He is a South African businessman. Elon Musk is known as one of the most ambitious entrepreneurs in the world. His projects transform science fiction into something real and close. In his personal and professional life lies a vivid ability to take justified risks and faith in his capabilities.
Elon Musk’s fortune at his 49 years old became the third world wealth after the overthrow of Bill Gates. But the meteoric rise to fame as a co-founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX, Hyperloop, Solar City, The Boring Company, research general intelligence company OpenAI didn’t end there.
Over the past year, Tesla’s portfolio of shares has grown in the stock market by 670%. This event could make him the richest person on the planet, pushing Amazon trading platform founder Jeff Bezos to second place.
Fate
His date of birth is June 28, the year 1971. Pretoria city, South Africa, is the hometown. His family broke up in 1979. Nine-year-old Elon together with his smaller brother Kimbal chose to stay with the father. Their sister Tosca stayed with her mother.
Musk got interested in programming at an early age. And as a result, at age 12, he earned USD500 on selling the video game Blastar. Is the genius or chatterbox, empathetic or uncompromising? How did he grow out of genius for many, crazy or superhero for others? These and similar questions arose about the nature of the richest physicist in the world.
The child Musk spent much time reading books, earning a reputation as an introvert from his classmates. His peers preferred rugby and springbok adventures, but not the reasoning of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer.
Before blowing out eighteen candles on a birthday cake, he boarded a plane to Montreal, Canada, intending to meet his uncle. In 1988, Musk left South Africa at his own risk, hoping one day to emigrate to the USA.
This was the beginning of his first practical “said and done”. This trip turned out as stupid as the unpredictable trajectory of his unsuccessful missiles … After landing in Canada, Elon found a public phone to get his uncle’s address in the directory but failed. He called his mother. She told him that received a letter from his uncle, who said that he lived in Minnesota (USA). With no roof over his head, Musk looked for the orphanage.
After spending several days in Montreal, the young man decided to visit his grandfather’s old home in Saskatchewan. This region is famous for its fields of wheat and lush meadows. But here, too, failure awaited him. He was forced to journey 3,000 kilometers to meet his brother in a town Swift Current, with a population of 15,000. Musk got a job in a sawmill boiler room, where he earned USD9 a daily.
In 1989, with stubborn tenacity, Musk entered Queen’s University, Ontario. He chose this particular training center because as he told being interviewed there were many beautiful women in the Royal Palace…
Becoming a businessman
Elon Musk initially understood what his professional career should be. In his early twenties, he developed a curious hobby. When reading newspapers, find interesting people with whom he would like to meet. Then he called these people and asked whether the gentlemen did not mind dining with him.
Over time, the director of marketing for the baseball team Toronto Blue Jays, a journalist and economist for the Globe and Mail newspaper, and the executive of Bank of Nova Scotia responded from his list of “nominees”. Elon is a type of entrepreneur who considers his purpose in life is to bring the coming future to the present reality and of course to make a lot of money.
After completing his studies in physics, a novice businessman Musk began his business career. He rented a house in the military barracks and converted it into a student club to pay for the rent. Attendance reached up to 1000 people at USD5 per entry.
Projects, businesses, and revenues
In 2015, Amancio Ortega became the richest businessman in the world. He earned USD79.1 billion in his life. And Musk made USD76.6 billion that year alone. In 2020, Elon made approximately USD55 billion more. According to Business Insider, he receives USD25082 (or €21,267) per second.
To have at least a rough idea of the state of Elon Musk, the same Business Insider reports the following. One euro for the average Spaniard is valued the same as 1 million for that South African guy.
One of the companies that are increasing Musk Elon’s fortune is SpaceX due to constructive contacts with NASA. It should be mentioned that SpaceX was founded by this successful entrepreneur to accelerate the integrated space exploration. Earlier, his other ideas, which were later realized, came from fiction.
So, after graduation, Musk went to Stanford University for his doctorate. But after spending only two days in California, he quickly got his bearings and made a business decision that it was necessary to enter the Internet services market and participate at the beginning of the dot-com boom.
Once again, the premonition did not disappoint him. Musk, along with brother Kimball, triggered the Zip2. Its main activity is making online entertainment travel guides for the Chicago Tribune and other popular newspapers. The hard organizational work soon paid off with a substantial dividend of USD22 million from the successful sale of his Zip2 to Compaq.
In 1999, Musk founded an Internet banking company X.com. He invested USD10 million. In 2000, the company X.com merged with the financial startup Confinity to create the electronic payment system, Pay Pal. But even then Musk seriously thought about sending mice to the planet Mars…
Forbes estimates that Tesla CEO and owner Elon Musk has amassed a fortune of USD126.8 billion by working as CEO and CTO in multiple companies simultaneously. This success was also facilitated by the incredible 2020, in which SpaceX significantly expanded its contract portfolio with NASA.
Secret of success
When a South African businessman began to unite companies like links in chains, the business world was trying to figure out the secret formula for his business success. The exact equation remains Musk’s secret. But it is known to include variables such as hard work, foresight, innovative technology, bold design, and profitability.
Perhaps his greatest achievements are related to the philosophy of physics. This is a simplification of any task to its fundamental principles. Trees in the form of secondary data should not cover the forest of panoramic vision of phenomena and events in an era of oversaturation with information. Its sheer volume is such that it is increasingly difficult to find the pivotal highlights that make the business relevant.
- His strategy is to go straight. The worst and most offensive thing that his employee one day can tell Musk is that he hovers in the clouds and demands from him to do the impossible. Musk himself interviewed Space X’s first 1,000 employees, including janitors, and continued in-person interviews with the engineering corps as the company’s staff grew.
- Musk is convinced that time is money. Free time doesn’t help you make money. Musk is also distinguished by close monitoring and analysis of hostile criticism. He proves with facts that his career success is achieved not due to luck, but the result of pre-thought long-term decisions.
The personal life of a businessman can be described as the hectic adventure of a stately man. In the life portfolio, there are two beloved women, six children, three stormy divorces, numerous fleeting love stories. And the covers in the pink press are countless. He loves to fly. He has no weapons, no private army. There is only speed and pressure in everything.
