Early Life

Elon Musk's parents separated and he decided to live with his father despite having a difficult relationship with him. On top of a difficult atmosphere at home, Musk was also lacking in friendships and constantly bullied. One time a bunch of bullies beat him up so hard he missed school for a week. Musk retreated from the world through reading and studying. He was good at absorbing and retaining knowledge. Ashlee Vance says Musk has an incredible photographic memory. He particularly loved the book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and soon began planning ways to improve our civilization.

Elon Musk had dreams of conquering other planets, solar power, and paperless banks. He started early with entrepreneurship. At the age of 12, he sold his video game for $500. Elon Musk attended college in Canada because he didn’t want to serve the military in South Africa. He studied business, attended public speaking courses and successfully courted his first wife, Justine Wilson during his early adult years. She wasn’t particularly fond of him, but he kept insisting. Ashlee Vance says that when he was stood up at an ice cream parlor on their first date, he found out what her favorite ice cream was and showed up with two of them. To enjoy his spare time, Musk would organize house parties and charge a 5 dollar entrance fee.

Zip2

In 1995, Musk and his brother launched Zip2 to help businesses go online for the first time. They didn't sell much, but things changed when Mohr Davidow Ventures invested in the company after being impressed by Musk’s drive and passion. In 1999, Compaq paid $307 million for Zip2. With the new influx of cash, Musk bought a supercar, a condo, and a jet. And with the rest of his funds, he invested in X.com. The company was doing well but instead of going head to head with their main competitor, they decided to join forces with Musk as CEO. Things weren’t going well after the merger, and when Musk left for his overdue honeymoon, the board staged a coup. They went to Peter Thiel, the author of Zero to One and asked him to replace Musk. Thiel accepted and X.com changed the name of their company to Paypal. It didn’t go well for Musk though, Paypal sold to eBay for $1.5 billion and netted Musk only $250 million.

SpaceX

After leaving Paypal, Elon Musk wasted no time getting into space exploration which was a huge area of interest for him. His planning for the first rocket was wildly optimistic. He planned the first launch after 15 months of launching SpaceX. It took 4 years, but they finally did make it.

Saving the Human Race with Tesla and SolarCity

Elon Musk wants to save humanity. Musk thinks the Earth is not enough to sustain the human race. The resources won’t last forever and living on a single planet makes us vulnerable to a host of potentially threatening events. This is a concern that never leaves Elon Musk’s mind and it gives him unwavering drive and determination. Elon Musk didn’t create the now famous Tesla. He invested in the already existing company with $6.5 million and became the sole shareholder and chairman. It was his first foray of tech into the car industry and it’s been a huge success.

In February 2020, Elon Musk announced that along with the current gigafactory locations in China and Germany, Tesla is thinking about creating one in Texas. Tesla's Shanghai gigafactory has been producing 150,000 vehicles every year. The Tesla stock has also increased by 112% in 2020, giving the electric-vehicle producer a market leadership more prominent than General Motors Co., Fiat Chrysler, and Volkswagen AG combined.

Elon Musk and his two cousins funded SolarCity, becoming the biggest shareholders of the company. SolarCity today is the biggest solar panels company in the US.

Why Musk Does It

Elon Musks’ businesses complement each other. This is because he doesn’t think of businesses as silos but looks at them through the prism of his goal which ensuring that humans will have a future. Elon Musk, similar to Steve Jobs, also verbally abuses employees who fall short of his high demands. His ex-wife says that Musk told her he “would fire her if she was one of his employees”. His former wife also says that he wanted her to dye her hair blonde and expected her to be a trophy wife, a role in which she wasn’t comfortable. Some people say Elon Musk can be mean and some even say he lacks empathy, citing his dismissal of his long-term secretary as proof. But other people close to him say he’s a loving and caring person.

Relationship With a Rock Star

For years, Elon Musk has been in an off and on a relationship with the singer, Grimes. In 2020, Grimes announced that she was pregnant but did not reveal the father. Many media outlets and fans speculated that the child belonged to Musk because Musk and Grimes had attended many public events together as a couple. They are expected to officially announce Elon as the father before Grimes delivers their baby.