Musk’s 50 years: Being bullied at school, starting a business on the verge of bankruptcy

Today, he is one of the most controversial figures in business.

On June 28 this year, Silicon Valley star entrepreneur Elon Musk celebrated his 50th birthday. In the past 50 years, Musk has been the CEO of electric car manufacturer Tesla, founded the space exploration technology company SpaceX and the tunneling company Boring Company, and co-founded OpenAI and the neural start-up Neuralink, all of which is to help humanity Colonize Mars.

In fact, with his achievements in rockets, electric cars, solar cells and other industries and the billions of dollars he has earned along the way, Musk is the real version of Iron Man. This is why he became the inspiration for the 2008 Marvel movie "Iron Man".

But for Musk, all this has not been smooth sailing. Musk went from being a kid who was bullied at school to becoming an entrepreneur, and then he was on the verge of bankruptcy. With the growth of personal wealth and influence, Musk has attracted a lot of legal proceedings and regulatory reviews. Today, he is one of the most controversial figures in business.

01 South African descent

Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa on June 28, 1971. His father, Errol Musk, was an engineer and pilot in South Africa and worked as a sailor and real estate developer.

Musk's mother Meyer is a professional nutritionist and model. She has appeared on Special K cereal boxes and also appeared on the cover of Time magazine. In 2017, at the age of 69, she signed a contract with a cosmetics company to become a cover girl.

After their parents divorced in 1979, 9-year-old Musk and his brother Kimbal decided to live with their father. It was not until after the move that there were signs that Musk and his father had a bad relationship. "It's not a good idea," Musk said of his decision to live with his father.

In 1983, 12-year-old Musk sold a simple game called "Blastar" to a computer magazine for $500. Musk kept saying, "This game is not worth mentioning...but it's better than Flappy Bird."

Nevertheless, Musk's school days were not easy. Once he was bullied, thrown down the stairs, beaten into a coma, and then sent to the hospital.

After graduating from high school, Musk moved to Canada with his mother Maye and younger siblings and studied at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario for two years.

02 Abandoned degrees and early entrepreneurship

Musk completed his studies at the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in physics and economics.

At that time, Musk and his classmate Adeo Ressi rented a 10-bedroom dormitory and turned it into a nightclub. This is also his first entrepreneurial experience.

After graduation, Musk went to Stanford University to study for a doctorate. But after two days in California, Musk postponed his admissions application and decided to try his luck in the emerging Internet boom. After that, he never returned to Stanford to complete his studies.

Musk and Kimbal jointly founded Zip2, which mainly provides city travel guides. A group of Silicon Valley investors provided funding for the company.

When Zip2 started operating, Musk lived in the office and bathed in the local YMCA. This effort paid off. In the end, Compaq acquired Zip2 with $341 million in cash and stock, and Musk received $22 million in revenue.

In 1999, Musk founded the online bank X.com with $10 million from the sale of Zip2. About a year later, Confinity, a financial startup co-founded by X.com and Peter Thiel, merged to form PayPal.

Musk was appointed as the CEO of the newly established PayPal company, but it did not last long. In October 2000, Musk launched a huge struggle among other co-founders, urging them to switch the PayPal server from the free Unix operating system to the Microsoft Windows system. Max Levchin, PayPal's co-founder and then chief technology officer, strongly opposed it.

While Musk was on vacation in Australia, the PayPal board of directors appointed Teal as the new CEO. "This is the problem with vacation," Musk said years later of his trip in late 2000.

But for Musk, it was still a success. When eBay acquired PayPal at the end of 2002, he made another windfall. As the largest single shareholder of PayPal, Musk made a net profit of US$165 million from the US$1.5 billion paid by eBay.

Even before selling PayPal, Musk was envisioning his next move, including sending mice or plants to Mars. In early 2002, Musk invested 100 million US dollars to establish a space exploration technology company SpaceX, claiming to reduce the cost of space flight by 10 times.

03 Join Tesla

Musk has also been busy promoting causes on earth, as is the case with Tesla. In 2004, Musk invested $70 million in Tesla, which was co-founded by Martin Eberhard.

At first, Musk served as an active product officer at Tesla, helping to develop Tesla's first electric sports car, the Roadster. At the time, Musk was still chairman of Tesla, and now he is the company's CEO.

In 2007, Musk ousted Eberhard from the position of chief executive, and then completely drove him out of the company's board of directors and management.

In 2008, the financial crisis struck, and Tesla was in trouble. Musk invested $40 million in Tesla and lent the company $40 million. He was appointed as the CEO of the company in the same year.

But with a deal between SpaceX, Tesla and another company SolarCity, Musk almost went bankrupt. According to reports, Musk described 2008 as "the worst year of my life." Tesla has been losing money, and SpaceX has also encountered trouble launching the Falcon 1 rocket. By 2009, Musk had to live on personal loans for a while.

04 Life and Destiny

Musk's love life has also changed drastically. In 2008, he divorced his wife, Canadian writer Justin. Later that same year, Musk began dating actress Talulah Riley. They got married in 2010 and divorced in 2012. In July 2013, the two remarried. In December 2014, Musk filed for divorce but withdrew the relevant documents. In March 2016, Riley filed for divorce, which was confirmed in October of that year.

At Christmas 2008, Musk got two pieces of good news. One is that SpaceX signed a $1.5 billion contract with NASA to deliver supplies to space. The other is that Tesla finally found more outside investors.

In June 2010, Tesla went public to raise US$226 million, becoming the first car company to go public after Ford in 1956. To get his finances back on track, Musk sold approximately $15 million worth of shares when Tesla went public.

Musk's unusual career has also begun to attract the attention of circles including Hollywood. At least part of the prototype of Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr. in the "Iron Man" series, is based on Musk. Musk himself even made a cameo in "Iron Man 2" released in 2010.

Today, as Tesla’s stock price soars in 2020, Musk has become the second richest person in the world. According to Forbes, his net worth is $167.1 billion, which has surpassed Mark Zuckerberg and Mark Zuckerberg. Bill Gates (Bill Gates), now second only to Amazon's Jeff Bezos (Jeff Bezos).