You have heard his name and you have seen him on TV. Let’s find out who Elon Musk really is.
We have seen many smart people becoming billionaires. But being smart alone is not enough. You have to turn it into a money-making machine. That is what Elon Musk has been doing.
He was born in South Africa almost 45 years ago. Since his early age, he has been showing his intelligence. And like other nerds, he was bullied growing up.
In fact, a group of boys threw him down a flight of stairs and then beat him until he blacked out one day. Ouch. He had to be hospitalized. But hey, who’s laughing now?
There are many more to Elon Musk than you think you know. We summarize ten main facts about this genius billionaire. Get ready to be inspired!
10. He is smart
As it was mentioned earlier, Elon Musk is smart. But it doesn’t just stop there. He is also creative. And his mind doesn’t seem to stop generating groundbreaking ideas.
How smart is he? Get this: he created his own video game from scratch at the age of 12! What were we doing when we were 12? Probably busy checking our face for pimples.
The game is called Blastar. It is a BASIC-based video game. He sold the code to PC and Office Technology magazine. He got $500 for that. Our little billionaire had his first taste of big buck. The game is available online if you want to try. Click here.
Where did he get such an inspiration to create it? Well, he taught himself computer programming. He had been interested with Commodore VIC-20 computing since he was 10.
Perhaps he was inspired most by his father, Errol Musk. He is an electromechanical engineer. Elon lived with him in South Africa after his parents got divorced.
9. He founded many companies
Where should we start with this? Elon Musk has many successful companies. Some of them you may have heard before. SpaceX, Tesla Motors, OpenAl, SolarCity, PayPal, and the list goes on.
He first founded a web software company called Zip2 with his brother in 1995. They started with just $28,000. Then it was sold to Compaq four years later for $307 million.
With half of his share from that money, he founded X.com. It is an online payment company. Later on, it merged with Confinity’s PayPal. In 2002, it was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion.
Now he is known for his two giant companies, SpaceX and Tesla Motors. SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles. While Tesla Motors produces electric sport cars.
8. He is a billionaire
Elon Musk has been nothing but successful in turning his brain into a money-making machine. He is now has a net worth of $12.7 billion. This puts him as the world’s 94th billionaire.
In terms of science and technology, he is the world’s 15th richest. Being only 44 years old, he is the 12th youngest billionaire in the world.
Where is he getting the money from? As he first started working with Tesla Motors and became the Product Architect, Elon was paid almost $80 million a year. But now, his salary has been only $1 a year since 2014.
You read it right: one dollar. He is among many top executives in both public and private sectors who decided to work with only one dollar salary. Steve Jobs and John F. Kennedy were also among the dollar-a-year people.
7. He is one of the world’s powerful people
With such wealth and such innovative ideas in science and technology, Elon Musk became one of the world’s most powerful people. In fact, Forbes ranked him number 38 in 2015.
Elon is on his mission to change the world and humanity through his companies. He wants to reduce global warming. That is why he has been designing environmental friendly vehicles.
His companies are set to produce fossil fuel free vehicles. Tesla Motors manufactures electrical sport cars. And Hyperloop manufactures a high-speed transportation system using electric fan propulsion, Musk electric jet.
His goal is to create sustainable energy production and consumption. Through SpaceX, he is setting up a human colony on Mars in order to make life multi-planetary.
6. He owns cool vehicles
Boys will be boys. In spite of his noble missions in terms of science and technology, Elon showed his other side: loving super cool vehicles.
The McLaren F1 Supercar was one of his. This $1 billion car was the fastest production car from the moment it was manufactured in 1998 until 2005. Without the rev limiter, this car can go up to 390 km/h.
He was driving the car with his friend, Peter. Then Peter asked him what the car could do. So, Elon said, “Watch this.” and sped up. He was going straight but because there was no traction, the car started to spin and smashed the ground. Elon was okay. But the uninsured luxurious car was not.
He also owned a private jet, Aero L-39. Besides his own Tesla cars, he also drives Wet Nellie. It is the Lotus Esprit from James Bond movie: The Spy Who Loved Me.
5. He has five sons from in vitro fertilization
Yes, you read it right. Elon has five children and all of them are boys. Two of them are twins. And three of them are triplets. How did his wife become so fertile?
The babies were conceived through In Vitro fertilization. In vitro means in glass. With this, the fertilization process takes place outside the body.
Elon and his first wife, Justine Wilson, had their first baby. But he passed away when he was only 10 weeks old. So they decided to go through the in vitro fertilization.
The first two sons, Griffin and Xavier, were born in 2004. Two years later, the triplets were born. They are named Saxon, Kai, and Damian. Even though the couple got divorced, they share the custody.
4. He is not a believer
It is common for scientists not to practice any religion. The fact is: it is hard for religion and science to co-exist. Mostly because some people just refuse to have an open mind.
Elon stated that he does not pray. He does not worship any being either. But that does not make him running around breaking the rules of humanity. In fact, he is one of the noblest people on earth.
As he was talking about making life becomes multi-planetary, he talked about his belief in destiny.
He said, “Do I think that there’s some sort of master intelligence architecting all of this stuff? I think probably not because then you have to say: ‘Where does the master intelligence come from?’ So it sort of begs the question. So I think really you can explain this with the fundamental laws of physics. You know its complex phenomenon from simple elements.”
3. He often appears in movies and TV series
Elon Musk is not an actor. But people admire him for his work, including film makers. Especially those about science and technology. Hence, he appeared in some of great movies and TVs.
As seen on the picture, one of them was in Iron Man 2. He met Tony Stark and Pepper Potts in a restaurant. He talked about an idea for electric jet. Some say, Elon Musk is the closest to Tony Stark we have in real life.
The latest was his cameo as himself on The Big Bang Theory in 2015. The episode was about spending Thanksgiving. Howard and the gang were helping at the soup kitchen. Elon walked in to the kitchen after being demoted from the serving table because he was too generous with the gravy.
In other shows, his name has been used for many references. For example: one of the leading cop shows, Rizolli & Isles; DC’s Legends of Tomorrow; and The Flash.
2. He has won many awards for his work
Besides attaining his Bachelor of Science degree in physics at Penn’s College and Bachelor of Science degree in economics at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Elon has received many awards and recognition.
He received honorary doctorate from Art Center College of Design, University of Surrey, and Yale University.
Among his other awards is the highest award in air and space: the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) Gold Space Medal. He is the first to design a privately developed rocket to reach orbit.
The rest are Global Green award, National Conservation Achievement award, Living Legend of Aviation, Heinlein Prize for Advances in Space Commercialization, and the list goes on.
1. He is a philanthropist
Elon Musk’s nobility comes from his generosity. He founded Musk Foundation which focuses on providing solar power energy systems in disaster areas.
One of the biggest projects this foundation has done was at Alabama. After the hurricane stroke the area in 2010, the foundation donated a 25-kW solar power system to the hurricane response center.
Besides that, the foundation has donated big amount of money towards several other solar power projects. Including $250,000 to the project in Soma, Japan, after it was hit by tsunami.
Elon Musk is only 44 years old. He has many years ahead of him to keep mesmerizing the world by his bright inventions for his mission in making the world a better place.
