Facts about Elon Musk
Elon Musk is one of the great brains behind the reshaping of the global economy during the late 1990s tech boom.
He is native of South Africa and migrated to US which resulted him to be a multi-millionaire.
After selling his stakes in Zip2 in 1999 and PayPal in 2002, and after taking over as CEO of Tesla Motors in 2008, he made electric automobiles cool.
Watch Falcon 9 launch 60 Starlink satellites to orbit → https://t.co/bJFjLCzWdK https://t.co/IF1aGLTBbb
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 26, 2021
Musk has worked with NASA and the US government to create his company's fleet of rocket ships since launching Space Exploration Technologies (Elon Musk x Space) in 2002.
He completely believes in the importance of colonising Mars to expand human existence.
Here are five things you should know about the man with the out-of-this-world ideas:
Developed a Video Game 'Blastar' at age 12
After seeing a computer at a store for the first time at the age of ten, the aspiring CEO decided to pursue a career in technology.
He learned to write and created the code for Blastar, a shooting-spaceship game that he sold for $500 to a computer magazine.
Naturally, the ambitious young man didn't stop there, and he and his younger brother, Kimbal, made plans to open an arcade near their school.
When their parents refused to give their legal consent for a permit, the brothers' ambitions were disrupted, and they ended up selling chocolates to classmates instead.
Studied at Stanford University for two days
Musk joined at Stanford for graduate studies in applied physics in 1995, but he was already fascinated with the internet's game-changing potential.
Musk stated in his application for academic deferment that if his endeavours failed, he would return in six months.
The department chairman responded that he didn't expect to see the young computer genius again, a prediction that proved 100 percent true.
Musk went on to develop Zip2, a company that established an online presence for brick-and-mortar businesses.
After successful project, by the time Compaq came in to buy it four years later, there was little need for him to return to school.
He was the man behind a solar energy company
Musk was driving to Burning Man, the annual late-summer festival hosted in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, with his cousin Lyndon Rive in 2004.
Rive, a successful software entrepreneur in his own right, admitted to hoping to join a more up with good.
Musk advised that he think about solar power, and the notion grew stronger during the journey and ensuing indulgence in the desert.
Rive and his brother Peter founded SolarCity, which developed to become the country's largest solar provider thanks to their cousin's involvement as chairman
He had a James Bond car.
Musk owns the Lotus Esprit from the 1977 James Bond film "The Spy Who Loved Me".
According to movie, it transforms into a submarine after Bond and his lovely female companion flee the enemy by zooming off a pier.
The stunt car, dubbed "Wet Nellie," remained in a storage facility for years before being sold to an unknown buyer at a London auction in 2013.
Musk issued a comment when the buyer was disclosed, expressing disappointment that the car did not convert into a true submarine.
He also added, "What I'm going to do is improve it with a Tesla electric engine and try to make it transform for real."
He is the real-life inspiration for "Iron Man's" character
geeks on coffee
When Jon Favreau, the writer and director of the movie "Iron Man", was looking for methods to humanize Tony Stark.
It was the charismatic, super-smart protagonist of the comic book and film series, actor Robert Downey Jr. suggested him contact Musk.
Musk then discovered a technique to replicate his fictional counterpart's methods of designing rocket parts on a computer screen.
It was a technique by waving his hands across a sensor, and Favreau wound up shooting parts of Iron Man 2 at the SpaceX workshop.