How Elon Musk Became Elon Musk
His secret? Don't be a dick.
by Inverse VideoElon Musk is considered to be “the people’s” billionaire. Yes, he is stupid rich and that is inherently problematic, but as far as captains of industry go, he seems to be one of the few who actually cares about the public and not just how rich they can make him.
So is not being a dick the secret to Musk’s success? Yes. Oh, and being a workaholic, who is by all accounts brilliant and incredibly demanding. He has also generated his fair share of controversy (see: Elon-Trump).
Musk’s story is so inspirational that if he were a fictional character it would be considered bad writing. Born in South Africa in 1971, he taught himself computer programming at age 12. He was tested by IBM and they discovered that he had one of the highest aptitudes for computer programming they had ever seen.
In 2002, he made a cool $180 million from PayPal. A lot of us would go into full rich a-hole mode after landing that kind of paycheck. But Elon went full Musk and launched SpaceX.
Today, you can find Musk working on getting us to Mars, converting our roofs to solar panels, revolutionizing public transportation, and most importantly, not being a dick about it — most of the time.
