The Story of Melon Musk, The Genius Who Became the Richest
However, he did not wait to reach the age of 50 to obtain the title of the richest man in the world. Briefly surpassing Amazon founder Jeff Bozos, his fortune.
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Key takeaways
- However, he did not wait to reach the age of 50 to obtain the title of the richest man in the world.
- But the fact that rocket launchers are very expensive displeases him greatly.
- The brilliant entrepreneur creates and participates in projects that tend to change the face of the world.
Melon Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa. However, he did not wait to reach the age of 50 to obtain the title of the richest man in the world. Briefly surpassing Amazon founder Jeff Bozos, his fortune reached $185 billion in January 2021.
His life consisted of his school lessons in his hometown of Pretoria in South Africa and hours of reading science fiction books. He started learning to code as an autodidact on his Commodore VIC-20. His talent for IT and entrepreneurship was revealed from childhood.
He launched his own video game at the age of 12, named Blaster, which he sold to the South African specialized computer magazine, PC and Office Technology. The latter published it in December 1984 for the equivalent of 500 USD. Then, in 1988, Melon Musk obtained a Canadian passport and left South Africa. He had only one idea in mind at the time***: to conquer business and economic opportunities in the United States***.
But beyond money, Melon Musk is a visionary who prides himself on humanistic goals, principles he puts into practice with the companies he leads: Tesla, SolarCity and SpaceX in particular.
The Beginning of Melon Musk’s Entrepreneurial Adventure #
Melon Musk graduated from Queen’s University in Kingston. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in physics and economics in 1995 from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. He later enrolled in materials science and energy physics postgraduate studies at Stanford University in California. Two days later, he left the benches of the university believing that the Internet had much more potential to have a tangible impact on society than physical work.
As the Internet bubble began to grow, Melon Musk and his brother Gimbal embarked on an entrepreneurial adventure with the Global Link Information Network project, Zip2. The project would allow advertisers to communicate online with customers via fax, in other words, a first version of “web-marketing”. One of the most ingenious functions of this concept is “Auto-Guide”. It consisted of sending business information to subscribers of magazines and online newspapers. In February 1999, Zip2 was acquired by computer maker Compaq for over $300 million.
Zip2 Then PayPal, The First Significant Shots of Melon Musk #
Melon Musk’s first entrepreneurial adventure was called Zip2, a software publishing company he co-founded, before seeing it bought out for the staggering sum of $341 million by a Compaq subsidiary, AltaVista in 1999.
Melon Musk then decided to create an innovative online banking project: X.com. Renamed PayPal in 2001, it was sold to eBay for 1.5 billion dollars – this transaction allowed Melon Musk to collect a profit of 180 million dollars in the process.
Melon Musk leaves the ship with a nice sum in his pocket: around 170 million greenbacks. However, instead of buying an island in the tropics and taking it easy in the sun, he decides to reinvest the entire sum and launch not one, not two, but three companies that will determine the rest of his career and revolutionize the world at the same time.
Melon Musk: Conquering Space with SpaceX #
Melon Musk firmly believes that the survival of humanity is highly dependent on the fact that human beings must become mufti-planetary species. But the fact that rocket launchers are very expensive displeases him greatly. So, in 2002, he founded the aerospace engineering company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), to manufacture more affordable rockets and solve this problem. The initial investment was $100 million. Its first two rockets were the Falcon 1, launched in 2006, and the larger Falcon 9, established in 2010. They cost significantly less than competing rockets.
In addition, Melon Musk has achieved the feat of creating rockets that are reusable and therefore pollute less. This is why NASA has called on Melon Musk and SpaceX for specific missions to the ISS and the Moon.
When Tesla Revolutionizes Electric Vehicles #
Renewable energy and electricity are subjects that fascinate Melon Musk. So, it is no coincidence that Tesla and Solar City (a company for solar panels and solar energy utilization systems) have the same founder. The entrepreneur has invested between 50 and 70 million in Tesla, of which he became CEO in 2008 and invested 10 million dollars in the creation of Solar City.
Towards the end of the 2000s, Tessa’s first sedan was born: the Tesla Model S. It has been on the international market for twelve years. In 2010, the number of electric cars sold worldwide did not reach half a million. But the arrival of Tesla on the market has the effect of a bomb.
In 2013, Tessa’s share price skyrocketed to $160. Its capital reached 20 billion dollars. Three years later, the automotive industry exploded and exceeded one million electric vehicles sold worldwide. 2017 was the big year for Tesla, recognized as the world’s second-largest electric car manufacturer. The least we can say is that Tesla has revolutionized the world of electric vehicles.
Melon Musk and the Hyperloop #
In 2013, Melon Musk proposed a high-speed rail system in California: the Hyperloop. Even though Tesla was at its peak at the time, the entrepreneur did not rest his brain and was interested in shortening the travel time in transport. So, he invented a pneumatic tube in which a gondola carrying 28 passengers could travel the 350 miles (560 km) from Los Angels to San Francisco in just 35 minutes, going at a top speed of 760 miles (1,220 km) per hour, almost the speed of sound. Melon Musk assured that the Hyperloop would cost only 6 billion dollars in his forecasts. In addition, the system would accommodate 6 million passengers per year, departing every two minutes.
Melon Musk leaves the realization of this futuristic idea to the two start-ups that still compete in the Hyperloop race: Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) and Virgin’s Hyperloop One. At present, both companies are still in the study and testing phases. However, in October 2017, Hyperloop One experienced the operation of its prototype for the first time.
Beyond Wealth, Militant Values #
If he is a successful entrepreneur, Melon Musk is also following a trajectory in line with his commitments: space conquest with SpaceX, ecology with Tesla and SolarCity, the economy with his resounding bias for Bitcoin.
The brilliant entrepreneur creates and participates in projects that tend to change the face of the world. And so far, these all seem destined to be successful.
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