Elon Musk, born in South Africa, taught himself to code and sold a video game at age twelve. He moved to Canada at sixteen, studied at Queen's University and Wharton, and became fascinated with clean technology. Musk founded Zip2, an online mapping product, and earned $22 million when it was sold. He used part of this to co-found X.com, which later became PayPal. After being ousted as CEO, Musk retained a stake in PayPal, earning him $180 million when it was sold. He used this to fund SpaceX and invest in Tesla Motors. Despite initial struggles, Musk's leadership and vision have been instrumental in Tesla's success.
Elon Musk's journey began in South Africa, where he spent his first seventeen years. Born to a South African engineer father and a Canadian mother, Musk's early life was marked by a keen interest in technology. He taught himself coding and even sold a video game at twelve. Following his parents' divorce, he lived with his father, but at sixteen, he moved to Canada using his mother's citizenship. He attended Queen's University before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, where he wrote a research paper on solar energy. In 1995, Musk left Wharton, planning to study ultracapacitors at Stanford. However, he quickly pivoted to entrepreneurship, founding Zip2, an online mapping service. After its sale to Compaq in 2009, Musk netted $22 million and co-founded X.com, which evolved into PayPal. Despite being ousted as PayPal's CEO, he profited handsomely from its sale to eBay in 2002, earning around $180 million. Musk invested his fortune into SpaceX and Tesla Motors, taking an active role in Tesla's development. He became CEO and Chairman in 2007, steering the company through various challenges with a leadership style often likened to Steve Jobs. Musk's "wartime CEO" approach has been pivotal in Tesla's survival and growth, as he has navigated the company through critical periods with intense focus and determination. The electric car concept, dating back to Thomas Edison's era, faced historical setbacks due to cheap oil and inadequate infrastructure. Interest reemerged in the 1990s, but early attempts like GM's EV1 failed. Musk and Tesla thus entered a market fraught with past failures, aiming to revolutionize the automotive industry with electric vehicles. Musk's unorthodox and demanding leadership has been essential to Tesla's success, embodying the ethos that even a "speck of dust on a gnat’s ass" matters if it affects the company's prime directive, as Silicon Valley investor Ben Horowitz has described the mindset of a wartime CEO.
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