“Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is a disaster.”
Elon Musk who has been in the news lately regarding his controversial Twitter takeover has never been shy of the spotlight. Musk known for his extraordinary achievements against all odds has startled, amazed and inspired masses of people. Before the whole Twitter fiasco, Musk was famously known as the Founder of SpaceX and the CEO of Tesla and as the real-life inspiration for Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man.
Considered among one of the richest people in the world, with a net worth of more than $199.9 billion, Musk is also a paragon for inventors, business people, and entrepreneurs around the world. However, the path to achieving this success wasn’t all that easy.
The story of Elon Musk began in Pretoria, South Africa where even as a young lad he showed an incredible aptitude for technology and business. By age 12, Musk taught himself computer programming and by 17 he sold his first computer game called ‘Blastar’ for $500. After completing his undergraduate at the University of Pretoria, Musk moved to the United States to attend the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a degree in Economics and Physics.
After his graduation, Musk undertook a Ph.D. program at Stanford only to drop out just two days later as he instead continued to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations. In 1995, Musk co-founded a web software company called Zip2 with his brother, which provided online business directories and maps for newspapers. The company was then eventually sold for a whopping $340 million in 1999.
With the profits from the sale of Zip2, Musk co-founded X.com, an online payment company along with his partners Peter Thiel and Max Levchin. In 2000, X.com announced its merger with Confinity, another online payment company, which gave birth to PayPal. Subsequently, Musk was fired from PayPal and in 2002, PayPal was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion, from which Musk received about $165 million from the sale.
Despite getting fired from PayPal, Musk wasn’t yet done. Musk then went on to launch other companies, two of which were Tesla Motors and SpaceX. The companies were way ahead of their time but people did take notice of it. To date, SpaceX and Tesla remain one of the most popular companies in the world, with fans and enthusiasts all over the world that love and support their products and their cause.
“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”
– Elon Musk
Despite his immense success, wealth, and fame, Elon Musk is a man that continually strives for a bigger, better, and a successful tomorrow thus, making him the perfect example of inspiration, hard work, brilliance, and leadership.
From being bullied in school to becoming a real-life hero and an inspiration to many, Musk is the person that we should look up to if we’re to make this world a better place.
