Elon Musk is young. Elon Musk's Incredible Rise Story
Tomorrow, SpaceX will launch two satellites to test internet for the entire planet. What was the hero of all the latest news, Elon Musk, like as a child, and why does he launch the Internet, rockets, build electric cars and is going to colonize Mars?
Elon Musk will fail, said the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong. But so far, the most innovative technologies are associated with the name of Musk: the largest online payment system, the car company that challenged the giants of the industry, the Internet for the whole Earth, and even the colonization of Mars.
Elon's ancestors were Swiss Germans
They moved to the States during the Revolutionary War and from there to Canada. In 1950, Musk's parents moved to South Africa. Elon was born and raised there.
He started programming and business as a child.
One of the most successful businessmen of our time in childhood was a typical nerd: he read a lot and was reluctant to make contact with his peers. In addition, he had a photographic memory like Sheldon Cooper. At school they did not like him, once the guy was beaten and broken nose.
When Elon was 10, his father gave him a computer. The boy taught himself programming and two years later, at the age of 12, he sold his own computer game for $500. Later, Musk invested in stocks, and when he sold them, he was able to afford moving to Canada. There he lived with relatives until he entered Stanford University. True, he soon dropped out of school for the sake of business.
As a young man, Musk wanted to change the world.
While in college, he decided that he would do what would most change the fate of mankind. Big plans needed money, and while Musk was launching his first Zip2 company, he lived in an office and showered at the local stadium. This allowed us to save money on rent and support a startup.
PayPal has changed online payments
The company appeared as a result of the merger of Musk's startup X.com and its competitor Confinity. The company appeared at the beginning of the 2000s, when business on the Internet was synonymous with technology, and the possibilities of cashless payments were limited to bank cards.
Although the partners had different views on the management and development of the project, the cooperation was so productive that in 2002 the company bought eBay. Elon Musk used the proceeds of the money to prepare his main dream - a flight to Mars.
Tesla Motors challenges auto giants
Elon Musk was not the founder of the company, but it was he who made it successful and famous all over the world. Musk believes that the world is too dependent on hydrocarbons and seeks to rid humanity of this dependence. The company was conceived from the very beginning as the first mass-produced manufacturer of electric vehicles and an alternative to oil energy.
Musk participated in the development of the first Tesla Roadster electric car, and when it turned out that, due to miscalculations, the model would be twice as expensive as planned, production costs and even fired the founders of the company. To support the company financially, he had to sell his beloved McLaren F1 car. The investment of effort and money was not in vain: in 2010, Tesla held its first automotive IPO in the United States in 50 years.
Hyperloop: train at the speed of an airplane
Another ambitious project by Musk. If flying is expensive and the train ride is long, you can fly by train. The speed of a new mode of transport in tests is already , which is comparable to the fastest maglev trains. In the future, the maximum speed will be around 1200 km/h.
The Hyperloop is a pipe that is supported on supports and evacuated to reduce drag. A sealed capsule with people inside moves in the pipe. All the necessary energy will be generated by solar panels installed along the route.
Musk will use the developments of his other projects in Hyperloop: Tesla electronics, SolarCity solar panels and SpaceX durable alloys. Many of the solutions that will be used in Hyperloop are already in use, for example, in maglev trains.
Twitter bet: Musk has built a giant battery
Australia declared an energy emergency last year due to gas shortages and rising energy prices. Musk then bet on Twitter with the Australian government that he could build a huge 100 MW, $390 million battery in 100 days that could store and redirect electricity in the event of a power outage. If he does not meet the deadlines, he promised, he will implement the project for free.
The battery was built ahead of schedule, and at the end of December 2017 it was tested in action. After an accident at a local thermal power plant, the battery lack of electricity.
SpaceX: reusable rockets and spacecraft
Musk founded SpaceX in 2002. The main goal of the company is to make space travel cheap enough to colonize Mars. To do this, the company designed the Falcon reusable launch vehicles and the Dragon spacecraft. The company uses components of its own design, this allows you to reduce the price and control the quality.
The first three Falcon rocket launches ended in failure. But in April 2016, a Falcon 9 rocket landed on a floating platform for the first time. This ushered in a new era in astronautics because it made it possible to reuse rockets.
And on February 6 this year, Falcon Heavy rockets successfully landed, capable of launching (almost three times more than the shuttle).
It is the first high-lift rocket capable of returning to Earth. Its launch costs $ 90 million - two and a half times cheaper than the launch of the shuttle.
Starlink: Internet for the whole Earth
The idea to provide the entire planet with the Internet appeared in 2015. Musk plans to first launch 800 satellites that will cover the United States, and bring their number to 4,425 by combining them into a system called Starlink. It will provide access to the World Wide Web in places where the Internet was previously unavailable: in remote areas or in the mountains. In this case, the system will be able to redirect the signal to areas with high traffic.
The satellites will be in Earth orbit, lower than conventional geostationary satellites. This is necessary to speed up signal transmission: modern satellite providers have a delay of about 600 milliseconds, and Musk expects 25-35 ms and a speed of 1 Gb / s.
Of course, the businessman is not doing all this out of pure philanthropy: if the Starlink project succeeds, it will bring the company $ 30 billion, which is twice as much as today's high-speed Internet industry leader Comcast earns. Part of Musk funds to direct to the most large-scale project - the colonization of Mars.
What it's all about: populating Mars
In June 2017, the businessman announced that he was going to colonize Mars. In his opinion, necessary in order to protect us from a possible global catastrophe. That is, the businessman decided to habitually diversify risks, but now on different planets: if something happens to one, people will survive on the other.
To do this, they will create an Interplanetary Transport System with reusable spacecraft. Now most missiles are disposable. Imagine that for each new trip you had to buy a new car.
The flight to Mars will be divided into two phases: first, a reusable launch vehicle will launch spacecraft into low Earth orbit. On board each of the thousand ships will be about 100 people. There they will wait for the closest approach of the Earth and Mars, which happens once every 26 months, and then go on a flight. The first man can land on Mars as early as 2024, and in 50-100 years the population of the Red Planet could reach 1 million people.
So that the flight to Mars does not turn into a voluntary exile, they will establish traffic in the opposite direction. For this, Martian resources are used: they will produce fuel from methane. The ships can be refueled directly in orbit. Thanks to this and repeated use, the cost of the flight will be in the region .
Even colleagues did not believe in his achievements
When Tesla began to compete with gasoline cars and challenged the oil industry, the traditional auto business claimed that electric cars would forever be a hobbyist fad.
Today, the largest auto giants produce electric vehicles and hybrids; at the end of last year, their number in the world exceeded , and by the end of this it will exceed 5 million. Already today, a third of the cars on the roads of China and Norway are electric cars.
Astronaut Neil Armstrong spoke out against commercial spaceflight, and renowned astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson that SpaceX will not be able to fly to Mars, primarily due to lack of money: Musk does not have the necessary funds, and the flight itself does not promise benefits for which investors would be interested in investing in the project.
Be that as it may, the recent launch and successful landing of two of the three super-heavy Falcon Heavy rockets has already changed the perception of the cost of space flight, and collapsed orders for Russian Proton rockets.
How did he do it?
Little Elon from early childhood infuriated his parents with doubts in any of their words and arguments, trying to get to the bottom of the matter and asking endless questions. His education as a physicist and economist made him a techno-perfectionist with an entrepreneurial streak.
Musk has a knack for finding unusual solutions to problems and believes that people's habit of thinking in standard patterns is the main obstacle to innovation. When he needed a theodolite to align the rocket, he bought a used one online and saved $25,000. He got the idea to build his own rockets when it turned out that it was very expensive to deliver cargo to Mars with already existing spacecraft.
Elon Musk's recipe for success is as easy to define as it is difficult to follow. A good education. The ability to ask the right questions. Meticulousness and non-standard view of the world. The ability to go ahead despite criticism. And most importantly, a big dream that became a goal.
Elon Musk is an American entrepreneur and engineer. He took part in the creation of the PayPal payment system, which was sold to EBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. He heads the board of directors of SolarCity and Tesla Motors. According to Forbes, Musk is worth $2.4 billion.
short biography
Musk was born in Pretoria in 1971. The place where Elon Musk was born is an administratively developed scientific city. There lived his father, an engineer, and his mother, a former Canadian model who later worked as a nutritionist. The family had three children.
At the age of 10, Musk was given his first computer, and at the age of 12 he was selling his first game for $500. The teenager invests the money received in a pharmaceutical company, which he followed in the newspapers. He later sold the shares for several thousand dollars. At the age of 17, with this money, Musk moves to Canada, where he learns what poverty is. For example, he tried to live on $1 a day without getting an upset stomach.
In 1992, Musk moved to the United States and entered the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied physics and business. He writes his doctorate at Stanford University, but does not attend lectures. Together with fellow students, the future entrepreneur founded the company Zip2. In 1999, it was bought out by Compaq Computer for $307 million, of which Musk receives $20 million. With them, he buys a McLaren F1 aircraft and moves into a condominium.
Solar power plant for everyone
Elon Musk, whose biography is full of amazing events, founded X.com in 1999. In 2001, the company was renamed PayPal, which was sold a year later for $1.5 billion. The entrepreneur owned 11.7% of the shares.
In 2006, Musk opened SolarCity, a company that he still owns and engineers. The company is engaged in the installation of small power plants for personal use on the roofs of houses and companies. However, the main idea is not to create power plants on their own, but to rent them out on a long-term lease. The client can calculate the benefits from using such a power plant and receives a personal solar power plant almost free of charge. Buyers, as a rule, are ordinary Americans.
Elon Musk, whose biography contains both ups and downs, hit the mark with an innovative idea. Today the company is growing faster than its competitors. It has more than 30 US operations centers, a new customer every five minutes, and a huge line of people who want to use solar energy. SolarCity has already installed such panels in several tens of thousands of buildings and is considered the largest company in this segment.
The Path to Mars Colonization
Elon Musk, whose biography teaches not to give up, opens the SpaceX rocket company in 2002, the main goal of which is to reduce the cost of space flights and the company has already developed several space rockets and the Dragon spacecraft.
In 2010, Dragon was the first spacecraft to successfully launch, orbit, and return. Later, in 2015, it became the first spacecraft docked to the International Space Station.
In 2006, the company won the NASA competition for the delivery of cargo to space stations and received a prize fund of $278 million. Five successful flights have already been completed so far.
Other achievements and awards
In 2010, Tesla Motors, which had never shown a profit since its founding, was placed for public sale. However, the offer was so successful that on the first day of trading, the share price soared by 41%. Forbes named them the top earning stocks of the year.
Many awards have been given for what Elon Musk invented. In 2008, Musk was included in the list of the 75 most influential people of the year by Esquire magazine. In 2011 he received the Heinlein Prize for outstanding achievements in the commercialization of space. That same year, Forbes added him to the list of the 20 Most Influential Young Executives.
Elon Musk is the second businessman to create three companies worth more than $1 billion. Many have tried to replicate this success. It seems that the entrepreneur lives by different rules. However, the businessman does not hide the fact that there are a few simple points that he follows.
Ask the Right Questions
As a teenager, Musk read a lot of philosophical and religious literature. However, his biggest influence was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. According to the entrepreneur, he realized that you need to ask the right questions. When Musk entered college, he thought about exactly how he wanted to influence the fate of mankind. There he decided that he would be engaged in the resettlement of people from Earth to other planets. The businessman decided that he would do his best to contribute to this industry. And started looking for money.
Dissect reality
Elon Musk, whose biography teaches not to be like everyone else, believes that innovation is hindered by the ability of people to think in analogies. Therefore, they do not create a new one, but try to improve the existing one. The entrepreneur believes that it is necessary to dissect reality to the ground and create something fundamentally different.
For example, space seems out of reach for business. It takes a huge budget to develop it. However, Musk is confident that costs can be greatly reduced if a new goal of flights is set. So he founded SpaceX, whose goal is colonization. The businessman says that if you need to move the population of the Earth to another planet, you need to do it economically.
I don't think he's lying, but I don't believe him
In 2012, Musk expressed his belief that in a few decades all cars will be electric. He began to work in this direction and in 2008 produced the first electric car that went into mass production. Analysts, however, are skeptical about Musk's statement, which does not bother the entrepreneur at all.
Musk is often compared to Steve Jobs. The latter used the term "reality distortion field" to convince himself and others that the impossible is possible. Musk's colleagues assure that he selects the facts so that they correspond to his reality. Many say that the entrepreneur does not seem to be lying, but it is impossible to believe him.
His Tesla Motors company often found itself on the verge of bankruptcy, although Elon Musk achieved admirable success in business. The biography of Tesla, the creator, shows that the entrepreneur tried in every way to keep the company afloat. Everything got better over time. According to the businessman, the world is too dependent on oil. This leads to climate change, and Musk believes that the use of electricity will correct the situation.
One of the company's achievements is Gemeral Motors' decision to build the Chevy Volt. This is a small car with electric charging capability. In electric vehicle mode, it can travel 65 km. During the release, 33 thousand people signed up to buy this car.
Elon Musk, whose photos are always cheerful, has become successful, embodying ideas that are crazy at first glance. He not only became independent and provided for his family, but also went down in history. The entrepreneur seeks to change lives for the better and works on projects that can save humanity in the future.
However, at the moment he is pleased that with his help there have been many changes in the field of energy, automotive and rocket science.
Musk even acted in films. In 2008, the film "Iron Man" was released, the prototype of which was Elon Musk. Later, in 2013, he had a small role in Machete Kills, but his name is not in the credits. He also played himself in episode 9 of season 9 of The Big Bang Theory.
For outstanding services to science on May 9, 2018, Elon Reeve Musk was awarded membership of the Royal Society of London.
Biography
early years
At the age of ten, Elon received his first Commodore VIC-20 computer as a gift and learned to program on it. At the age of twelve, he sold his first program for $500, a Space Invaders-style video game called Blastar, in which the player fired at the ranks of aliens with a laser gun.
Musk invested in the shares of a pharmaceutical company, which he followed through the newspapers. With the proceeds from the sale of shares of several thousand dollars, despite the protests of his parents, he leaves for Canada. Before entering university, he lived with relatives in Kingston, Ontario. Over time, he moved to Stanford, but did not finish his studies.
Personal life
His first wife, Justine Musk, studied with him at the same university in Canada. They got married in 2000, and five sons appeared in the family.
In September 2008, Elon and Justin announced they were ending their relationship as Musk began dating British actress Talulah Riley. They got married in 2010. Musk and Riley divorced in 2012, but remarried in 2013. In March 2016, they filed for divorce, which took place in October of the same year.
In 2017, he dated actress Amber Heard.
In 2018, at the Met Gala, Musk appeared in public with Canadian singer Grimes, which led to rumors that Musk had an affair with the singer.
Elon Musk has admitted that he is having trouble sleeping and is using Ambien (zolpidem) sleeping pills. According to The New York Times, some members of the Tesla board of directors expressed their concern about this.
Hobbies
Related videos
Politics
In December 2016, he became a member of the Presidential forum on strategy and policy under President Donald Trump, a group of 16 American entrepreneurs tasked with advising the 45th President of the United States on issues related to economic growth, job creation and productivity, but withdrew from further involvement in 2017 in a forum to protest Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement.
Career
In 1996/1997, Musk and his brother founded Zip2, a company that specialized in software for news companies. In 1999, Zip2 was acquired by Compaq for $308 million. Musk received 7% of the sale ($22 million).
X.com and PayPal
In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com. In 2000, X.com merged with Confinity, a subsidiary of which was called PayPal. Both systems (X.com and PayPal) were engaged in providing personal electronic money transfers via e-mail, and the purpose of the transaction was to merge both payment systems, but in fact this did not happen. Musk strongly advocated the X.com brand instead of PayPal, which caused internal divisions that ended in Musk's resignation by decision of the Board of Directors. However, Elon's strategic decision to merge the two companies, along with the active promotion of the electronic payment system on Internet auctions (primarily eBay), led to the rapid growth of the enterprise in 2001, which was finally renamed PayPal. Such impressive success allowed the company to go public on the stock exchange in February 2002 (and at the same time become the first of the dot-com companies to go public after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks). In October 2002, PayPal was bought by eBay for US$1.5 billion. At the time of the sale, Musk owned 11.7% of the company's shares, which allowed him to gain $ 180 million.
SpaceX
Musk in 2013 in Dublin
In May 2002, Musk founded his third company, SpaceX. It is a private developer of a series of launch vehicles and a commercial operator of space systems.
Elon Musk set a goal - to reduce the cost of space flights by 10 times. To do this, he founded SpaceX, investing in it $ 100 million earned from the sale of his previous companies.
In January 2016, at an investment forum in Hong Kong, Musk announced that his company hopes to fly to Mars in 2020-2025.
In September 2017, Elon Musk posted a video on his Instagram talking about a new idea for using SpaceX rockets. It consists in using rockets and spaceships to fly anywhere on the Earth instead of airplanes.
Tesla
OpenAI
San Francisco-based non-profit artificial intelligence research company. The company's goal is to develop open, friendly AI. One of the founders is Elon Musk.
On February 20, 2018, Elon Musk resigned from the board of directors of OpenAI due to a possible conflict of interest.
Neuralink
The Boring Company
An infrastructure and tunneling construction company founded by Elon Musk in 2016.
Philanthropy
Elon became chairman of the board of the Musk Foundation charitable foundation. In January 2015, the foundation donated $10 million to research into the control of artificial intelligence.
In July 2018, the entrepreneur offered to help rescue children from the flooded Tham Luang Cave. Four engineers from Tesla, SpaceX and The Boring Company were sent to help rescuers. A mini-submarine designed specifically for this operation was delivered to Thailand, but Thai rescuers refused to use it. Speleologist Vern Unsworth, who played one of the key roles in the rescue operation, criticized Musk's proposal - according to him, a rigid-framed submarine "could not even swim the first 50 meters from the beginning of the cave."
Criticism and scandalous incidents
Rescue operation at Thamluangnangnon Cave
A great public outcry was caused by Elon Musk's attempt to take part in the rescue operation carried out in the Thamluangnangnon cave and the events that followed. The American businessman said that he was discussing options for rescuing people with cavers. On July 10, 2018, after 8 children were rescued, he brought to the rescue site a mini-submarine he created, using elements of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which was supposed to help children unprepared for diving. However, the rescuers considered that it was not advisable to use it. Speleologist Vern Unsworth, who played a key role in the rescue operation, criticized the proposal, calling it a publicity stunt. According to him, this plan had no chance of success: a rigid-framed submarine would not even pass the first 50 meters, along the way, he spoke rudely to Musk. In response, Elon posted a tweet in which he called the British diver a pedophile. Pretty quickly, Musk erased this tweet, but he had already managed to cause a wave of negative reaction and numerous articles in various media, the situation caused a short-term drop in the value of Tesla shares. A few days later, Elon apologized to Unsworth.
Joe Rogan Podcast
In September 2018, Musk attended the American comedian Joe Rogan Show. During the conversation, the entrepreneur smoked a mixture of marijuana and tobacco, after asking Rogan if it was legal. Elon said that he rarely smokes marijuana, explaining that the drug has no effect on him.
Securities Act Violation Allegations
In the fall of 2018, a number of Tesla traders and shareholders sued Musk and accused the head of the company of violating securities laws. The US Federal Securities Commission (SEC) has been investigating this administrative case. The lawsuit alleges that Musk deliberately gave out false information on his Twitter account in order to influence the price of Tesla shares. In his personal account, the head of the company announced the decision to make Tesla a private company and that he had already found finance to buy back shares. In the messages, he also indicated that he plans to buy back securities at a rate of $420 per share, that is, above their market value.
Due to criticism from social media users and shareholders, Musk decided to keep Tesla a public company. In September 2018, the US Department of Justice, in parallel with the administrative case, opened a criminal case against Tesla. Under the SEC lawsuit, Musk faces a ban from holding leadership positions in public companies.
In response to the accusations, Elon Musk stated the following:
On September 29, 2018, Musk and the SEC settled the charges out of court. According to the agreement, Musk will remain the head of Tesla, but will not be able to serve as chairman of the board of directors for three years. In addition, he must pay a $20 million fine. The same penalty was imposed on Tesla.
Awards
Movie
In 2010, Musk appeared in the movie Iron Man 2 as himself (according to the plot, Elon is a friend of Tony Stark). In 2013, he also played himself in an episode of Machete Kills. Musk is visible among the audience who came to the presentation of artificial intelligence in the sci-fi film Supremacy (2014, at around 00:07:39-41), and his name is in the credits.
In the 9th episode of the 9th season of the series "The Big Bang Theory" plays a cameo.
Also at the end of Childhood Sheldon, Season 1, Episode 6, Musk is sitting at his desk reading a summary of Young Sheldon.
see also
Notes
CommentsSources
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Elon Musk is called a legend of the 20th century. He literally gushes with ideas, which he then successfully implements. PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, Solar Citi, Hiperloop are his startups. His name is as popular as the name - icons of IT people.
It is not surprising that he served as the prototype for the protagonist of Iron Man - a genius, billionaire, playboy and philanthropist. In the second part of the film, Elon Musk appears in a cameo role, where he plays himself - a friend of Tony Stark. In 2015, Musk took part in the voice acting of The Simpsons: he also voiced himself - Elon Musk, who came to Springfield to modernize the nuclear power plant.
The brilliant ideas of Elon Musk, brought to life, bring him a considerable income. In 2015, his net worth, according to Forbes, reached $12.3 billion.
“If I was told to do nothing but rest, I would go crazy.” - Elon Musk.
Once he believed that he would have had enough money to pay for housing and food. In his youth, when he just arrived in order to start an independent life, he took on various jobs and tried to survive on $ 1 a day without getting scurvy.
Now he treats the issue of money differently. “It turns out that money matters a lot, especially if you set yourself huge goals,” he says, and invests most of the proceeds from the sale of his companies in new startups.
"I read books"
Elon Musk answered the question of where his endless ideas come from. Since childhood, he loves and, of course, prefers science fiction. Favorites include The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series of fantasy novels by Douglas Adams. And the most beloved writers are A. Asimov and J. Tolkien.
Among the books he says have changed him are Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Einstein. His Life and the Universe" and "" by Walter Isaacson, the "Foundation" cycle by Isaac Asimov, "Constructions, or Why Things Don't Break" by J. Gordon, "From Zero to One. How to Create a Startup That Changes the Future” by Peter Thiel, “Merchants of Doubt” by N. Orestes and E. Conway, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” by R. Hanlein, “Humanity's Last Invention” by James Barratt.
The history of the company began with the fact that M. Eberhard decided to create an economical and environmentally friendly car that would not need refueling. Moreover, the requirements for cars that pollute the air have been tightened. No manufacturer could offer an alternative to gasoline-powered cars.
Eberhard managed to interest people in the project who had money for its development. One of them was Elon Musk, who was also interested in "green" technologies. In addition to him, the project was invested by the founders and.
Nobody believed in the company, and for some time it was considered unprofitable. And indeed, the company had a chance to go through difficult times, when, due to management miscalculations, the selling price exceeded the one laid down in the project. Some offices were closed and their employees laid off. Musk himself had to part with his favorite sports car.
Not only the company is going through a difficult period. He also came into Musk's personal life: he is divorcing his wife and mother of his children, Justine. (True, in order to marry British actress Talulah Riley in 2010. After 2 years they will divorce in order to remarry in 2013. In early 2015, the couple will file for divorce again, and Musk will have to pay Riley $ 16 million "support". But the divorce will not take place, reconciliation will come ... until March 2016. How the situation will develop further is unknown. It seems that the film "The Marriage Habit" is about them.)
But back to our electric cars. Thanks to the measures taken by Elon Musk, since 2013 the company has become profitable and left its competitors Chevrole and far behind. The company released the first electric car - Tesla Roadster in 2016. It produced it until 2012 and produced 2 and a half thousand of these models.
The Tesla Model S, which the company introduced in 2009, has won numerous awards and received wide recognition. And the US Department of Transportation named the electric car among the safest vehicles. Its serial production began in 2012.
Tesla sales grew from year to year, and new investors appeared who believed in the company. Motorists also liked the new, improved Tesla Model X, presented in 2012. In March 2016, the Tesla Model 3 was announced. Its cost is about 35 thousand dollars.
In addition to automobiles, the company is building a plant that will produce batteries for refueling electric cars, and stations are opening throughout the United States where it will be possible to charge or replace the battery for free.
The name of Elon Musk became widely known thanks to this startup.
solar city
Another project in which Elon Musk is involved is the energy company Solar City, which was founded in 2006 by his cousins. It is engaged in the production of solar panels and has become a world leader in this field. In addition, its employees actively promote their product in various areas of life. Gas stations for Tesla electric cars are their job.
Musk is the main investor in the company, he has invested $ 10 million in this startup. He also chaired its board of directors.
Fantastic Hyperloop
Elon Musk is the main investor in another startup - Hyperloop, which is called the transport of the future or the California loop. With it, people will be able to cover long distances in a short time. It is planned that the distance of 550 km between and passengers will overcome in half an hour. The ticket price will be approximately $30.
The essence of the invention lies in the fact that transport capsules with passengers will move along a low-pressure pipe installed on a flyover. The capacity of one capsule is 28 people.
Musk announced the creation of the project in 2012, saying that the new mode of transport “will be faster than an airplane, be powered by solar energy and will not get into accidents.” It is also interesting that a person will not depend on the schedule - the capsules will run regularly, so you can go on a trip at any time convenient for the passenger.
Many reacted with distrust to this project, declaring it fantastic. But after all, all Musk’s startups at first seemed out of the realm of fantasy. He himself presented this project in 2013, detailing all the technical details on 57 pages.
Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity will participate in the work - this will reduce the cost of their cost, because why reinvent the wheel if there are already proven technical solutions.
Internet - for everyone
Another project Musk is working on is building a global satellite Internet system. Its goal is to make the Internet accessible to the most remote corners of the planet. 700 satellites weighing 113 kg each, which will be launched into orbit like a network, will envelop the Earth and provide free access to the global network to everyone, no matter where they are on the Earth.
Ad Astra - To the Stars
It is worth noting that Elon Musk's childhood was far from cloudless, and he had every chance of becoming a notorious loser. The reason for this is a difficult relationship with peers, who for some reason chose him as a “whipping boy”. Once he was beaten so that he ended up in the hospital for a week. School days, when he was chased by gangs of teenagers to beat him, he remembers with a shudder. At home, everything was no less terrible until the parents parted. He was "saved" by books that took him away from the real world into the world of fantasy.
Now Elon Musk recalls that his period of growing up was very difficult. This is probably one of the reasons why he sent his five sons from his first marriage to a school that he created himself. It's a small school—including Musk's children—at the time of inception it had only 14 students. It is called Ad Astra, and it uses a fundamentally new approach to learning: there is no division into classes, the personal interests of each child are taken into account, and preference is given to practical training. Elon says the kids love it and during the holidays they can't wait for classes to start. While the school is open as experimental.
“I don’t have to work in terms of standard life,” says Elon Musk, “but I work. I work every day, seven days a week, and I have for several years.”
Only lazy people do not talk about the outstanding figure of modern technologies and achievements. Elon Musk is a modern genius. His quotes have become winged, his incredible dreams are becoming a reality, and his achievements benefit people today.
What education are you thinking about? Quite often, when people hear this word, they think of university. Elon Musk's education began much earlier. At the age of 3-4 he said: "Where does the world end and begin?". Not every child thinks about such global issues.
His self-education began quite early - at the age of 8 he read all the books from the library, after which he took up the study of Britannica - the oldest English-language universal encyclopedia. It's hard to imagine how you can devote 10 hours a day to reading, but it was Elon's favorite hobby. An amazing photographic memory allowed him to memorize a lot of new information.
After the divorce of his parents, Elon stayed with his father. The boy spent the first years of his life in South Africa. He was a reserved and peculiar boy, for example, Elon Musk behaved like a deaf child in childhood, although he was not. At school, he could not stand up for himself, he was beaten. Once Ilon was thrown down the stairs, his nose was broken. Relationships with peers have never been good. Probably, the divorce affected the boy, who went headlong into hobbies and did not like to communicate.
Ilona was presented with the first computer Commodore VIC-20 at the age of 10. He used it for programming. He mastered the BASIC course, designed for 6 months, in 3 days. The habit of learning new things and understanding them came in handy in this case. This is probably why, at the age of 12, Elon Musk wrote the Blaster game, which he sold for $500.
Elon Musk. New stage
At the age of 14, Ilona is overtaken by an existential crisis, and he reads The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, deciding that his mission is to save humanity. In an effort to avoid being drafted into the South African army and dreaming with all his heart about Canada, Elon emigrates to Canada with his brother. Nobody was waiting for him in the country, so for the first year he was in constant search of work. Elon Musk in his youth even worked at a sawmill for a small pay - $ 18 per hour. He had to make his way through a narrow tunnel, which he barely entered, then throw hot coals, sand and dirt through it. Going anywhere is impossible. It is noteworthy that by the end of the week, out of 30 people working there, only 3 remained, including Musk himself. He took on any job, even completely unrelated to his area of interest.
Elon Musk and the universities where he studied
The last six months spent in South Africa, Elon studied physics at the University of Pretoria. The thirst for knowledge did not subside. When he was in Canada, in Kingston, he decided to study at Queen's University. After that, leaving for the United States, he entered the University of Pennsylvania, where he received two bachelor's degrees at once: in physics from the School of Arts and Sciences and in economics from the Wharton Business School. Later, Elon studied at Stanford, where he planned to get a Ph.D., but dropped out. During that period, the Internet fever was gaining momentum, he decided that the future belongs to the global network, and not to scientific degrees.
Elon Musk. Quotes
Elon Musk's expressions have already become popular. Young people tend to imitate him, his apt phrases inspire: “I did not expect that I could make money. It was enough for me to earn enough to cover the rent and buy some food.” By his example, he shows that our dreams can be much deeper than it seems at first glance. One cannot but agree with the simplicity of his thoughts, which motivates. For example, “Mistakes are not scary. The main thing is to make mistakes every time in something new.
Another quote for inspiration:
"I can either watch it happen or be a part of it."
He proves by personal example that the best way to change the world is to start with yourself. He also has a playful phrase with a deep meaning: "I would like to die on Mars, but not crashing on its surface."
The biography of this person is peculiar and at the same time interesting. It is impossible to remain silent about him. He breaks stereotypes and makes breakthroughs. Read Elon Musk's Twitter and be the first to know about his achievements and breakthroughs
