

Besides the fact that this man is an inventor and successful businessman, he also became the prototype for the famous comic book and movie character Iron Man. By the way, he starred in Iron Man 2 as a friend of the main character. People talk and talk about his phenomenon!

Elon Musk's story is impressive and instructive. It gives hope to those who dream of success and are ready to work for it day and night.

Greetings! Elon Musk's success story is reminiscent of a Hollywood movie script. He participated in the promotion of the popular PayPal payment system, proposed the first electric car for the mass consumer, Tesla, founded the private space company SpaceX and seriously believes that humanity will soon colonize Mars.

The list of achievements of an amazing person can be continued endlessly. He is called the new Steve Jobs and the modern Leonardo da Vinci. It was he who became the prototype of the main character of the film “Iron Man”. In 2016, Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $10.7 billion.

Meet! Today's hero of the post is Elon Musk: biography, achievements, secrets of success and... revelations.

Elon Reeve Musk ( full name billionaire) is an example of a fantastic rise to the top almost from scratch. The future billionaire and “icon of new technologies” was born in the Republic of South Africa.

Her Canadian mother worked as a nutritionist, her British father of South African origin worked as an engineer. At school, Elon Musk was an outcast and a “nerd.”

One day he was even taken to the hospital after teenagers pushed him down the stairs and beat him until he lost consciousness.

Instead of noisy parties, Elon studied computer programming. At age 12, he sold his own code for a video game called Blastar for $500.

After graduating from school in South Africa, 17-year-old Elon decided to emigrate to the United States. It was difficult to do this directly. Therefore, in 1984, Musk moved to his mother’s relatives in Canada, where for almost a year he barely made ends meet, grasping at any job. But in the end, Elon acquires Canadian citizenship.

A few years later, as he wanted, he moved to the United States, winning a scholarship to study at the University of Pennsylvania. That's where Elon Musk got it higher education: in physics and in business (bachelor's degree).

In his youth, his idols were Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison.

After completing his studies at the university, Elon Musk chose three areas of interest to him. Moreover, he decided not to waste his time on trifles. Musk focused on the Internet (then just emerging), space and alternative energy sources.

Achievements of Elon Musk

Reading the biography of Elon Musk, you understand why he is called a modern Leonardo da Vinci. For a couple of decades, he has been involved in (and achieved impressive results!) completely different and, to put it mildly, large-scale projects.

Software

In 1996, along with his brother Kimbal, Musk founded a software company for news companies. The project was called Zip2. The brothers developed and sold an “online guide” to such major publications as the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times.

Just three years later, the Compaq brand bought the startup for $308 million. And Elon Musk became $22 million richer.
PayPal and X.com

Immediately after the sale of Zip2, Musk became one of the founders of X.com (online financial services). A year later, X.com merged with Confinity (which operated PayPal). Initially, Musk planned to merge PayPal and X.com. But the merger never happened.

X.com was converted into a subdomain of PayPal and then disappeared as a brand entirely. But Musk’s viral company ensured the explosive growth of today’s popular payment system.

In the fall of 2002, PayPal was sold on eBay for $1.5 billion. Of this, Musk received a fortune ($165 million) (he owned 11.7% of the company's shares).

SpaceX

SpaceX became the third company founded by Elon Musk. Space Exploration Technologies was “born” in 2002. Moreover, Musk acted as both general and technical director.

For those not in the know, SpaceX designs and manufactures space launch vehicles. The company's first "babies" were Falcon 1 and Falcon 9, and the first spacecraft was Dragon.

In 2008 (at the height of the crisis, by the way) new company Elon Musk received a large contract worth $1.6 billion from NASA. Falcon 9 and Dragon were supposed to replace the shuttle, which was “written off” in 2011. By the way, the Falcon 1 rocket became the first spacecraft on liquid fuel, which delivered the satellite into Earth orbit. The first to be privately financed.

Elon Musk sets himself a more than ambitious goal: to reduce the cost of space flights by 10 times. A crazy businessman invested $100 million of his personal funds into SpaceX.

He is sure that the zone human influence must necessarily expand to neighboring planets. This will reduce the threat of destruction of humans as a biological species. Elon Musk is seriously studying the possibility of settling people on Mars within the next 10-20 years.

Tesla Motors

Musk and Straubel met by chance in 2003. During the meeting, Musk learned about the concept of an electric sports car. He immediately tried to convince AC Propulsion management to think about an electric commercial vehicle format. But the proposal was met coolly...

Then Musk, together with JB Straubel, Ian Wright, Mark Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard, decided to create the legendary (in the future, of course) Tesla company. Moreover, it was Musk who provided most of the funding for the project at the initial stage.

In 2008, Elon took over the responsibilities of CEO and chief designer.

The first Tesla Roadster sports car sold 2,500 units in 31 countries around the world. In 2014, Elon Musk's company released the Tesla Model S P85D, the fastest electric car in the world. The car accelerates to 100 km/h in just 3.2 seconds. Without recharging, the Tesla Model S P85D can travel 440 km.

In his interviews, Elon Musk often says that in the next 30 years, most cars in the United States will run on electricity.

In 2016, Musk announced a new secret plan. And in March 2017, Tesla won a tender to create a giant energy storage facility. Elon Musk bet that if he doesn't build a battery station in Australia in 100 days, the state will get it for free.

He eventually won his dispute with the governor of South Australia. The Tesla Powerpack's massive lithium-ion battery is charged by renewable energy and delivers electricity to the state's consumers during peak demand hours.

SolarCity

The initial concept for SolarCity (the largest supplier of solar energy systems in the US) again belongs to the omnipresent Elon Musk. Subsequently, the concept was “fine-tuned” by his cousins: Peter and Lyndon Rive.

What made Elon Musk invest personal funds in another crazy project? The motto is “I will never give up.” And the desire to help humanity solve the problem of global warming.

SolarCity develops and produces photovoltaic systems for installation on the roofs of residential buildings.

The installations fully provide the houses they “roof” with electricity. It is clear that for environment– it’s like a “balm for the soul.”

Soon the “eco-friendly” product found its buyer. Photovoltaic installations from SolarCity provide electricity to British Motors, as well as the office and servers of eBay.

What else does the company do besides creating solar panels? For example, it produces “energy-saving” software. The program allows you to use electricity in residential buildings more efficiently. As a result, loads on networks are reduced, and consumers save on electricity bills.

And of course, SolarCity produces a network of charging stations for Tesla Motors electric vehicles.

Hyperloop

“Hyperloop” is another crazy project of Elon Musk. According to his idea, Hyperloop should become the fifth mode of transport after cars, trains, planes and ships.

Elon Musk proposed the idea of ​​high-speed delivery of goods and passengers back in 2012-2013. The idea was positioned as an alternative to the high-speed rail project between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The "hyperloop" was conceived as an overhead pipeline on supports. Reinforced concrete support pylons will be installed at a height of 30, 15 or 6 meters (depending on the terrain).

Single capsules up to 30 meters long with passengers and cargo will move inside the tube at speeds from 480 to 1,200 km/h. According to the developers, capsules should be “sent” at intervals of 30 seconds.

Elon Musk took the principle of operation of a vacuum train as the basis for the project. The developers decided to abandon creating a complete vacuum in the pipe (too expensive and technically difficult). We stopped at the forevacuum (thin air). The capsule will be driven by an electric motor and powered by solar energy.

To implement the project, the company Hyperloop One was created (until 2016 it had a different name). Hyperloop routes are planned to be built between major cities in the US, UK, Canada, Mexico and even India.

The cost of a trip on the Hyperloop super-fast train will be about $1 per 10-12 km.

Will Hyperloop work? Skeptics are sure not. And optimists closely follow the latest photos on Musk’s Instagram, news from the field and... invest in another crazy “iron man” project.

Fraudster and swindler?

Enter the query “Elon Musk is a fraud” into Google and you will be rewarded with hundreds of links to high-profile revelations. The authors of the articles claim that all of Musk’s projects, at best, ended in nothing.

Who is Elon Musk really? According to some, he is just a charismatic swindler with great scope and crazy ambitions.

Take, for example, the creation of PayPal. According to the whistleblowers, payment system- not his invention at all. In fact, in 1999, Elon Musk, a Jew, created online banking X.com with his personal money. A year later, X.com merged with its main competitor, Confinity. Musk immediately began to seriously conflict with the CEOs of Confinity: Peter Thiel and Max Levchin.

Their joint products in the form of payment systems worked through the stump deck. Banks were blackmailed with fines, and the company was threatened with ruin. And only when the board of directors removed Elon Musk from the position of manager, PayPal was able to bring it to fruition.

According to critics, Elon Musk’s only merit is that in negotiations with buyers on eBay, he managed to raise the company’s price to $1.5 billion.

Things were not so clear with the SpaceX project. At the start, Musk actually invested about $100 million in his brainchild.

But the “soul” and developer of the project was not him at all, but engineer Tom Muller. The Falcon 1 rocket was several years behind schedule. Three launches in a row ended with a loud bang. The project was on the verge of bankruptcy.

And suddenly, out of the blue, SpaceX receives a major contract from NASA. The project immediately takes a crazy leap forward. Someone claims that SpaceX is a curtain behind which US military circles are “hiding”. Under the guise of a private project, they are developing certain technologies.

Everything for which Elon Musk is usually praised is being torn to smithereens on the Internet: his electric cars, plans to colonize Mars, the Hyperloop project and... everything else.

I will not comment on posts in the format “Elon Musk is a deceiver and a swindler.” I’d rather quote a snide post on Twitter: “Forger and fraudster Elon Musk has launched Falcon again. Rogozin’s ultra-modern trampoline is still not ready for use.”

Secrets of success from Elon Musk

Journalists like to quote Elon Musk that he worked 100 hours a week for 15 years. How did he manage not to go crazy while working at the limit of human capabilities?

Combine things

Elon Musk prefers to do several things at once (like Julius Caesar). He believes that many operations combine well with each other. Like cheese and wine.

Are you talking on the phone? At the same time, dust off your desk or make some tea. Looking for the file you need on your computer? Delete unnecessary folders and documents along the way. Books can be read on the go or listened to in audio format while jogging.

By the way, Elon Musk himself checks his email when he communicates with his own children!

Consult the experts

"Eulogies" only confuse. Pay primary attention to criticism from experts! Criticism hurts your self-esteem, but it forces you to constantly develop and become better.

Planning

Elon Musk's day is planned almost minute by minute. He advises replacing the habitual morning viewing of your Facebook feed by drawing up a detailed plan for the day.

Musk's senior assistant writes everything into his diary. Up to “five minutes” of free time. Unfortunately, such a crazy pace does not leave time for personal life and other pleasant things. Elon Musk's latest romance with actress Amber Heard ended due to the constant employment of both.

But no one requires you to work 100 hours a week. Just remember to use time management techniques. Without them, achieving success in the 21st century is impossible.

Ability to take risks

On his path to success, Elon Musk took big risks more than once. For example, when his beloved brainchild Tesla was practically doomed, he invested almost all the remaining money in “rehabilitation”. The profits from the release of the Model-S more than paid for these “crazy” investments.

Five recipes for success from Elon Musk

1. Constantly improve your product or service. First and foremost, invest in research and improvement rather than advertising.
2. Work all the time you need to work. “Time eaters” make only their creators successful and rich.
3. Hire only those employees who absolutely love what they do.
4. Forget about trends.
5. The younger you are, the greater the level of risk you can afford.

How do you feel about Elon Musk?

Only a lazy person would ignore one of the most outstanding achievers in modern technology. Elon Musk is a man of extraordinary talent. His quotes have become colorful expressions, his incredible dreams have come true and his achievements are doing a world of good.

What kind of education do you think he had? Quite often people think only about his university background. Elon Musk’s education began much earlier. As a young child, he asked: “Where does the world start and end?” It’s certainly not every child that has such questions on their mind.

Elon Musk's education background is rich. When he was 8 years old, once he had read all the books in the local library, he started reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica – a wide-ranging English-language encyclopaedia. It is difficult to imagine how one could concentrate on reading for 10 hours a day, but it was Elon’s favorite hobby. And thanks to his awesome photographic memory he retained all that new information. Elon Musk’s homeschool education curriculum was full of books on many different aspects of life.

After his parents’ divorce, Elon stayed with his father. He spent his early years in South Africa. He was a reserved boy. For example, he pretended to be deaf although he was not. He was bullied at school and did not stand up for himself. Once, some boys broke his nose kicking him down the stairs. His relationships with his peers were not good. Probably, it was the after-effects of the divorce, that led to him immersing himself in his hobby and disliking communication.

He was presented with his first computer, a Commodore VIC-20 when he was 10 years old. Elon used it for programming. The BASIC course he took was designed to last 6 months, but he completed it in 3 days. His habit of needing to understand everything new thoroughly was invaluable. Perhaps, it was the reason he wrote the game Blaster at the age of 12, which he later sold for $500.

He was overcome by an existential crisis when he was 14 years old. He read “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and decided that his mission would be world salvation. Elon emigrated to Canada with his brother in order to avoid military contract in South Africa.

With no-one waiting for him there, he spent his first year job-hunting. He worked on sawmill for a salary – $18 per hour. He worked in a narrow tunnel removing hot coals, sand and mud. It was impossible to move aside. By the end of the first week only 3 of the original 30 workers remained, including Elon. He tested himself in many different occupations, even those not related to his interests. So, Elon Musk’s skills and characteristics are quite diverse.

Elon Musk's Educational Background

Elon studied physics at Pretoria University in his last six months in South Africa. His passion for knowledge did not abate. He decided to study at King’s University when he was in Canada. After that, when he went to the US he was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with an undergraduate degree in economics and physics. He applied to Stanford University later, where he planned to pursue a PhD, but dropped out after a few days. He decided that the future would depend on the Internet not on academic degrees.

Elon Musk's education quotes are quite profound. For example: “My background educationally is physics and economics, and I grew up in sort of an engineering environment – ​​my father is an electromechanical engineer. And so there were lots of engineering things around me.” Many of his quotes are truly inspiring. For example, “I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness to make sure it continues into the future.”

He has proven that anyone’s dreams can come true. They are much deeper than we can imagine. You have to agree that his biography, education is pretty interesting and inspiring. Here are some more of his quotes:

“I think it matters whether someone has a good heart” and “I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly thinking about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”

It is fascinating to get to know the story of how Elon Musk started to realize his ideas. He is living proof that if you want to change the world, start with yourself. So, Elon Musk’s timeline can be summed up in the following words: “Did you know that by 2040 Mars could be colonized, by us, with a city?”

He has destroyed stereotypes and made massive technological breakthroughs. Follow Elon Musk's Twitter