When he’s not shooting rockets into space, he’s building the next self-driving cars or implanting chips into human brains.
A lot of people see Elon Musk as a real-life Tony Stark. The world’s richest man is constantly in the spotlight, whether it’s for his trailblazing companies or his jaw-dropping, high-price purchases.
In this blog, we delve deeper into Elon Musk’s life and uncover some interesting facts.
1. He Started Coding at 10
By the age of 10, Elon was already a coding whiz. He wasn’t just doing it for fun—he was so into it that he even created his own video game by 12!
The video game, Blastar, was so successful that he sold it to a computer magazine for $500. That’s around $1500 when you adjust it to today’s inflation. Blastar is still available to play.
2. He Dropped out of College
Most successful billionaires dropped out of college, but Elon Musk took it a step further—he left Stanford after just two days!
This allows him to dedicate more time to a company he started with his brother Kimble Musk, and another partner, Greg Kouri. The company Zip2 corporation was an online city guide for organizations.
The company was so successful that it was acquired by Compaq Computer Corporation in 2000. Elon walked out with a cool $19 million (around $36 million when adjusted to today’s inflation). Elon was only 28 by this time.
But he didn’t let that big win slow down his entrepreneurial drive. He took another risk, launching X.com—not the Twitter we know today, but an online payment platform.
The company later rebranded as PayPal, which has become the top platform for online transactions. The best part? eBay bought PayPal in 2002 for an impressive $1.5 billion. Elon Musk walked away with $180 million—worth around $329 million in today’s dollars!
3. He sent his car to space
Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched one of its heaviest rockets, the Falcon Heavy, in February 2018.
What was inside Target Rockety was something unique – Elon’s Tesla roadster which no one expected. Strapped on the driver’s seat is a mannequin in a space suit which he nicknamed Starman.
They even set the car’s radio to play David Bowie’s “Life on Mars” on repeat. The launch grabbed worldwide attention, and you can still track Starman’s position here.
4. He’s The Brain Behind Tesla
Many people think Elon founded Tesla. However, the company was founded by Martin Eberhard and Mark Tappening in 2003. It was only after two years when Elon sold X.com that he joined Tesla as an early investor in 2004.
He later became the board chairman and formally took over as CEO four years later. Under his leadership, the company released its first model, the Tesla Roadster in 2008.
He’s been able to lead the car manufacturing company to one of the most valuable in the world. Currently, Tesla is one of the leading car manufacturing companies in the USA with a net worth of $682 billion.
Musk controls 13% of the company which has been adding to his wealth every day. For example on October 24, 2024, Tesla stocks jumped up 22% in a single day making Elon $26 billion richer as per CNBC.
But his journey with Tesla hasn’t always been smooth. There were times when the stock took a nosedive, hitting his net worth hard.
According to Spolia Magazine, Elon Musk lost 48% of his total net worth in 2022 when he funded Tesla shares to buy Twitter. This eventually led to the downfall of Tesla’s share and as per SpoliaMag, this broke the record of Guinness World Record for the “largest loss of personal fortune in history.
5. He’s Taking us to Mars
After selling PayPal for $180 million, Elon’s next venture was truly out of this world—literally! In 2002, he founded SpaceX, a company set on building rockets and one day, hopefully, putting humans on Mars.
Elon Musk’s journey with SpaceX has been one of the most challenging with lots of hurdles right from the beginning. The first challenge was sourcing rockets that could allow him to get to space.
With rocket prices sky-high in the U.S., Elon nearly bought an intercontinental ballistic missile from Russia. But he backed out when he realized the Russians weren’t giving him or his team much respect.
In a true boss move, he decided to build the rockets himself. After countless trials and errors, SpaceX’s Falcon 1 made history in 2009 as the first privately-built rocket to put a satellite into orbit.
Elon Musk aims to land the first human on Mars as early as 2030. It’s a massive challenge, but if there’s one thing Elon does best, it’s proving people wrong.
Conclusion
Elon is an unpredictable and charming kind of billionaire. You will never know his next move but when he pulls one, it will surely make headlines across the world.
