By Elon Musk: if things are not failing, you are not innovating enough
With an IQ of 155, which is based on aptitude tests he took in his earlier days, Elon Musk is living up to his mental ability. In 2020 alone, he has made an average of $400 million daily since the start of the year. Cumulatively, this is $13.5 billion so far. A tech entrepreneur and creative engineer, the name of Elon Musk is synonymous with vehicle design and manufacture. His involvement with Tesla and SpaceX illustrates his intent to revolutionize not only earth transportation but space travel as well. Obviously, this means that he has a few toys of his own to achieve this end; did you know that his Tesla Roadster is in fact parked in space?
For a man who taught himself coding by the age of 10 and built a video game at 12 years of age, it is no wonder that he sits at the helm of Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) and SpaceX as CEO. How does a young man, born and raised in South Africa, make it to the billionaires’ list in the United States of America? Many people are obviously curious – read on;
Nurturing the talent
Born to an engineer father and dietitian mother, Elon received immense support from his parents when he expressed his interest in entrepreneurship and technology. When he graduated from a boy’s high school in Pretoria in 1988, he proceeded to join the University of Pretoria where he studied for only five months. He enrolled at Queen’s University of Canada the following year and this led to his skipping the mandatory military service in South Africa. He would later cross over to the United States as an exchange student to attend Wharton School of Business.
After completing his business studies and earning an economics degree, Elon was accepted to study physics at Stanford University. He attended class for 2 days then dropped out to pursue entrepreneurship.
The wealth journey begins
Together with his brother Kimbal Musk, Elon created Zip2, a tech company whose business involved licensing online-based city guide applications to newspapers. It would be a few years before this company gained traction and when it did, the brothers sold it off for a $340 million fortune in 1999.
Elon Musk’s next venture was called X.com which he launched together with partners Max Levchin and Peter Thiel. The company merged with Confinity, a US-based software company in 2000. Confinity is the mother company of PayPal. Following the merger, Elon was appointed CEO of PayPal in 2001. By the time PayPal got acquired by eBay, Elon felt that he had accumulated enough capital, $180 Million in shares to focus on engineering.
By the time Musk went to join Tesla, Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard, both engineers, had already thought of building an electric car. The contribution by Elon was instrumental in putting the Tesla Roadster on the road. In 2007, one of the founders, Eberhard was dropped from management, creating a spot for Musk. He has to date served as the company’s CEO and design architect, a position that has catapulted Tesla to the league of the world’s prestigious car brands.
Through SpaceX, Elon Musk has worked closely with the US Airforce and NASA in the way of high profile contracts to design and build rockets as well as conduct confidential military missions. Musk has not been shy to share his ambition to send a human astronaut to the planet Mars in collaboration with NASA by 2025.
What is Musk’s Net worth and business influence?
By June of 2020, Musk’s stake at Tesla is tied up in the over 34 million shares he owns as the majority shareholder. His net worth is currently $89.3 Billion, he is arguably one of the richest men in the world.
In 2018 when Tesla was valued at around $11.6 billion, the company restructured compensation for Musk; instead of an annual salary, his income would be based on progressing market caps projected over a 10-year period. The deal was meant to boost the confidence of investors and customers in the company by assuring them that the CEO was remaining committed to leadership for the long haul.
The same zest with which he invests his money is what Elon applies when it comes to spending it. Some of his notable purchases include a residential property with an estimated value of $100 million in California, a $17 million worth estate that sits on 1.67 acre that comes with a home theatre, 2-storey library, gym and wine cellar with a capacity of 1,000 bottles. Have you watched the James Bond movie that featured a Lotus Esprit submarine car? He bought that vessel at an auction in 2013 for $920,000.
“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” This is one of Elons many business quotes and proof that he is notoriously work-driven. If you expect to bump into Elon at expensive vacation spots or engaged in costly hobbies, you could not be more wrong. This South African born American citizen would rather spend important days of his life improving logistics and bringing his ideas to life at his various industrial premises.
