People love to talk about Elon Musk. Whether the topic of conversation is his staggering $29.5 billion-dollar net worth, his notorious pot-smoking on Joe Rogan’s show, or just his carefree rhetoric, the bottom line remains the same—people love to talk about Elon Musk. Keep watching to learn a side of Musk that isn’t regularly talked about, here’s 8 facts you didn’t know about Elon Musk.
Musk was born on June 28th 1971 in Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa. As a child Musk was introverted and shy. His parents began to worry about his frequent daydreaming, leading them to get Musk tested for a hearing disorder. Little did they know, their son was actually thinking about inventions that would soon change the world. Maye Musk—Elon’s mother—says that her son still daydreams today. She says: “Now I just leave him be because I know he is designing a new rocket or something”.
Musk’s interest in fantasy games was likely sparked by his obsession with Dungeons & Dragons, a game he would play with his cousins and friends for hours growing up. At the age of 12 he built his own fantasy video game entitled “blastar”. He would end up selling the game for $500 dollars to a local tech publication at age 12, imagine how much ice-cream a kid could buy with 500 bucks!
Today Musk is rather open about the bullying he faced in his younger years. Musk did not fit into the homogenous group that is the conventional middle school classroom, he was smaller and nerdier than the average kid. This would lead to Musk being bullied in school. In one interview Musk opened up about one instance that put him in hospital after his childhood tormentors pushed him down a flight of stairs.
Musk’s first company, Zip2 was a huge success. The tech company provided users with a searchable database of businesses in the area with responsive maps to pinpoint the location of various office headquarters. Zip2 was built to be an online “yellow pages” for businesses, with the goal of introducing businesses to the new emerging corporate space—the internet. Musk and his brother, the two founders of the company, would sell it for $34 million in equivalent stock and $307 million in cash.
The same year Musk and his brother used the money they received in the sale of Zip2 to find a new company. This new company would provide users with a flawless online secure financial transaction system. This would later become the PayPal we know today. Their business was acquired by eBay for $ 1.5 billion in stock, making Musk his first billion at age 36. Through the successful development of many more companies like Space-X and Tesla, Musk has amassed a staggering $ 29.5 billion-dollar net worth.
The giving pledge includes the signatures of over 150 billionaires that are committed to donating the majority of their wealth to various philanthropic causes. Musk joined the pledge in 2012 and is accompanied in his pledge by some of America’s most successful and wealthiest individuals. The pledge includes signatures from the likes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Mark Zuckerberg. It’s estimated that the giving pledge could be worth north of $22 billion dollars by 2022.
Musk first got married in 2000 to Justine Wilson. They would go on to have six sons together. Sadly, in 2002 their first son died at just 10 weeks old from SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). In 2004 the couple had twins named Griffin and Xavier. Just 2 years later they would have triplets named Kai, Saxon, and Damian—what’re the chances!
After Musk’s divorce from Wilson, Musk married actress Talulah Riley. Their relationship was rocky to say the least. The two split in 2012 but would end up getting married again in 2013. Their divorce in 2016 would mark the ultimate conclusion of their turbulent relationship.
Musk is currently in a relationship with musician Claire Boucher, who revealed that her and Musk will soon be having a child. Musk and Boucher met on Twitter and began dating in 2018. Musk revealed that he had been planning on tweeting an AI-related joke, but discovered he was beaten to it by Boucher. Musk was so surprised by her like-mindedness that he couldn’t resist sliding into her DM’s. It’s almost impossible to hear this nerdy romance story and not be tempted into quoting how I met your mother.
Musk began studying economics at queen’s university in Canada, but he would later transfer to the University of Pennsylvania, where he would go on to complete an undergraduate degree in economics. Following this Musk would stay in Pennsylvania to complete a second undergraduate degree in physics. Following his studies at the university of Pennsylvania he would enroll at Stanford to pursue a PhD in energy physics. Musk would remain at Stanford for just two days before he dropped out to launch his own company, Zip2. At this point in his life Musk now held citizenship in South Africa, Canada, and America.
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