Elon Musk: The Early Years
For a week in January 2021, there was no human richer than Elon Musk on Earth (still waiting for info from Mars). To many, Musk is an icon. A billionaire with personality. One of us.
But where did it all start? Buckle in, we’re taking you back to the time of Young Elon.
Elon Musk was very introverted and introspective in his youth, far from the candid personality we know today. But even then, young Elon was bubbling with ideas and visions of the future.
As a youngling, Elon would ask his parents, “Where is the world?” This inquisitiveness of his early years made him realize that adventures in spacetime aren’t just reserved for fiction.
Elon's spirit of exploring the unknown might be in his blood. His maternal grandparents Dr. Joshua and Wyn Haldeman, originally from Canada, moved to St. Africa & conducted multiple explorations of the Kalahari Desert in their private plane in search of a lost civilization.
His mother Maye Musk is a popular Canadian model and entrepreneur, who was instrumental in helping Elon move to Canada for college. Still, it’s probably safe to assume neither his mother or grandparents expected him to combine all their talents to such a degree.
Despite what lay in store for him, Elon was a quiet child. So quiet in fact, that his parents had him examined for deafness. What can we say — it’s never easy being the quiet one.
Reading was a constant for young Elon, and by age 9, he started showing hints of his extraordinary learning ability, reportedly going through two books a day on average, and finishing the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Nine-year-old Elon even taught himself computer programming on an old Commodore VIC-20. He went on to use his skill to develop and sell his first game ‘Blastar’ for 500$ at the age of 12.
When he wasn’t acquiring knowledge, young Elon also accompanied his siblings in making a profit out of selling candy in his neighborhood. Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur.
Incidentally, Elon’s younger brother Kimbal Musk would go on to become the co-founder in Elon’s first venture, Zip2. He has since become a restaurateur, and continues to be a board member in Elon’s current ventures, and a major shareholder in Tesla.
Elon once said about his childhood, “I was off making explosives and reading books, and building rockets, and doing things that could have gotten me killed.” Give a dreamer some tools and the sky's the limit..
Well, unless you build SpaceX.
As a preteen, Elon Musk was a master at Dungeons & Dragons and had found his love for #XMen and #StarWars. The geeks shall indeed inherit the Earth, it would seem.
The book which had the most impact on Elon in his youth?
*drum roll please*
Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Can’t say we’re surprised by that one.
The Lord of the Rings is another piece of work that greatly impacted Elon. And guess what? Years later he grew fond of ‘The Colbert Report’, hosted by another massive Tolkeinist
Stephen Colbert.
One of the songs which really impacted Elon was ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ by Frank Sinatra. He said, “You hear this song and it sounds like it’s really going to happen.” Well, he isn’t far from the truth. Monty Python also gained a fan in Elon, who often praises their work. In his own words, it inspired him to be “optimistic and wrong rather than pessimistic and right”.
Peers of Elon Musk often say that he was unassuming as a student. Nobody expected him to be the next big thing. Elon is even claimed to have said he’d "rather play video games, write software, and read books than try and get an A if there's no point in getting an A".
Many know the struggles of being different and quiet, Elon’s story of rising quietly and letting your success make the noise is an inspirational one. You don’t need to change for the world, the world might just do it for you.
Musk was relentlessly bullied through his teen years. He learned the art of self-defense to overcome it. (If you are a victim or witness to bullying, please speak out and seek help). Outside, the threat of bullies would pain Elon. He channeled all that pain and overcame it through knowledge and grit.
At the age of 17, Elon relocated to Canada to attend Queen’s University and later transferred to University of Pennsylvania in the US. Rumour has it, he and his friends converted their room into a nightclub to afford off-campus housing. Ingenious!
Elon is no stranger to frugal living. In fact, when he shifted to the US, he restricted himself to a budget of $1 a day. He lived on limited finances even during his post-Paypal days. 👀
Musk, now a father of six, has set up a small school named ‘Ad Astra’. He has publicly expressed discontent with traditional education systems, claiming he values problem-solving and critical thinking more than schedules and grades.
There is no doubt that Elon’s childhood experiences helped him become the man we know today. Remember, there is nothing stopping you from turning your childhood dreams into reality. After all, that’s what Elon did.
We'll leave you with a quick overview of all that the quiet young boy with a dream has managed to achieve in life.
Nothing is out of reach for those who persevere. Even the stars.
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