We have all watched recent news of Elon Musk attempting to buy out Twitter, but what do we know about this man? I know that he is one of the richest men in the world, and he likes to troll on Twitter. That's enough right there to make him very interesting.
First, let’s delve into his history to see if we can come to a greater understanding of what makes him tick.
Elon was born in Pretoria, South Africa to a South African father and Canadian mother who were high school sweethearts. His mother was a model from the age of 15 and gave up her modeling career when they married in 1970. Born in 1971, Elon is the oldest of his siblings. He has 1 younger brother and 1 younger sister. His family was very wealthy when he was a child.
Errol Musk - Father of Elon. He is an electromechanical engineer, pilot, and sailor. Elon states that his father has a genius-level IQ. He was the youngest person to earn a professional engineer's qualification in South Africa, according to a 2017 Rolling Stone profile. Elon and his father are now estranged.
Maye Musk - Mother of Elon. She is a model and dietician. She started her modeling career at the age of 15 and has appeared on the cover of Time Magazine. In 2017, Musk became a CoverGirl spokesperson at age 69.
Kimbal Musk - Younger brother of Elon. He is a restaurateur and philanthropist. He is the founder of 3 food companies and sits on the board at Tesla and Space-X.
Tosca Musk - Younger sister of Elon. She is the co-founder and CEO of Passionflix streaming service (movies adapted from romance novels).
Maye Musk revealed in her autobiography that her husband was abusive. She tells the story of then 5-year-old Elon hitting his father on the back of his knee in an attempt to get him to stop beating her. His parents divorced in 1979 and even though they were a wealthy family (his father became a millionaire by the time he was 30) after the divorce his mother and the children struggled with poverty. The elder Musk refused to provide financial support for her and/or their 3 children. Maye Musk was able to get her modeling career back on track after the divorce.
2 years after the divorce Elon went back to live with his father. He has said that living with his father was not a pleasant experience and stated on several occasions that his father was physically and verbally abusive. Elon says that his father is "a terrible human being." "You have no idea about how bad," Musk said. "Almost every crime you can think of, he has done." He said his father cursed him and refused to pay for his college education when he decided to leave South Africa. Errol, Elon’s father has told the story that he owned an emerald mine in Zambia and accused his sons of making off with his emeralds and selling them to Tiffany and Co. in New York. Elon disputes the claim and says that his father never owned an emerald mine. Many believe that Elon was born with a silver spoon in his mouth but Elon said that he and his brother attained their college education through loans, scholarships, and working 2 jobs. He dismisses the claims of privilege as “bullsh*t” and that he wracked up over $100,000 in student debt.
As a side note, Errol, Elon’s dad, fathered a child in 2018 with his step-daughter who is 42 years younger than him. She was his step-daughter from the age of 4 years old. He was the only father figure in her life. Her biological father died when she was a child. I am not saying that he sexually abused or groomed her as a child but it makes one wonder given his history of abuse. He also shot and killed 3 men and was later exonerated. This guy is a real piece of work.
At the age of 17, Elon obtained a passport and moved to Canada to avoid “conscription” or the draft. He had Canadian citizenship through his mother. He enrolled at Queen’s University and then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics and Economics. After enrolling in graduate school to study Physics at Stanford University, he left after only 2 days realizing that the internet had more power to change the world than the study of physics.
Elon loved to read as a child and at the age of 10 developed an interest in computer programming. He was only 12 years old when he created a video game called Blastar in which a spaceship battles aliens. He sold the game to a computer magazine for $500. He was too young to open a bank account so his mother opened it for him. You can actually play the Blastar game here. Keep in mind the game was created in 1984, and it was probably high tech at that time. If you follow his Twitter account you will see that Elon still has a passion for video games today.
In 1995 he and his brother raised money from investors and founded Zip2. His investors helped him get a green card and he went on to get his American citizenship through the naturalization process. He sold Zip2 to Compaq in 1999 for $307 million (some reports say $341 million in cash and stock options). He then founded X.com which would later become PayPal. In 2002, eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 Billion. After selling PayPal in 2002 he founded SpaceX, then in 2004, he became one of the major investors in Tesla.
His brother Kimbal gives some insight into the inner man in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine.
“He’s able to see things more clearly in a way that no one else I know of can understand,” says his brother, Kimbal. He discusses his brother’s love of chess in their earlier years, and adds, “There’s a thing in chess where you can see 12 moves ahead if you’re a grandmaster. And in any particular situation, Elon can see things 12 moves ahead.”
In the same interview, Elon explains how he is so successful:
The scientific method is a phrase Musk uses often when asked how he came up with an idea, solved a problem or chose to start a business. Here’s how he defines it for his purposes, in mostly his own words:
1. Ask a question.
2. Gather as much evidence as possible about it.
3. Develop axioms based on the evidence, and try to assign a probability of truth to each one.
4. Draw a conclusion based on cogency in order to determine: Are these axioms correct, are they relevant, do they necessarily lead to this conclusion, and with what probability?
5. Attempt to disprove the conclusion. Seek refutation from others to further help break your conclusion.
6. If nobody can invalidate your conclusion, then you’re probably right, but you’re not certainly right.
“That’s the scientific method,” Musk concludes. “It’s really helpful for figuring out the tricky things.”
But most people don’t use it, he says. They engage in wishful thinking. They ignore counterarguments. They form conclusions based on what others are doing and aren’t doing. The reasoning that results is “It’s true because I said it’s true,” but not because it’s objectively true.
Musk was quite miffed with the Biden administration last August, when Tesla, the leading manufacturer of electric vehicles, was not invited to the White House’s electric vehicle summit. Jen Psaki was asked why Elon Musk of Tesla wasn’t invited, she said the 3 firms in attendance were “the three largest employers of the United Auto Workers”. It sounds like only unionized companies were included. If our government is so concerned with the environment and promoting the use of electric vehicles, why would the most innovative company be excluded? We know unions get democrats elected, and that’s the ultimate goal. During a speech on stage at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California, Elon talked about being left out of the summit. “It’s not the friendliest administration,” Musk said. When asked about his tweets calling out the Biden administration, he said, “You know, Biden held this EV summit — didn’t invite Tesla. Invited GM, Ford, Chrysler, and UAW. An EV summit on the White House! Didn’t mention Tesla once, and praised GM and Ford for leading the EV revolution.” He has led the industry with electric vehicles and has been completely ignored.
Tesla reported another banner quarter of profit growth Wednesday as the rapid expansion of electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing capacity boosted sales despite ongoing supply chain problems.
Elon Musk’s high-flying EV company reported first-quarter profits of $3.3 billion, up 658 percent from the year-ago period on an 81 percent jump in revenues to $18.8 billion.
Elon also mocked Biden for neglecting to praise his aerospace company’s historic, all-civilian mission to orbit in September 2021.
That relationship doesn’t appear to be getting any better. In January of this year, he tweeted this…
He seems to have a good reason for his tweets. Musk has had some major accomplishments and should be recognized for them. I imagine it can be disheartening to be snubbed.
Will Twitter be his next conquest? Some of us hope so. Say what you want, but he is a proponent of free speech. Only good can come from his purchase of that liberal pit of vipers. After deep-diving into Elon’s life, I’m certainly cheering him on in his quest. My attitude toward Mr. Musk has improved and I have once again learned a lesson in not judging someone before I know the whole story.
Good read. I admire Elon even more now knowing his background. Thank you.
Great insight!! And thank you for the backstory that I’ve been trying to find time to research. I’ve felt that he was multi layered and there was good in him.