Musk’s early life

Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk’s rise to fame and success was not so linear.

In Ashlee Vance’s book, “Elon Musk,” the author’s subject reveals his “excruciating” childhood and the hardships he endured to be where he is today.

Elon Musk was born June 28th, 1971 to a South African father and Canadian mother. Growing up, Musk had always had an interest in computers and innovation, so much so that his parents would have his hearing checked because he would often daydream about innovation.

Despite Musk’s intelligence, he was bullied and assaulted at school due to his awkwardness. Musk was bullied so terribly that once he was pushed down a concrete staircase and beaten so badly that he needed to be transported to the hospital.

Not only was attending school an unnerving experience for Musk, his father displayed emotional abuse at home.

Hoping to escape his abusive father and find prosperity, Musk left South Africa in 1988 and emigrated to Canada, where he would attend Queen’s University. In 1992, Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania where he would earn his bachelor’s degree in physics and economics.

Musk’s tech career

After earning his degree at the University of Pennsylvania, Musk attempted graduate school at Stanford University but left shortly after enrolling because he felt the internet could be more innovative than physics. Believing in the power of the internet, Musk later founded X.com, a financial services company which subsequently merged with Confinity and is now called PayPal.

Despite the endeavor being considered fantastical, Musk decided to invest a large portion of his fortune into SpaceX, a rocket start-up company established to lessen the cost of space travel and eventually launch humans to Mars.

Based on his belief that humans must innovate in order to survive, Musk invested in an electric car company, best known as Tesla.

Musk and Tesla

Though Tesla was created by two other Silicon Valley engineers, Tesla ultimately came under Musk’s control in 2008. Tesla is now the leading electric car company in the world and obtains cutting-edge technology such as self-driving.

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