Don’t be afraid of new arenas
Elon Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur and business mogul, is responsible for founding the state-of-the-art companies PayPal and Tesla. He has been compared to Henry Ford and Steve Jobs over the years. The Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr, is alleged to have modeled his portrayal as Tony Stark from the SpaceX CEO and Tesla CEO. In September 2013, Musk became the third person to have a fortune worth more than $two hundred billion. Musk is a famous icon and idea for many entrepreneurs and business leaders around the globe. How did Elon Musk become such a successful entrepreneur?
Elon Musk was born to a South African mother and an engineer father in South Africa in early Seventies. Musk spoke to Rolling Stone about how he remembers as a child that he spent most of his time learning and experimenting with projects and not seeing his parents.
Musk was captivated by Isacc Asimov books from a very young age. His interest in futurism grew as he learned more about his father’s career and cultivated his talent for design.
Musk graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997 with a Bachelor of science and a Bachelor of Arts degree. He had transferred from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Musk funded his university education through scholarships, loans and two side jobs
Musk graduated from Stanford and immediately began a PhD program. However, Musk decided to quit the program two days later to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams.
Musk’s brother, and their friend founded ZIP2, a company. It offered online city guide softwares to newspapers. However, it took some time for the company to get off the ground. Musk was financially struggling, he slept on the couch in the startup office and used the YMCA to get a shower while he ran the start-up.
The trio eventually found angel investors, who supported the company and clients in the city. Numerous big news publishing companies, including the New York Times (New York) and the Chicago Tribune (Chicago), saw potential in the startup’s useful city guide mapping software.
In 1999, ZIP2 was sold for $307 million. Musk received $22 million for his share of the company’s 7% when he was only 27 years old.
X.COM – MUSK’S SECOND VENTURE
