Elon created his first company with his brother Kimbal
In 1995, Global Link Information Network, later changed to Zip2, was founded by Elon and Kimbal Musk, along with Greg Kouri in Palo Alto, California. The Musk brothers were able to raise money from angel investors, plus a US $6,000 from Kouri to fund the company startup. Global Link's function was placing business services on the internet and giving the public directions to find them. A year later in 1996, Global Link received an additional $3 million investment funding from Mohr Davidow Ventures, and changed it's name to Zip2, following the appointing of Elon Musk as Chief Technology Officer, and Rich Sorkin as the CEO.
Elon lived in an office and showered at the YMCA
When the Musk brothers were building Zip2, Elon said that they were so hard-up that they rented an office instead of an apartment, and showered at the YMCA. He also mentioned that they could only afford one computer, so he had to run the website during the day, and did the coding at night, seven days a week, all the time. The Tesla CEO has been notoriously known for his 100 hour workweeks during the foundation years of Tesla and SpaceX, and has always preached that the only way to succeed when starting a company, is to work super hard. More than 20 years later, Elon claims that he sometimes still sleeps at his factories if he has to, when he's busy with a project.
Musk rented a house and converted it into a night club
In 1992, Musk finally moved to the United States from Canada, to study at the University of Pennsylvania on a scholarship grant. Elon and his roommate Adeo Ressi, decided to rent a massive 10-bedroom fraternity house off campus, and transformed it into a nightclub. Musk said that he was paying his own way through college and that he could earn an entire month's rent of the house, in one night. Ressi said that while he was in charge of running the parties and charging people five dollars for an all-you-can-drink service, Musk didn't drink or do anything except play video games alone in his room.
Elon was ignored by Netscape
Before creating the revolutionary electric car company Tesla, or deploying hundreds of satellites into orbit through SpaceX, Elon Musk attempted to get a job at Netscape when he was only 24 years old and got ignored by the company. Netscape admitted that it was an obvious mistake in their part as Elon turned out to be one of the most original thinkers of our time. In 1995, Musk thought the internet was something that would change the world so he decided to be part of it, but didn't actually think he would end up building a company. Elon said he planned on hanging out at the Netscape lobby and talk to people into getting him through the door, but couldn't do it, as he was too scared to talk to anyone.
Musk created a video game and sold it for $500
When Elon was only 10, his father took him on a trip to the United States, where he played a lot of arcade games at most of the hotels. Musk thought these games were incredibly engaging and decided he wanted to learn how to program so he could make his own games. The young entrepreneur managed to get his hands on an early Commodore computer that came with a manual which explained how to program in BASIC, an early computer language. By age 12, Musk had mastered BASIC and created a PC game called Blastar, which he sold to a PC magazine for $500.
Elon Musk is the real-life Tony Stark
In 2006, Robert Downey Jr turned to Musk to help him get into character as Tony Stark for the 2008 film Iron Man. Elon's embedded being on technology and desire to push limits to disprove the impossible, has caught RDJ's attention to portray the superhero arms dealer Da Vinci of the Marvel Universe. Downey was able to create the billionaire playboy persona of Tony Stark which became a huge success, and propelled two more Iron Man sequels and Avengers films. Parts of Iron Man 2 were filmed at SpaceX headquarters, and Musk made a cameo appearance in the film, discussing plans of creating an electric jet to Tony Stark when they met in Monaco.
Elon lived on $1 a day in college
When Elon was just a 17-year old college student at Queen's University in Ontario, he claimed he only lived on $1 a day on food, and still successfully got by. In the StarTalk podcast by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Musk said that he could manage living in a dingy apartment with no money and less food, as long as he had his computer with him. Elon said he mainly bought hotdogs, oranges, pasta and green peppers at the supermarket, to survive on a $30 budget per month. Musk said he wouldn't recommend that anyone lived on a dollar per day, as that would not be super fun.
Musk dropped out from Stanford after two days
Elon Musk has two bachelors degree - one is Physics at University of Pennsylvania, and the other is in Economics, obtained at the Wharton School. Musk headed to Stanford to start a Ph.D in Applied Physics but decided to drop out after two days, to develop his first company Zip2, with his brother Kimbal. Elon told his university professor he wanted to try and build a company in six months, and come back if he couldn't do it, to which his professor replied with "I think I may not see you again". Musk became a serial entrepreneur in the dot com era and created Zip2 and X.com, later renamed Paypal.
Elon already built rockets as a kid
When his parents were away, Elon was looked after by their housekeeper, who was mainly there to make sure he didn't break anything. Musk jokingly claimed that she didn't watch him close enough, as he was still able to make explosives and build rockets and other things that could have gotten him killed. The SpaceX CEO told Neil Strauss from Rolling Stone in a 2017 interview that he's shocked he still have all his fingers from all the rockets he's created as a kid. Twenty years into the future, Elon would create the first ever reusable boosters for his Falcon 9 rocket that carries satellites and other cargo into orbit.
Elon attempted to open an arcade in high school
When Elon was only 16, he, along with his brother Kimbal and younger cousins, planned on opening an arcade by their high school. They got as far as signing a lease, setting contracts and filling out documents at the city planning department, but were foiled when the city told them they were too young for a real estate permit, and needed an adult to sign off. According to Kimbal, his father and uncle were livid when they found out about their plans of opening an arcade. Elon loved video games as a kid and claims he still plays a lot at present as an adult.
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