Elon Musk is an American entrepreneur, engineer. He participated in the creation of the PayPal payment system, which was sold to EBay for $ 1.5 billion in 2002. He heads the board of directors of SolarCity and Tesla Motors. According to Forbes, Mask's fortune is $ 2.4 billion.
short biography
Musk was born in Pretoria in 1971. The place where Elon Musk was born is the administrative capital of South Africa, a developed scientific city. There lived his father, an engineer, and his mother, a former Canadian model who later worked as a nutritionist. The family had three children.
At 10 years old, the first computer is given to the Mask, and at the age of 12 he sells his first game for $ 500. The teenager invests the money received in a pharmaceutical company, which he followed in the newspapers. He later sold shares for several thousand dollars. At the age of 17, with this money Musk moved to Canada, where he learns what poverty is. For example, he tried to live on $ 1 a day without earning an upset stomach.
In 1992, Musk moved to the United States and entered the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied physics and business. He writes a doctorate at Stanford University, but does not attend lectures. Together with fellow students, the future entrepreneur establishes the company Zip2. In 1999, it was bought out by Compaq Computer for $ 307 million, of which Musk receives $ 20 million. He buys a McLaren F1 plane with them and moves to the condominium.
Solar power station to everyone
Elon Musk, whose biography is full of amazing events, founded X.com in 1999. In 2001, the company was renamed PayPal, which was sold for $ 1.5 billion a year later. The entrepreneur owned an 11.7% stake.
In 2006, Musk opens SolarCity, the company of which he is now the owner and engineer. The company is engaged in the installation of small power plants for personal use on the roofs of houses and companies. However, the main idea is not to create power plants on their own, but to lease them out over the long term. The client can calculate the benefits of using such a power plant and receive a personal solar power station almost for free. Buyers are usually ordinary Americans.
Elon Musk, whose biography contains both ups and downs, got to the point with an innovative idea. Nowadays, the company is growing faster than competitors. At its disposal more than 30 operating centers in the USA, a new customer every five minutes and a huge queue of those who want to use solar energy. SolarCity has already installed such panels on several tens of thousands of buildings and is considered the largest company in this segment.
The path to the colonization of Mars
Elon Musk, whose biography teaches you not to give up, opens the SpaceX rocket company in 2002, whose main goal is to reduce the cost of space flights and the colonization of Mars. The company has already developed several space rockets and the Dragon spaceship.
In 2010 Dragon was the first ship successfully launched, launched into orbit and returned back. Later, in 2015, he became the first ship docked to the international space station.
In 2006, the company won the NASA competition for the delivery of cargo to space stations and received a prize fund of $ 278 million. At present, five successful flights have already been completed.
Other achievements and awards
In 2010, shares of Tesla Motors, which had never shown a profit since its founding, were offered for public sale. However, the offer was so successful that on the first day of trading, the stock price soared by 41%. Forbes called them the most profitable stocks of the year.
Many awards have been awarded for the invention of Elon Musk. In 2008, Musk was included in the list of 75 most influential people of the year according to Esquire magazine. In 2011 he received the Heinlein Award for outstanding achievements in the commercialization of space. In the same year, Forbes added him to the list of the 20 most influential young leaders.
Elon Musk is the second businessman to create three companies worth more than $ 1 billion. Many have tried to repeat this success. It seems that the entrepreneur lives by other rules. However, the businessman does not hide that there are several simple points that he follows.
Ask the right questions.
As a teenager, Musk read a lot of philosophical and religious literature. However, the book “Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” had the greatest influence on him. According to the entrepreneur, he realized that he needed to ask the right questions. When Musk entered college, he wondered how he wanted to influence the fate of humanity. There he decided that he would deal with the resettlement of people from Earth to other planets. The businessman decided that he would do everything possible to contribute to this industry. And he began to search for money.
Dissect Reality
Elon Musk, whose biography teaches not to be like everyone else, believes that innovation is hindered by people's ability to think by analogies. Therefore, they do not create new, but try to improve the existing. The entrepreneur believes that it is necessary to dissect reality to the ground and create something fundamentally different.
For example, space seems inaccessible to business. To master it, you need a huge budget. However, Musk is sure that costs can be greatly reduced if a new goal for flights is set. Therefore, he founded SpaceX, whose goal is to colonize. The businessman says that if you need to relocate the world's population to another planet, you need to do it economically.
I do not think he is lying, but I do not believe him
In 2012, Musk expressed confidence that in several decades, all cars will be electric. He began working in this direction and in 2008 launched the Tesla Roadster, the first electric car to go into production. Analysts, however, are skeptical of Mask's statement that the entrepreneur is not at all embarrassed.
The mask is often compared to Steve Jobs. The latter used the term “field distortion of reality”, convincing himself and others that the impossible is possible. Musk’s colleagues assure him that he selects the facts so that they correspond to his reality. Many say that the entrepreneur does not seem to be lying, but it is impossible to believe him.
His company, Tesla Motors, often found itself on the brink of bankruptcy, although it achieved amazing success in the Elon Musk business. The biography of the Tesla co-creator shows that the entrepreneur tried by all means to keep the company afloat. Over time, things got better. According to the businessman, the world is too much dependent on oil. This leads to climate change, and Musk believes that using electricity will correct the situation.
One of the company's achievements is the decision of Gemeral Motors to create a Chevy Volt. This is a small car with the possibility of electric charging. In electric vehicle mode, it can travel 65 km. During the release of 33 thousand people signed up in line for the purchase of this machine.
Elon Musk, whose photo is always cheerful, became successful, embodying insane at first glance ideas. He not only became independent and provided for his family, but also went down in history. The entrepreneur strives to change life for the better and works on projects that can save humanity in the future.
However, at the moment he is pleased that a lot of changes have occurred with his help in the field of energy, automotive and rocket science.
Musk even starred in the movie. In 2008, the movie "Iron Man" was released, the prototype of which was Elon Musk. Later, in 2013, he played a small role in Machete Kills, but his name is not in the credits. He also played himself in the 9th episode of the 9th season of the Big Bang Theory series.