Elon musk why him. The incredible story of Elon Musk's rise

They call him Tony Stark real world, a worthy heir to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs rolled into one. An entrepreneur who made a fortune from internet startups has turned into a visionary who thinks about a better future for humanity. With little understanding of online banking, rocket science or electric cars, Elon Musk has time and again broken into a new industry with the confidence that he knows better than anyone what customers want. And it turned out that he really knew!

African childhood

Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa. His father Errol was a successful engineer from a respected family. May's mother was a model in her youth and then a successful nutritionist. Elon was the first child in the family. Next came brother Kimbal and sister Tosca (future director and producer). Although Elon's parents knew each other since childhood and Errol sought May's hand for many years, their marriage was not happy. When Elon turned seven, the couple filed for divorce.

At first, the children stayed with their mother, but then Elon moved in with his father. As he himself later recalled, his mother had three children left, and his father had no one; he looked lonely and sad. Soon Kimbal moved in with his father. Subsequently, the brothers more than once doubted their decision: Errol turned out to be strict and demanding, it was difficult for him to please. Nevertheless he gave his sons a good education and instilled a love for the exact sciences.

Elon was different from other children. He was smarter than his peers and did not share their interest in sports and entertainment. The boy often “disconnected” from the outside world, plunging into himself. His classmates bullied him. Musk changed several schools, but never made real friends.

Problems at school and at home led Musk to early years sought refuge in books. In his youth, he read the novels of Verne, Asimov, Heinlein and Tolkien. “The Academy” and “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” awakened his interest in space, and Douglas Adams’s novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” helped him cope with an identity crisis at the age of fourteen. Since then, Musk has been guided by the principle “The main thing is to ask the right questions.”

Musk's second hobby was computers. As soon as he encountered this miracle of technology, he begged his father for his first computer - a Commodore VIC-20, a popular model in the early eighties with as much as five kilobytes of memory. Musk mastered programming himself and, at the age of twelve, wrote the video game Blastar, which he sold to one of the local magazines for five hundred dollars.

Although Errol bought his son a computer, he himself was skeptical about Elon’s hobby, considering computers just expensive toys. He wanted Elon to become an engineer like himself. The lack of support and prospects made Elon think about emigrating. He dreamed of America, which seemed to him a country of unlimited opportunities for the smart and resourceful. Taking advantage of the fact that his mother was a native of Canada, Musk received Canadian citizenship and at the age of seventeen set off to conquer America.

American Dream: Zip2

At first it was not easy in the new place. In the first years, Elon constantly moved, doing menial work until he settled on a farm with relatives. Soon May and Kimbal moved to Canada. Elon entered Queens University in Ontario, where he continued to study programming. According to him, he chose Queens because among his listeners there were the most girls. The calculation was fully justified - at the university, Elon met his future wife, Justine.

After receiving his diploma, Musk entered the University of Pennsylvania master's program in physics and economics. At that time he was already interested in space, alternative energy and Internet startups. After Pennsylvania, Musk went to Stanford (California) to get his doctorate, but two days later he dropped out and opened his first business in Silicon Valley with his brother.

In the mid-nineties, shares of Internet companies grew by leaps and bounds, and Musk simply could not stay away. Elon came up with the idea of ​​​​creating Zip2 - a digital analogue of the Yellow Pages, which allowed, as he put it, to find the nearest pizzeria in any area of ​​​​San Francisco and find out how to get to it.

At first, the Musks faced a problem: no one wanted to invest money in their endeavor. Most companies still had no idea why they needed their own website and why advertising on the Internet was worth it. The father helped the brothers by sending twenty-eight thousand dollars. This was enough to rent a small office, purchase equipment and the necessary licenses. For the first three months, Elon and Kimbal lived in the office: they had no money to rent housing. The only furniture they had was a couple of mattresses.

The brothers divided powers: Elon almost never left the office, spending all his time on improving products, while Kimbal was looking for clients. At first, he simply walked around the area and offered his services to hairdressers, car dealerships, restaurants and shops. Someone managed to get interested. They started talking about Zip2, the company got investors, and things took off.

But the new shareholders doubted the abilities young entrepreneur to lead their own initiative and invited a more experienced manager - Rich Sorkin. Sorkin decided to place emphasis differently: now Zip2 mainly supplied software for newspapers, and Musk himself wanted to focus on working with consumers. He tried to remove Sorkin and take his place, but the board of directors did not support Elon.

The point of fighting soon disappeared. Large company Compac acquired Zip2 for $307 million, of which Elon personally received $22 million. At twenty-seven years old, he became a millionaire. Of course, he bought an apartment and a luxury car, but he spent most of the money on new project.

If you have millions of dollars, it changes your lifestyle - those who say otherwise are blatantly lying. I no longer need to work to survive. But I work every day, even on weekends, and I haven't been on vacation for several years.

Elon Musk

X.com and PayPal

Working on Zip2 taught Elon a lesson. He gained self-confidence and turned from a timid programmer into a confident businessman. But most importantly, Musk realized that he should no longer lose control over his projects. After selling Zip2, he was attracted to an industry where there was a lot of money and problems that could be fixed with the help of the Internet. It was about the banking industry, which at that time was cumbersome, clumsy and short-sighted and did not understand the possibilities of the digital era.

Having spent his own 12 million, Elon created the first ever online banking service with the pornographic name X.com. Musk was not afraid that many technologies had to be invented from scratch. He was confident that he would revolutionize the banking industry, and his confidence attracted investors, and then clients, to him. The ability to transfer money in a couple of clicks without filling out long payment orders attracted two hundred thousand people to the service in just a few months.

Robert Downey Jr. admitted that his portrayal of Tony Stark was partially based on Musk, and persuaded Elon to make a cameo in Iron Man 2.

Soon X.com had its first serious competitor in the person of the equally young and ambitious startup Confinity, which was run by Max Levchin and Peter Thiel. Companies spent a lot of effort and money fighting until they came to the conclusion that it was easier to join forces. The largest shareholder and manager of the new company was Elon Musk, who never learned to get along with people. Quarrels began between Elon and Levchin and Til. The reason was the name of the merged company - everyone liked the name PayPal proposed by the founders of Confinity, and only Musk clung to X.com.

As a result of the conflict, Thiel left the company, and Levchin began to threaten that he would follow him. Began and technical problems: the servers could not cope with the influx of clients, “holes” were discovered in the programs, which threatened fines from banks. Dissatisfaction with Musk was brewing within the company. Taking advantage of the absence of Elon, who finally married Justine and went on his honeymoon, the board of directors removed him from his position and appointed Peter Thiel to this place.

Musk interrupted the trip and tried to fight, but soon cooled down, realizing that Levchin and Thiel really knew their stuff. He remained a shareholder of the company and continued to invest money in it. When the largest online auction site eBay wanted to acquire PayPal, not a single board member had any doubts that they had to agree, but Musk advised them to remain patient and wait. Finally, after a series of refusals, in June 2002, eBay offered one and a half billion dollars. As the largest shareholder, Musk received 250 million.

The X.com story had a double impact on Musk's reputation. On the one hand, he earned the fame of the genius who created unique product from scratch. On the other hand, he again could not get along with his partners and made a number of mistakes in managing the company. Some say that if Elon had remained at the helm for a few more months, the company would have collapsed. Others argue that he didn't have enough time - although many of Musk's ideas seem absurd at first glance, time proves him right.

SpaceX and Tesla Motors

After leaving PayPal, Musk resumed his honeymoon. On the trip he picked up dangerous form malaria and almost died. On full recovery it took six months, during which time Elon lost twenty kilograms.

Shortly before the PayPal sale, Elon and Justine had their first child. But the parents' happiness was short-lived - the child died from the so-called sudden infant death syndrome. Musk dealt with grief in his typical manner - he threw himself into work. Colleagues later recalled that work difficulties sometimes brought tears to Elon’s eyes, but he endured this loss in silence. Musk did not like to put his personal life on display.

Having finally become convinced of the dangers of rest, Musk returned to work. As his influence at PayPal dwindled, Elon recalled his childhood fascination with space. Musk felt that the world had lost faith in a better future, and wanted to inspire humanity to new achievements. At first, Musk's plans were very naive - he was going to buy an old Russian ballistic missile and use it to send a ship to Mars. The project failed - Musk did not agree on a price with the sellers. Then he came up with the idea of ​​​​producing small, cost-effective rockets that could conquer the market for commercial transportation to orbit due to low launch costs.

At that time, Musk knew nothing about rocket science. He had little idea of ​​the scale of the work, so he set himself overly optimistic deadlines that were impossible to meet. Critics often accused Musk of lying, but Musk sincerely believed in his words and worked tirelessly to put his words into practice. He expected the same attitude from his employees, so people who were not ready to work twelve to sixteen hours a day did not stay long with Musk.

In June 2002, he founded Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX). At first, Musk wanted to produce only engines and purchase other parts from third-party suppliers. But he quickly became convinced that acceptable quality could only be achieved by himself.

At the same time, Musk became interested in electric cars. Two acquaintances prompted him to do this - first, Elon met the talented engineer Jeffrey Strobel, who was working on an economical battery for an electric car, and then crossed paths with Martin Eberhard and Mark Tarpenning, the founders of Tesla Motors, whose goal was to create a new generation electric car. Musk fell in love with the idea and invested seven million in Tesla, becoming the largest shareholder. At the same time, the operational management of the company remained in the hands of Eberhard and Tarpenning.

The first two Tesla Roadster prototypes were met with enthusiasm, and orders began to pour into the company. But the attempt to move from piece production to mass production almost led to collapse.

Musk financed both enterprises from his own pocket and therefore found himself on the verge of bankruptcy. Funds in Musk's accounts were dwindling, and work on SpaceX's first rocket, the Falcon 1, was four years behind schedule. The first three Falcon 1 launches ended in failure. A series of launch failures is not uncommon in the space industry, but SpaceX could not afford such luxury. The engineers corrected all the shortcomings and the fourth launch was successful, but there was no money left for the fifth.

NASA has a stupid policy that says mistakes are not tolerated. In my company, failure is possible. If things don't fall apart, you're not inventing well enough.

Elon Musk

Tesla founder Martin Eberhard (Nicki Dugan / Flickr)

Things were even worse at Tesla. Contractors constantly disrupted the supply of parts, costs rose, and the public began to lose patience. The cost of one car, according to optimistic forecasts, was 170–200 thousand dollars, and Tesla planned to sell the Roadster for 85 thousand. Musk became disillusioned with Eberhard's leadership and ousted him. Martin took the dismissal hard and launched a media campaign against Musk. Their relationship remained tense, but Eberhard later admitted that without Musk, Tesla would have gone bankrupt at the very beginning.

Difficult times have come in Elon's life. No one seriously believed in the success of his endeavors, and the constant failures of SpaceX and Tesla did not strengthen his reputation. Rumors about the companies' financial problems leaked to the press.

Personal life also went downhill. For Elon, family always came second after work. Although Elon and Justine had known each other for many years and raised five children, she always felt that she was something of an accessory for her husband. Their marriage reached a dead end, and Elon filed for divorce. Musk treated the divorce process as a business project and sought the most convenient result for himself. The press was perplexed why the multimillionaire was arguing with the mother of his five children about the amount of compensation. But Elon could not afford unnecessary expenses.

In December 2008, Musk ran out of money. If Elon hadn’t found it by January necessary funds, Tesla could be declared bankrupt, and SpaceX employees would have nothing to pay their salaries. Musk figured that he would have to sacrifice one of the companies to preserve the other, but could not make a choice.

Breakthrough

Musk found the money at the very last moment. He invested the rest of his funds in Tesla and convinced investors to believe in it one more time. And with SpaceX he was just lucky. Musk has long tried to convince NASA that his company could become a contractor for transporting cargo into orbit. And on December 23, 2008, the space agency signed a one and a half billion dollar contract with SpaceX for twelve flights to the ISS.

And here Musk’s undertakings began to work at full capacity, and from a man who long years promised, promised and promised again, he turned into a man who began to do. Now SpaceX owns several records at once, and Musk does not intend to stop there.

Tesla is also doing well. The Tesla Roadster sold well, but the real hit was the Model S, released in 2012. Tesla Motors positions it as an “iPhone on wheels.” Even distribution is based on the Apple model - Tesla sells cars via the Internet and special sales points located in large shopping centers. Model S owners have virtually no maintenance costs. Programs are automatically updated via the Internet, and owners can charge their cars for free at any Tesla gas station. Or, if they are in a hurry, they can change the battery, but for money. In addition to cars, Tesla produces batteries for electric vehicles of other companies, and the sale of batteries brings in even more income.

Even if the zombie apocalypse happens, you will still be able to travel thanks to gas stations and the Tesla Supercharging system.

Elon Musk

Another of Musk's undertakings is also succeeding - the SolarCity company, created by Elon and his cousins. SolarCity is one of the largest providers of solar energy in America, last year its assets were valued at $7 billion.

However, Musk’s life cannot be called carefree. He says he has three goals: to provide humanity with clean transportation and energy sources and to help build colonies on other worlds. Elon dreams of dying on Mars. And if the first two tasks are close to completion, then the third is still a long way to go.

Musk considers SpaceX's main goal to be the conquest of other planets solar system. He plans to start with Mars. The Dragon V2 spacecraft, which SpaceX is currently developing for NASA, would ideally be the basis for flights to the Red Planet, but Musk's ambitions extend much further. Recently, the tycoon recalled that to create a colony on Mars, the planet needs to be terraformed. For these purposes, Musk proposes using... thermonuclear weapons. According to his calculations, the explosion of two thermonuclear bombs in the atmosphere near the poles of Mars will trigger a reaction to heat up the planet and ultimately turn it into a more favorable place for people.

I would like to die on Mars. Only, of course, not in case of an unsuccessful landing.

Elon Musk

According to Musk’s calculations, Hyperloop will cost several times less, the capsules will move at short intervals, and the journey between cities will take only half an hour. However, Musk himself does not intend to engage in construction and plans to make the project drawings publicly available. Today, there are several teams ready to bring Elon’s vision to life.

What is he like?

Despite all his successes, Musk is often criticized. The press estimated that since the founding of SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity, they have received a total of $5 billion in government orders, subsidies and tax breaks. Musk is accused of not having achieved anything without the help of Uncle Sam.

However, even with the help of the state, he achieved what no one else could achieve. And I would hardly have been able to do this if not for my strength of character. Friends say that Musk is strict and sometimes cruel with employees and partners. He doesn't consider other people's feelings at all. Still, SpaceX and Tesla employees are loyal to their boss and say that while he is a social asshole, he knows what he wants and has a knack for inspiring optimism in others. Elon does not tolerate excuses, justifications and delays, but when difficulties arise, he is the first to volunteer to help.

Musk's work week exceeds one hundred hours. He practically lives at work and constantly flies between company offices on a private jet to save time. He strives to be aware of all the problems of his subordinates, and it is normal for him to respond to an email from employees within half an hour, even if it arrives late at night.

* * *

Elon Musk’s ideas seem crazy, but time after time he turns out to be right, it’s just that society does not keep up with his train of thought. In another world, Elon Musk would be perfect for the role of a villain in the next Bond series, but his passion for science, space and science fiction makes it difficult to see him as an unprincipled businessman. He remains a visionary, concerned about a better future for all humanity, living in an era when the brightest minds are thinking about how to push more photos cats in post social network.

I love being involved in projects that change the world. The Internet did it, and space will probably change the world more than anything else. If humanity can move beyond the Earth, it is clear that its future lies there.

Elon Musk

In our cynical and calculating age, there are few such ideological dreamers left. Therefore, I want to keep my fingers crossed for Elon Musk and believe that he will succeed.

If the article is not enough for you...

At the beginning of 2015, American journalist Ashley Vance’s book “Elon Musk. Tesla, SpaceX and the road to the future." While working on the book, Vance interviewed Musk's family and friends, former and current employees of Tesla, SpaceX, PayPal and Zip2.

Musk himself at first did not want to help Vance with the work, but then agreed - provided that he could offer his own versions of the events described. Vance refused, but Musk suddenly accepted the reporter's terms and met with him regularly throughout the work on the book. Vance himself believes that Musk was convinced by the journalist’s determination and confidence in how to work.

There are many funny moments in the book - for example, Musk said that his family was afraid that representatives of the Russian space industry would hire killers to eliminate a competitor.

Elon Musk is an engineer, inventor, entrepreneur and investor. Co-founder of PayPal and SpaceX. Chairman of the Board of Directors, CEO and the main ideological inspirer of the world famous company Tesla.

For outstanding services to science, on May 9, 2018, Elon Musk was awarded membership of the Royal Society of London.

According to Forbes magazine, as of 2017, his capital exceeds $21 billion.

Elon spent whole days reading, managing to read two sets of encyclopedias.

An interesting fact is that Musk has a photographic ability that allows him to hold and reproduce in detail the image of an object or phenomenon.

However, the more he learned, the more it irritated his peers. At school, Elon was constantly mocked and beaten repeatedly, and once even had his nose broken.

When Musk was 8 years old, his parents divorced, leaving the children to live with their father. The head of the family was a very tough and demanding person.

He often took both sons with him to work, who had to work in construction. Thanks to this, they learned many useful skills.

When Elon reached the age of ten, his father gave him a computer. Soon he managed to master the programming language and even create his own video game. He will subsequently sell it for $500.

Interestingly, Musk did not spend his earnings on any entertainment or acquisitions typical of his age.

Instead, he began investing the proceeds in a pharmaceutical company, noticing its promising growth.

Soon, Elon Musk was able to earn a substantial amount from the sale of shares. As a result, he and his brother decide to leave for Canada, despite his father’s ban.

Education

After settling with his relatives, Elon enters Queen's University in Kingston. He then continues his studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His student years turned out to be much more fun than his school years.

Musk made many friends with whom he often organized parties. For such a lifestyle, he was almost expelled from educational institution. However, he still managed to graduate and become a bachelor in physics and economics.

The beginning of Musk's career

The first company in the career of Musk and his brother was Zip2, founded in 1996. They borrowed money for the start-up capital from their father.

Zip2 developed software for news companies. In less than 3 years, the brothers will sell it for $308 million.

As a result of the sale, Elon received $22 million and invested the bulk of the funds in a new project. With the remaining money he bought a McLaren F1 sports car.

This was only the beginning of successful endeavors in his biography.

PayPal

In 2000, Elon met Peter Thiel. Together with him, he decides to create an electronic money system that could be used all over the world. Soon the project was successfully launched.

After some time, the founders were faced with the question of which brand to choose for the developing payment giant: X.com or PayPal.

As a result, a conflict arose, since Elon Musk was strongly in favor of the X.com brand. Ultimately, by decision of the board of directors, Musk was fired from the company. At the same time, some considered this decision to be unfair, since many of the ideas that contributed to the development of the company belonged to Elon.

In 2002, eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion. From this sale, Musk, who has 11.7% of the shares, gained $180 million. He invested almost all of this amount in his SpaceX and Tesla Motors projects.

SpaceX

Since childhood, Elon has been reading science fiction. Perhaps it was for this reason that in 2002 he created a large company, SpaceX, which was engaged in the manufacture of launch vehicles and spacecraft.

After 6 years, NASA entered into an agreement with SpaceX for an amount exceeding one and a half billion dollars.

In 2016, Elon's company announced that it plans to fly to . According to their calculations, this should happen before 2025.

Tesla

In 2003, big events took place in the biography of Elon Musk. He became the ideological inspirer and leader of Tesla, and also invested about $70 million in it.

Tesla continues to successfully produce cars that run on electricity today.

By the way, you probably guessed that the Tesla company is named after the outstanding inventor and “conqueror of electricity” -.

Personal life

Elon Musk's first wife was Justine, whom he met as a student. The couple married in 2000. They had six boys, but after 8 years life together they decided to separate.

The second wife in Musk’s biography was actress Talulah Riley. This union lasted 6 years, after which the couple divorced in 2016.

A year later, the inventor married for the third time. His chosen one was actress Amber Heard. It is interesting to note that before this the girl was married to Johnny Depp.

In 2018, Musk appeared in public with Canadian singer Grimes, which sparked rumors of his new romance. However reliable information no on this matter.

By his own admission, Elon Musk has problems sleeping and uses sleeping pills.

According to The New York Times, some members of Tesla's board of directors have expressed their concerns about this.

Smoking Elon Musk

In September 2018, Musk attended the show of American comedian Joe Rogan. During the conversation, Rogan invited him to smoke in live a mixture of marijuana and tobacco.

The Tesla founder agreed, after first asking the comedian if it was legal.

Musk also said that he rarely smokes marijuana, explaining that the drug does not affect him.

After this broadcast, the next day, Tesla shares fell by 10%, and smoking Elon Musk became real on the Internet.

Elon Musk today

Today, Elon Musk is still in the spotlight. At the end of 2016, he joined the Presidential Forum on Strategy and Policy.

The purpose of this organization is to advise the President of the United States on issues related to the creation of new jobs and economic development countries.

In the same year, Elon Musk founded another company called Neuralink. She is engaged in the study and invention of devices aimed at treating .

On October 7, 2017, Musk helped restore power in Puerto Rico, which was damaged after a serious hurricane.

Today, as before, Elon Musk devotes a lot of free time to reading. In addition, he likes extreme types. He is often written about in the press and shown on television.

Perhaps in the future he will be able to surprise humanity more than once with his fantastic inventions and personal achievements.

Photo by Elon Musk

Below are the most famous and popular photo by Elon Musk. There will also be a photo with his mother, who, despite her advanced age, retains an amazing appearance. All photos of Elon Musk are taken from open sources.

If you liked the biography of Elon Musk, share it on social networks. If you like biographies of great people in general, and in particular, subscribe to the site. It's always interesting with us!

Did you like the post? Press any button.

Canadian-American inventor, engineer, entrepreneur and investor Elon Musk is not only the real image of Tony Stark from the film “Iron Man”. This brilliant inventor and leader managed to bring a fantastic future closer and speed up the path to it.

Brief biography of Elon Musk

Elon Musk ( full name – Elon (Elon) Reeves Musk) was born June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa. His father - Errol Musk, African engineer and entrepreneur. His mother - May Haldman, a popular Canadian nutritionist.

Young programmer

At the age of ten, Elon received his first computer as a gift and learned to program on it. At the age of 12 he sold his first program for $500, a video game called Blast Star, in which the player fired at rows of aliens with a laser cannon.

Moving to Canada

After graduating from school in South Africa, Elon Musk decides to go to Canada, contrary to the opinions of his parents. At first he had money for an independent life - he was already at that time successfully invested in pharmaceuticals.

Elon settled in Canada with his mother's relatives in 1989. Having received Canadian citizenship, Elon Musk goes to Montreal, where at first he agrees to any job and teeters on the brink of poverty for almost a year.

Moving to the USA

In 1992 Elon Reeves Musk is finally realizing his dream and moving to the United States, having received a scholarship to study at the University of Pennsylvania. The following year he received his bachelor's degree in business, but decided to stay at the university for another year to obtain a bachelor's degree in physics.

Main question

Every person in life has a number of questions about his purpose and the future of all humanity. Elon Musk asked the same question. And in the end I decided that The future of humanity will be affected by:

…internet, transition to renewable energy sources
and the relocation of people to other planets...

He decided to try to contribute in each of these directions. But first he needed money.

Zip2 success

In 1995, Musk and his brother founded the company Zip2, which specialized in software for news companies. In 1999, Zip2 was acquired Compaq for 308 million dollars. Elon received 7% of the sale amount – $22 million.

At the time of the company’s creation, the global web was developing rapidly, but no one had yet managed to truly make money on the Internet.Zip2 was one of the very first to do this.

X.com and PayPal

After selling his first company, Elon Musk decides to master electronic payments and creates his own startup X.com. In March 2000, X.com merged on a parity basis with a competitor company Confinity Peter Thiel and Max Levchin.

This merger subsequently leads to the emergence of the now famous payment system – PayPal. In 2002, a popular service bought the online auction eBay for $1.5 billion. Elon received $180 million from this deal.

Investments and management in Tesla Motors

In 2004, Elon, with cash from selling PayPal, invested $70 million in the project TeslaMotors. This company attracted his attention because it was developing electric cars. Alternative energy sources - this was in the spirit of Musk's principles.

The main driver of Tesla's financial success was its luxury sedan Model S with a battery charge of 426 km, a bright design and unique speed characteristics (acceleration to 96 km/h in 3.9 s). The model was put into mass production at a price of $69,900 and was highly rated by Consumer Reports.

Founding of SpaceX

At the turn of the millennium, an ambitious entrepreneur and inventor thought about creating a flying ship that could reusable for traveling people into space and to other planets.

The moment Elon Musk's financial fortune increased, he decided to start making this dream come true. His brainchild in this area was the company SpaceX(full name: Space Exploration Technologies Company). The company was founded in 2002.

He invested more than $100 million in the project. The cost of proposals on the market - from $15 million for a rocket in Russia to $65 million in the USA - was considered by the entrepreneur to be many times too high. That is why he decided to build his own spacecraft.

SpaceX's first successes

Despite all the difficulties and setbacks, SpaceX managed to create two types of potentially reusable launch vehicles: Falcon 1 And Falcon 9, and also reusable spaceship Dragon.

Contract with NASA

In December 2008 NASA signed a contract with the company in the amount of 1.6 billion US dollars for 12 launches of the Falcon 9 carrier and the Dragon spacecraft to the ISS, as a replacement for the ships Space Shuttle after the termination of their launch program in 2011.

Expedition to Mars

For Elon Musk, all the current achievements of SpaceX are just preparation for the realization of his main dream - expeditions to Mars. Until the end of his life, the billionaire wants to become a pioneer colonizer of the “red” planet. To this end, SpaceX is developing a project Mars Colonial Transporter(MCP).

Musk's engineers are working on innovative rocket engines and spacecraft to transport people from Earth to Mars. The ambitious entrepreneur announced that he would carry out his expedition in 2020-25.

Based on the Falcon, it is planned to create the Grasshoper rocket, which can land vertically, and the second generation Dragon is technically already capable of getting to Mars, Musk assures.

Using the example of Elon Musk, we can trace the path of a person making childhood dreams come true, because many people in childhood wanted to fly into space, and soon this will be possible.

Business has come to astronautics, and many will benefit from this, because space tourism will soon become a reality, including thanks to Elon Musk.

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 " Richest people USA".

Elon Musk is taking on the development of global industries for humanity: solar energy, automobile and rocketry. Behind last decade he 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 Mars 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. He traveled with his wife and children in 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.

As for Elon Musk’s IQ, some sources indicate 155 points, others – 190 (100-120 is the average IQ level, more than 150 points is the level of Nobel laureates). Among famous personalities with an IQ above 140 is.

Elon is persistent and possessive critical thinking. His ability to work is amazing: he is able to work up to 80-100 hours a week. also devoted up to 19 hours to work every day. A typical week for Elon is like a kaleidoscope, changing locations and activities.

Mon: morning in a Los Angeles mansion, work day at SpaceX (Hawthorne). “As soon as he stopped, employees rushed to Musk and bombarded him with streams of information,” the author of his biography describes the trip to the plant.

Overnight at SpaceX.

VT: start of a working day at SpaceX, flight to Palo Alto, working day at Tesla. Spending the night either at the Rosewood Hotel, or with friends (mostly he spends the night with friends in the guest room, but there have been cases of spending the night “on the sofa”).

SR: workday at Tesla

TH: SpaceX business day

When asked how he can cope with such an intense schedule, the CEO of the companies replies that perhaps his difficult childhood helped him.

Musk has fun as unconventionally as he lives: he either dresses up as a knight at a costume party, or becomes a target for a knife thrower. On the 30th anniversary, Musk played hide and seek with guests at night in an English castle, the next night he rode bicycles in Paris, and then in Venice he enjoyed life in the courtyard of a hotel overlooking the Grand Canal.

The businessman owns an Aero L-39 jet and a Wet Nellie submarine, the car from the 007 film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

Films and cartoons about Elon Musk

Elon Musk has been invited to play himself more than once: “The Big Bang Theory” (season 9, episode 9), “Baby Sheldon” (season 1, episode 6), “Iron Man 2” (2010), “Machete Kills” (2013) , "Why he?" (2016), etc. The director of the film “Iron Man” (2008), Jon Favreau, admits that Musk became the prototype for the hero of the film, the inventor Tony.

Who is behind Elon Musk's mask? A technological utopian capable of making a fortune where others are deprived of capital, or a genius of our time?

Elon's ability to calmly realize the impossible has turned him into a Silicon Valley deity. But the “deity” leads a completely earthly lifestyle and is not fixated on his own person.

Unlike the vast majority of bosses of this level, the inventor often moves without an escort. “Simple joys of life” are available to him: frying tasty treats over a fire, drinking whiskey and singing https://www.instagram.com/p/BatMhVODF1L/?taken-by=elonmusk

In 2018, SpaceX will launch the first space tour; a couple of space tourists have already made an advance payment for a flight around the Moon. SpaceX's first manned mission to the ISS is planned for May 2018. The plans for 2020-2025 include delivery of the first person to Mars.

A businessman does not know whether all his ideas will come true, but, most importantly, he will try to implement them. With his characteristic humor, he reports:

I would like to die on Mars, but not from hitting the surface.

The goal of colonizing the Red Planet may seem crazy to some, but for Musk's empire it is a source of inspiration for all employees.

Video for dessert: Dizzying jumps from a 150-meter cliff

Elon Reeve Musk (June 28, 1971) is an American and Canadian billionaire. Known as a talented engineer and inventor, founder and owner of SpaceX. Chief designer of Tesla Motors. According to Forbes, he has a net worth of more than $12 billion.

Childhood

Elon was born in South Africa in Pretoria. The boy's mother was Canadian and worked as a nutritionist. Father, native South Africa, worked as an engineer. Relationships in the family did not work out, so the parents soon separated. The boy remained to live with his father, which became impossible best choice. The man was distinguished by his temper and tough temper.

Elon did well in school and was an introverted boy. For these or some other reasons, his classmates disliked him. The child was constantly bullied, even to the point of systematic beatings.

However, at home, Elon was a completely different person. At the age of 10, his big dream came true - the boy received a personal computer for his birthday. Unlike most of his peers, who used machines solely for entertainment, he became interested in programming. Having mastered it on his own, Elon decided that the knowledge gained should pay dividends. As a result, the boy created a video game that was a success and sold like hotcakes. And this despite the serious cost of $500.

The earning plan did not end there. In fact, he has just started. With the proceeds the boy purchased shares in one pharmaceutical company.

He selected it by analyzing information from newspapers. And I was right. Soon he had enough money in his hands to make his dream come true.

Studies

Elon always dreamed of going to the USA. It was this country that he considered the ideal place for all those who have a sharp mind and the desire to apply it. However, he could not simply come to a foreign country. At the same time, the real prospect of soon wearing military uniform. Therefore, he decided to take advantage of his mother’s citizenship and the fact that she had relatives left in Canada.

Despite the protests of his parents, the young man packed his things and went to another continent. In Canada, he entered the University of Kingston. Thanks to excellent studies, Elon received a scholarship from the University of Pennsylvania and soon crossed the cherished border.

Among university subjects, he preferred physics and business. It goes without saying that he succeeded in his chosen areas. Now it was possible to decide on the future. After analyzing the situation, the young man realized that there were three things that interested him.

In those years, the development of the Internet was just beginning. In him Elon saw an inexhaustible source of opportunity. He was also attracted to alternative energy sources and space.

In 1995, the young man went to Stanford. He intended to continue his education, but soon abandoned this idea.

Career

Instead of studying, Elon teamed up with his brother and created the company Zip2. It was aimed at developing software for news companies. Four years later, the brothers sold it, and as a result, Musk became $22 million richer.

Elon’s next brainchild was the online payment service PayPal, which was acquired by eBay, personally paying Musk 1.5 billion.

Now he had enough money to devote time and effort to his own projects. Since Musk had already mastered the Internet, he turned his attention to space and alternative energy sources.

Space

Elon has always been obsessed with the idea of ​​colonizing Mars. He was interested in the project of placing greenhouses there, in which plants could be grown automatically. Since the cost of implementing this plan did not fit into any framework, the businessman decided to start small. From your own rocket.

In 2002, he created the SpaceX company, and already in 2006 the Falcon9 rocket made its first flight. Then the Dragon spaceship was born, making flights to the World War II. space station.

Energy

Elon Musk has not forgotten about alternative energy sources. He invested a large sum money to SolarSity, a company that installs solar panels.

TeslaMotors develops and produces electric vehicles.

Personal life

Elon Musk's personal life became of interest to journalists after his first divorce. Despite the fact that the couple separated peacefully, the press was attracted by the fact that the family had five young sons. Elon met his first wife in Canada when he was a simple student.

The billionaire's second wife was the young actress Talulah Riley. Their relationship did not last long and ended in divorce.

Criticism and scandalous incidents

Rescue operation at Thamluang Nangnon Cave

Elon Musk's attempt to take part in the rescue operation carried out in the Thamluang Nangnon cave and the events that followed caused a great public outcry. The American entrepreneur said that he and cavers are discussing options for saving people. On July 10, 2018, after 8 children were rescued, he brought to the rescue site a mini-submarine he created, using elements of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which was supposed to help children unprepared for diving. However, rescuers considered that it was inappropriate to use it.

Caver Vern Unsworth, who played a key role in the rescue operation, criticized the proposal as a publicity stunt. According to him, this plan had no chance of success: a submarine with a rigid frame would not have passed even the first 50 meters; along the way, he spoke rudely to Musk. In response, Elon published a tweet in which he called the British diver a pedophile. Quite quickly, Musk deleted this tweet, but it had already managed to cause a wave negative reaction and numerous articles in various media, the situation caused a short-term drop in the price of Tesla shares. A few days later, Elon apologized to Unsworth.

Joe Rogan Podcast

In September 2018, Musk attended the show of American comedian Joe Rogan. During the conversation, the entrepreneur smoked a mixture of marijuana and tobacco, after asking Rogan if it was legal. Elon said that he rarely smokes marijuana, explaining that the drug does not affect him.

Allegations of violating securities laws

In the fall of 2018, a number of Tesla traders and shareholders sued Musk and accused the head of the company of violating securities laws. The investigation into this administrative case was undertaken by the US Federal Securities Commission (SEC). The lawsuit alleged that Musk intentionally posted false information on his Twitter account to influence Tesla's stock price. In his personal account, the head of the company announced the decision to make Tesla a private company and that he had already found finances to buy back shares. In the messages he also indicated that he plans to buy back securities at the rate of $420 per share, that is, higher than their market value.

Due to criticism from social network users and shareholders, Musk decided to keep Tesla a public company. In September 2018, the US Department of Justice, in parallel with the administrative case, opened a criminal case against Tesla. According to the SEC's lawsuit, Musk faces a ban on holding leadership positions in public companies.

In response to the accusations, Elon Musk stated the following:

I am deeply disappointed by the SEC's baseless allegations. I have always acted in the best interests of investors, and honesty is the most important value in my life. The facts will prove that I never endangered anyone.

On September 29, 2018, Musk and the SEC settled these charges out of court. According to the agreement, Musk will remain the head of Tesla, but will not be able to serve as chairman of the board of directors for three years. In addition, he must pay a fine of $20 million. The same fine was imposed on Tesla.

Philanthropy

Elon became chairman of the board charitable foundation Musk Foundation. In January 2015, the foundation donated $10 million to the Future of Humanity Institute for research into the control of artificial intelligence.

In July 2018, an entrepreneur offered his assistance in an operation to rescue children from the flooded Tham Luang cave. Four engineers from Tesla, SpaceX and The Boring Company were sent to help the rescuers. A mini-submarine developed specifically for this operation was delivered to Thailand, but Thai rescuers refused to use it. Speleologist Vern Unsworth, who played one of the key roles in the rescue operation, criticized Musk's proposal - according to him, a submarine with a rigid frame "could not sail even the first 50 meters from the beginning of the cave."

Policy

In December 2016, he became a member of the Presidential Forum on Strategy and Policy under US President Donald Trump, a group of 16 American entrepreneurs whose task is to advise the 45th US President on issues related to economic growth and job creation and increased productivity, but in 2017 refused further participation in the forum in protest against Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement.

Movie

According to Jon Favreau, director of the film Iron Man (2008), Elon Musk served as the inspiration for the film version of Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr.

In 2010, Musk appeared in the film Iron Man 2 as himself (in the story, Elon is Tony Stark's friend). In 2013, he also played himself in an episode of the film Machete Kills. Musk is seen among the audience attending the presentation of artificial intelligence in the sci-fi film Supremacy (2014, at the 00:07:39-41 mark), and his name appears in the credits.

Elon Musk voiced a cameo in season 26, episode 12 of the animated series The Simpsons, released on January 25, 2015.

In episode 9 of season 9 of the series “Theory big bang"plays a cameo.

In 2017, he starred in the comedy “Why Him?” as himself.

Also at the end of episode 6 of season 1 of the series “Sheldon’s Childhood,” Musk sits at the table and reads young Sheldon’s notes.

Condition assessment

In 2015, unofficial data appeared on the Internet, according to which Elon Musk’s fortune was $13.1 billion.

Already in next year Official information provided by Forbes also appeared. According to information from the American financial and economic magazine, Musk owns an amount equal to $10.7 billion.

Elon Musk now

The main goal Elon Musk remains creating a human colony on Mars. In a 2011 interview, he stated that the first settlers would travel to the Red Planet within the next two decades. By 2040, Musk predicts, 80 thousand people will live on Mars.

Work continues on the BFR - Big Falcon Rocket - a launch vehicle and spacecraft with a payload of 150 tons. The BFR is expected to replace previous generations of Falcon and become the primary instrument for transporting cargo and people to Mars.