Greetings! Elon Musk's success story is reminiscent of a Hollywood movie script. He participated in the promotion of the popular payment system PayPal, offered the first electric car for the mass consumer Tesla, founded the private space company SpaceX and seriously believes that humanity will soon colonize Mars.

The list of achievements of an amazing person is endless. He is called the new Steve Jobs and the modern Leonardo da Vinci. It was he who became the prototype of the protagonist of the film "Iron Man". In 2016, Forbes magazine estimated his net worth at $10.7 billion.

Meet! Today's hero of the post is Elon Musk: biography, achievements, secrets of success and ... revelations.

Elon Reeve Musk (full name of the billionaire) is an example of a fantastic rise to the top from almost nothing. The future billionaire and "icon of new technologies" was born in Republic of South Africa.

The Canadian mother worked as a nutritionist, the British father of South African descent worked as an engineer. At school, Elon Musk was a "nerd" outcast.

Once he was even taken to the hospital after teenagers pushed him down the stairs and beat him unconscious.

Instead of noisy parties, Elon studied computer programming. At age 12, he sold his own code for a video game called Blastar for $500.

After finishing school in South Africa, 17-year-old Elon decided to emigrate to the United States. It was difficult to do it directly. Therefore, in 1984, Musk moved to his mother's relatives in Canada, where for almost a year he barely made ends meet, clutching at any job. But in the end, Elon gets Canadian citizenship.

A few years later, as he wanted, he moved to the United States, having won a scholarship to study at the University of Pennsylvania. There Elon Musk got higher education: in physics and in business (bachelor's degree).

In his youth, his idols were Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison.

After completing his studies at the university, Elon Musk chose three areas of interest to himself. And, on trifles, he decided not to exchange. Musk focused on the Internet (then it had just appeared), space and alternative energy sources.

Achievements Elon Musk

Reading the biography of Elon Musk, you understand why he is called the modern Leonardo da Vinci. For a couple of decades, he was engaged in (and achieved impressive results!) completely different and, to put it mildly, large-scale projects.

Software

In 1996, Musk and his brother Kimbal founded a software development company for news companies. The project was called Zip2. The brothers developed and sold an "online guide" to major publications such as the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times.

Just three years later, the Compaq brand bought the startup for $308 million. And Elon Musk became richer by $22 million.
PayPal and X.com

Immediately after selling Zip2, Musk co-founded X.com (online financial services). A year later, X.com merged with Confinity (which ran PayPal). Musk originally planned to merge PayPal and X.com together. But the merger never happened.

X.com was converted to a PayPal subdomain and then completely disappeared as a brand. But the viral company from Musk ensured the explosive growth of today's popular payment system.

In the fall of 2002, PayPal was sold on eBay for $1.5 billion. Of these, Musk received a fortune ($165 million) (he owned 11.7% of the company's shares).

SpaceX

SpaceX is the third company founded by Elon Musk. Space Exploration Technologies was "born" in 2002. Moreover, Musk acted simultaneously as the general and technical director.

For those not in the know, SpaceX designs and manufactures space launch vehicles. The first "children" of the company were Falcon 1 and Falcon 9, and the first spacecraft - Dragon.

In 2008 (in the midst of the crisis, by the way) new company Elon Musk has received a major $1.6 billion contract from NASA. Falcon 9 and Dragon were supposed to replace the shuttle, which was "decommissioned" in 2011. By the way, the Falcon 1 rocket became the first liquid-fueled spacecraft to deliver a satellite into Earth's orbit. The first, financed from private sources.

Elon Musk sets himself a more than ambitious goal: to reduce the cost of space flights by 10 times. A crazy businessman invested $100 million of his own money in SpaceX.

He is sure that the zone of human influence must necessarily expand to neighboring planets. This will reduce the threat of human destruction as species. Elon Musk is seriously studying the possibility of human settlement on Mars within the next 10-20 years.

Tesla Motors

Musk and Straubel met by chance in 2003. During the meeting, Musk learned about the concept of an electric sports car. He immediately tried to convince the management of AC Propulsion to think about the format of a commercial car “on electricity”. But the proposal was met with a cool ...

Then Musk, along with JB Straubel, Jan Wright, Mark Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard, decided to create the legendary (in the future, of course) Tesla company. Moreover, it was Musk who provided most of the funding for the project at the initial stage.

In 2008 Elon took over CEO and chief designer.

The first Tesla Roadster sports car sold 2,500 units in 31 countries. In 2014, Elon Musk's company released the Tesla Model S P85D, the world's fastest electric car. The car accelerates to 100 km / h in just 3.2 seconds. Without recharging Tesla Model S P85D can travel 440 km.

In his interviews, Elon Musk often says that in the next 30 years, most cars in the US will run on electricity.

In 2016, Musk announced a new secret plan. And in March 2017, Tesla won a tender to build a giant energy storage facility. Elon Musk bet that if he did not build a battery station in Australia in 100 days, the state would get it for free.

He eventually won a dispute with the governor of South Australia. Tesla Powerpack's huge lithium-ion battery is powered by renewable energy sources and supplies electricity to the state's consumers during "peak" hours.

solar city

The initial concept for SolarCity (the largest provider of solar power systems in the US) again belongs to the ubiquitous Elon Musk. In the future, the concept was "brought to mind" by his cousins: Peter and Lyndon Rive.

What made Elon Musk invest his personal funds in another crazy project? The motto is "Never give up." And the desire to help humanity solve the problem of global warming.

SolarCity designs and manufactures rooftop photovoltaic systems.

The installations fully provide the houses they “roof” with electricity. It is clear that for environment It's like a balm for the soul.

Soon the "environmentally friendly" product found its buyer. Photovoltaic installations from SolarCity provide electricity to British Motors, as well as the office and eBay servers.

What else does the company do besides creating solar panels? For example, it releases "energy-saving" software. The program allows you to use electricity in residential buildings more rationally. As a result, the load on the network decreases, and consumers save on electricity bills.

And of course, SolarCity produces a network of charging stations for electric vehicles Tesla Motors.

hyperloop

Hyperloop is Elon Musk's next crazy project. According to his idea, Hyperloop should become the fifth mode of transport after cars, trains, planes and ships.

Elon Musk proposed the idea of ​​high-speed delivery of goods and passengers back in 2012-2013. The idea was positioned as an alternative to the high-speed rail project between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

"Hyperloop" was conceived as an elevated pipeline on supports. Reinforced concrete support pylons will be installed at a height of 30, 15 or 6 meters (depending on the terrain).

Single capsules up to 30 meters long with passengers and cargo will move inside the tube at a speed of 480 to 1200 km/h. As planned by the developers, the capsules should "go" with an interval of 30 seconds.

Elon Musk took the principle of the vacuum train as the basis for the project. The developers decided to abandon the creation of a complete vacuum in the pipe (too expensive and technically difficult). We stopped at the forevacuum (rarefied air). The capsule will be driven by an electric motor and powered by solar energy.

To implement the project, Hyperloop One was created (until 2016 it had a different name). Hyperloop tracks are planned to be built between major cities in the US, UK, Canada, Mexico and even India.

The cost of a trip on the Hyperloop bullet train will be about $1 per 10-12 km.

Will Hyperloop work? Skeptics are sure not. And optimists are closely following the latest photos on Musk's Instagram, news from the field, and ... investing in another crazy Iron Man project.

Fraudster and swindler?

Type in Google the query "Elon Musk is a scammer" and you will be rewarded with hundreds of links to high-profile revelations. The authors of the articles claim that all Musk's projects, at best, ended in nothing.

Who is Elon Musk really? According to some - just a charismatic swindler with a big scale and insane ambitions.

Take, for example, the creation of PayPal. According to whistleblowers, the payment system is not his invention at all. In fact, in 1999, Jewish Elon Musk created X.com online banking by investing his personal money in it. A year later, X.com merged with its main competitor, Confinity. Musk immediately began to seriously clash with the CEO of Confinity: Peter Thiel and Max Levchin.

Their joint products in the form of payment systems worked through a stump deck. Banks were blackmailed with fines, the company was threatened with ruin. And only when the board of directors removed Elon Musk from the post of manager, PayPal managed to be brought to mind.

According to critics, the merit of Elon Musk is only that, in negotiations with buyers on eBay, he managed to raise the price of the company to $1.5 billion.

Things were not so clear with the SpaceX project. At the start, Musk, indeed, invested about $ 100 million in his offspring.

But the “soul” and developer of the project was not at all him, but engineer Tom Muller. The Falcon 1 rocket was several years behind schedule. Three launches in a row ended with a loud puff. The project was on the verge of bankruptcy.

And suddenly, for no reason, SpaceX receives a major contract from NASA. The project immediately takes a crazy leap forward. Someone claims that SpaceX is a curtain behind which the US military circles “hide”. Under the guise of a private project, they are developing certain technologies.

Everything that is customarily praised by Elon Musk is smashed to smithereens on the Web: his electric cars, plans for the colonization of Mars, the Hyperloop project and ... everything else.

I will not comment on posts of the format "Elon Musk is a deceiver and a swindler." I'd rather quote the snide Twitter post “Forger and scammer Elon Musk has relaunched Falcon. Rogozin's ultra-modern trampoline is still not ready for operation.

Secrets of success from Elon Musk

Journalists love to quote Elon Musk that he worked 100 hours a week for 15 years. How did he manage not to go crazy, working at the limit of human capabilities?

Unite things

Elon Musk prefers to do several things at the same time (like Julius Caesar). He believes that many operations are perfectly combined with each other. Like cheese and wine.

Are you talking on the phone? Dust off your desktop at the same time or make some tea. Looking for the right file on your computer? Delete "along the way" unnecessary folders and documents. Books can be read on the road or listened to in audio format while jogging.

By the way, Elon Musk himself checks the mail when he communicates with his own children!

Consult experts

The "eulogies" are just confusing. Focus on criticism from experts! Criticism hurts self-esteem, but it makes you constantly develop and become better.

Planning

Elon Musk's day is planned almost to the minute. He advises to replace the usual morning viewing of the Facebook feed by compiling detailed plan for a day.

Musk's senior aide enters everything into his diary. Up to "five minutes" of free time. Unfortunately, such a crazy pace leaves no time for personal life and other pleasant things. Elon Musk's last romance with actress Amber Heard ended due to the constant employment of both.

But no one requires you to work 100 hours a week. Just remember to use time management techniques. Without them, success in the 21st century is unrealistic.

Ability to take risks

On the way to success, Elon Musk took big risks more than once. For example, when Tesla's beloved brainchild was practically doomed, he invested almost all the remaining money in "rehabilitation". The profits from the release of the Model-S more than paid off these "crazy" investments.

Five recipes for success from Elon Musk

1. Constantly improve your product or service. First and foremost, invest in research and improvement, not advertising.
2. Work all the time you need to work. "Eaters of time" make successful and rich only their creators.
3. Hire only those employees who are madly in love with their job.
4. Forget about trends.
5. The younger you are, the more risk you can afford.

How do you feel about Elon Musk?

Politics, 06 Sep, 15:05

Musk denied Lukashenka's words about the Tesla presented to the President of Belarus Founder of SpaceX and Tesla Elon Musk did not give the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko a Tesla car. About this... he has a Tesla electric car that he gave to him himself. Elon Musk, Lukashenko said during a speech at a Minsk school on September 2 ... to Mask with the question whether he really made such a gift to the Belarusian leader. “Um, no,” the businessman replied. Tesla was founded Elon Mask in... Elon Musk called the date of the first orbital flight of the Starship ... of the Starship not earlier than October. The founder of the company wrote about it Elon Musk in social network Twitter, answering a subscriber's question. According to him... Elon Musk Compared Britain's Queen Elizabeth II to Teletubbies ... and Tesla Elon Musk compared the Queen of Great Britain Elizabeth II with the heroes of the children's show "Teletubbies". He posted the joke on his Twitter. At first Musk posted ... tweet users suggested options where instead of the faces of the Teletubbies the face of Mask or members of the band Queen. Others, instead of the British Queen, published a similar ... Musk's company announced the first steps to connect the brain to the computer ... which, by the power of thought, they can control a computer or smartphone. Created Elon Mask in 2017, the startup Neuralink, in which the entrepreneur invested $100 ... , will minimize the occurrence of inflammation and long-term brain damage. In addition to investments Mask, for its work Neuralink, the agency notes, has raised more than $150 million... Elon Musk announced the deletion of his Twitter account ... on Monday Moscow time, the founder of Tesla and Space X Elon Musk wrote on Twitter that he had just deleted his account... username, the developers explain on the corresponding Twitter support page. Page Mask remains available. After deactivation, the user has 30 days to... asked the users. At the time of publication, the last three messages chronologically Mask(not including answers to other users) look like this: "Not 2b" (Not ... Elon Musk announced the creation of a car-submarine from the movie about James Bond Businessman Elon Musk said that Tesla has a project of a car that can drive ... the James Bond movie "The Spy Who Loved Me," he said. Musk said that the car shown there is “the coolest thing he saw ... $ 702 million. This is explained by a decrease of 31% in the number of cars sold. Musk promises that the situation will be corrected in the third quarter, for which ... Rogozin did not see vacancies for Elon Musk in Roskosmos Dmitry Rogozin is ready to meet with the founder of the American space company SpaceX Elon Mask, however, he will not hire him. About this ... I'll look, ”Rogozin said. However, he ruled out the possibility of a special invitation. Mask to a meeting. “He's a busy man, I'm a busy man, what's his… reusable rockets. “We need to raise our rockets,” said the head of Roskosmos. Previously Musk in response to Rogozin's congratulations on the successful launch of Crew Dragon... Musk went to court over a tender to replace Russian RD-180 engines Company Mask claims that the Air Force Center for Space and missile systems unreasonably handed out contracts, and demands to reconsider her proposal. SpaceX Ilona Mask in... SpaceX sues the US government ..., writes The Washington Post, citing court documents. Company Ilona Mask insists on the confidentiality of the claim information. The lawsuit went to federal court... was certified for launches in the interests of national security. After the company's lawsuit Ilona Mask The US Air Force drafted an agreement to certify SpaceX, and the company refused to... Elon Musk summoned to court in defamation case against child rescuer in Thailand ... . The diver requires Mask$75,000 in compensation. Founder of the private American space company SpaceX and head of electric car manufacturer Tesla Elon Musk will stand trial... accused the businessman of slander and demanded $75,000 in compensation. Lawyers Mask offered the plaintiff to settle the conflict out of court, but Unsworth refused. Magazine... proposed people Elon Musk. He personally brought a mini-submarine from Falcon 9 parts to Thailand. Unsworth, in turn, indicated that Musk undertook... The SEC named the topics for Musk's Twitter posts that need to be agreed The U.S. authorities have specified the information that Elon Musk may not distribute without prior approval. Businessman accused of violating... US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Tesla founder Elon Musk entered into a new agreement on what company information the businessman... to supply only 400,000 cars. In response to SEC claims Musk invited the commission to "read Tesla's annual report." His defense tied the charges... Roskosmos expressed readiness to help Musk in the investigation of the emergency with Dragon-2 Roscosmos specialists are ready to help Ilona Mask and SpaceX in the investigation of the accident that occurred during the tests ... assistance,” Ustimenko said. At the same time, he expressed confidence that Mask eat enough technical means to work on bugs. Failed test... SpaceX failed to test the engines of the new ship Crew Dragon ... engines for spaceshipСrew Dragon, with which SpaceX Ilona Mask plans to deliver astronauts to the ISS and back, ended with an "anomaly" on ... Elon Musk discussed aliens in Russian with subscribers Head of SpaceX and Tesla Elon Musk during a conversation with subscribers on Twitter, he switched to Russian ... he is space for delivering aliens to Earth, Musk asked: "Where are the aliens?" Another user tried to explain Mask that aliens live underground on... : "That's where the dog is buried." Commenting on the post of another social network user, Musk used a phraseological unit: they say that chickens are milked. This is not the first time... Rocket Falcon Heavy Elon Musk launched a Saudi satellite into orbit SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket Ilona Mask launched from a spaceport in Florida and successfully brought to ... of those that are in operation. June 2018 Musk signed a contract with the Pentagon to launch a new military... Elon Musk lost $1 billion in two minutes ... supplies. The owner of the American company SpaceX and the head of the manufacturer of electric vehicles Tesla Elon Musk lost $1.1 in the first two minutes of trading on the NASDAQ ... in the first quarter. During the day the situation improved a little, but Musk continues to suffer losses. As of 20:50 Moscow time, stocks ... sessions. As of this hour, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index, losses Mask decreased to $674 million. According to Bloomberg estimates, about $10 billion...

Society, Mar 25, 09:23

Rogozin announced the price superiority of Soyuz over Crew Dragon Mask The successful test of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft will not allow Ilona Mask dumping in the market of manned launches, the head of Roskosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, is sure. ..., he thinks. March 2, 2019 Crew Dragon, created by the company Ilona Mask commissioned by NASA, made its first flight, during which ... transport systems" guarantees "stability and safety of joint work" on the ISS. Musk then he thanked Rogozin, saying that he had always admired Russian space technologies.​

Business, 12 Mar, 07:40

Musk's defense linked the claims of the US authorities with criticism of the SEC Ilona Mask accused of violating an agreement with the authorities of the United States, to which ... the address of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Tesla CEO Defense Ilona Mask stated that he did not violate the agreement with the Securities Commission ... the businessman and the US authorities entered into a pre-trial agreement, under the terms of which Musk resigned as chairman of the board of directors and pledged to pay a fine in ...

Technology and media, Mar 09, 09:49

Musk responded to Rogozin's congratulations on the successful test of Crew Dragon Elon Musk thanked the head of Roskosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, for congratulating him on the success of the mission...

Technology and media, Mar 08, 09:46

Rogozin responded to Musk's statement about Russian missiles"Angara" ... statement by the head of the American company SpaceX Ilona Mask about Russian space engines and the Angara launch vehicle. "Well, here with Elon you can’t argue,” Rogozin wrote on Twitter. On the night of March 8 Musk wrote on Twitter that Russia ...

Society, Mar 08, 06:43

The media learned about the verification of Musk's clearance to classified data due to marijuana In September 2018 Elon Musk smoked a mixture of tobacco and marijuana while recording a podcast. After... he's been illegal drugs for the past seven years. After Elon Musk while recording a podcast with Joe Rogan smoked marijuana, in ... after a video of marijuana smoking appeared on the Internet Mask, the company has entered into several defense contracts. The US Department of Defense told Bloomberg...

Technology and media, 08 Mar, 01:16

Elon Musk praised the Russian launch vehicle "Angara" Head of the American company SpaceX Elon Musk stated that Russian space engines are the best and gave a high... new rocket Angara would be great,” he said. In biography Ilona Mask, written by journalist Ashley Vance, it was reported that the entrepreneur came in 2001 ... did not take the offer seriously, so the negotiations ended to no avail. ​According to biography Musk returned to Moscow in February 2002. With him was...

Technology and media, Mar 03, 18:14

Musk thanks in Russian for congratulations on Dragon docking with ISS ...Tesla Elon Musk responded in Russian to congratulations on the successful docking of the Crew Dragon spacecraft with the ISS. "Thanks for kind words!" - wrote Musk on your Twitter page. A girl named Ekaterina Pavlyuchenko, congratulating Mask on her Twitter page, she wrote that she did not think that ... space and expressed confidence that cooperation would develop. Also the company Ilona Mask US President Donald Trump congratulated SpaceX on the successful launch. First...

Business, Mar 01, 19:44

Tesla shares down 8% amid decision to close its stores ... at $300. Thus, the exchange reacted to the statement that appeared the day before Ilona Mask on the closure of some stores and staff cuts, according to CNBC. CEO ... quarter. In total, Tesla has 378 stores in different countries peace. Musk did not specify how many of them would be closed. It is known that the company ... which increased the waiting time for the delivery of already paid cars. Myself Musk acknowledged that 2018 was a very difficult year, and the initially staged...

Business, 26 Feb, 08:36

Musk responds to new claims from the US Securities and Exchange Commission ... conflict Ilona Mask with the regulator can enter a new stage. The commission accused the founder of Tesla of violating the pre-trial agreement. In response to this Musk advised to carefully read Tesla reports. Founder of Tesla Elon Musk on Twitter responded to the claims of the Commission on ... . The regulator believes that these messages violate last year's agreement, according to which Musk undertook to coordinate all his messages for social networks, potentially capable of influencing ...

Finance, Feb 22, 19:53

Elon Musk took out a $61 million mortgage ... Morgan Stanley for $ 180 thousand. Founder of SpaceX and head of Tesla Elon Musk took out mortgages from Morgan Stanley for a total of... years. The deal increased the amount to $61 million, under which Musk refinanced a loan to purchase a $17,000 purchase in 2012... to $180,000. A Morgan Stanley spokesperson declined to comment on the deal with Mask, representative Mask did not respond to a Bloomberg inquiry. Bloomberg notes that...

Technology and media, Feb 11, 23:27

Roskosmos refused to consider the characteristics of the Musk engine as outstanding ... noted that it is incorrect to correlate the characteristics of the RD-180 and the SpaceX engine. Elon Musk previously stated that he managed to break the record of the Russian rocket engine ... high level its developments, the chief designer of the Russian enterprise said in conclusion. Musk On February 11, he wrote on his Twitter that in the combustion chamber ...

Society, 04 Feb, 08:35

Elon Musk showed tests of the engine for an interplanetary ship ... it will be possible to send vehicles to other planets. On my Twitter Elon Musk wrote that the first burn of the Raptor rocket engine, intended for ..., took place. In this regard, he thanked the SpaceX team for their successful work. Musk posted a video showing fire erupting from a chimney. Indicated ... developed over several years, but in December last year Musk announced that a new version of it has appeared in a completely... Musk announces exit of Tesla chief financial officer amid $1 billion loss ... profitable every quarter of 2019. Elon Musk against this background, announced the dismissal of the financial director of Tesla. CEO of Tesla Elon Musk announced that CFO Deepak Ahuja will leave his post in 2019, Reuters reported. According to Mask, Ahuja... . for flights Ilona Mask on a private jet, including for personal purposes. Tesla spokesman Dave Arnold said at the time that the movements Mask are... WP finds out Tesla spent $700,000 on Musk's private jet flights ... plane of the head of the company Ilona Mask, writes The Washington Post, which studied the relevant flight records. According to the publication, jet Mask worth $70 million... about working flights - the liner was also used for vacation flights Mask or members of his family. In addition, the plane often flew with ... $ 93 thousand, WP compares. Tesla spokesman Dave Arnold considered the movement Mask"an integral part of running a business": "Unfortunately, we can't... SpaceX has completed a network of 75 next-generation Iridium telecommunications satellites in Earth orbit. The company has been delivering satellites into orbit since January 2017. SpaceX successfully launched the last ten satellites of the Iridium NEXT communications system into orbit and completed a large-scale project to form a "constellation" of 75 space satellites. Elon Musk's SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket with 10 satellites The Falcon 9 launch vehicle, developed by SpaceX, launched from the Vandenberg launch site, is supposed to put 10 Iridium NEXT communication satellites into orbit, providing data transmission for mobile devices and voice communications. As a result of the current launch, the total number of Iridium NEXT satellites in orbit should be brought to the planned ... ... Li Keqiang proposed to an American businessman Ilona Mask Green Card of China, according to the website of the State Council. At a meeting with Keqiang Musk said that he wants to make ... a green card, ”the Prime Minister of the State Council answered him. Monday, January 7th Musk announced the start of construction of the Tesla plant in Shanghai. As noted... Musk announced the end of sales of the cheapest Tesla models Tesla CEO Elon Musk informed that the company will stop accepting orders for Model S cars ... to purchase such models, please place an order before Sunday night, ”wrote Musk on your Twitter. As MarketWatch notes, the Model S and X... Elon Musk announced the date of the flight of his rocket to the ISS Creator of the SpaceX project Elon Musk announced that in a month his rocket will go to the ISS. Q... about the test run, originally scheduled for January 17, but now Musk claims that this event will happen in a month. According to... did not happen. Statement on the new date for the flight of the rocket to the ISS Musk published a few days after the Chinese Chang'e probe... Oracle Founder Becomes Tesla Independent Director ... energy sources. In October, the court approved the agreement between the CEO of Tesla Elon Mask and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, according to which ... directors and not hold it for another three years. Besides Musk must pay a fine of $20 million, the same fine... and two of its members. The agreement was made after Musk wrote on Twitter that he was ready to buy Tesla shares from the market ...

The article is dedicated to the founder of the company, about whom we, on, most often write. The name of this company is Tesla Motors, and the name of its founder is Elon Musk.

Many automotive publications that write about Tesla electric vehicles mistranslate Musk. You noticed that we always write “Elon” on the site, while most people read and write as “Elon”. But we will omit these details, even if they are quite significant. Let's move on to the description of the life of this outstanding person.

Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971 in the Republic of South Africa, in the administrative capital - Pretoria.

Elon Musk is known throughout the world not only for his participation in the founding of Tesla Motors. Previously, this person founded a company whose services are used by almost the whole world. This company is the world's largest operator of electronic payments - Paypal.

Tesla Motors isn't Elon Musk's only tech company. Another major company is SpaceX, founded in 2002.

The ideas of Elon Musk and his ambitions win the hearts of many people. He is often compared with Steve Jobs, but the goals of these figures are very different, and Elon is far from a master public speaking. But his ideas are much more useful to society. To quote Garret Reisman's words about SpaceX as an example:

The company was founded to promote human space exploration. This main reason our existence.

Elon Musk's childhood

As we already wrote, the future founder of Tesla Motors grew up in one of the capitals of the Republic of South Africa. Wikipedia that Musk was already teaching himself how to code at the age of 10, and at the age of 12 he earned US$500 by selling his Blastar game.

When he was 17, he moved to Canada, and at the age of 19 he moved to study at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied business and physics. Unusual combination, right?

At the age of 24, he co-founded Zip2 with his brother Kimbal Musk. The company was sold after 4 years. Before taxes, Elon Musk received $22 million for his 7% stake.

The era of electronic payments

That same year, Musk co-founded X.com, an electronic payment company. In March 2000, X.com acquired Confinity, which created a money transfer system called PayPal. PayPal at the time of purchase was only a month old. Believing in the success of PayPal, Elon Musk began the transformation of X.com into PayPal. In 2002, PayPal was sold to the online auction site Ebay. From the sale, the future founder of Tesla Motors received $165 million.

SpaceX company

For the funds received from the sale of PayPal, Elon Musk founded a company that still exists and wins tenders from NASA. The company's field of activity is the creation of launch vehicles for the transportation of both cargo and astronauts. Because the last shuttle launch was carried out in 2011, there are prospects that SpaceX will become the main transport for transporting astronauts. There is also the option of using Russian Soyuz, but with the political crisis, Soyuz is probably not the solution.

The innovation, if I may say so, of SpaceX rockets is that they are reusable. Now rockets are used only once, after which they need next rocket. SpaceX's approach makes space launches much cheaper, making the company a contender for cheap commercial human space launches. Right there, Elon Musk is competing with Richard Branson and his Virgin Galaxy.

SpaceX is behind the idea of ​​the need to populate other planets and the development of mankind in the field of space exploration and exploration. Undoubtedly, a noble and more than adequate idea.

Don't miss important information about SpaceX - the site publishes in a special section.

Tesla Motors

Finally, we got to one of Elon Musk's companies that we write about most often on the site. Tesla Motors was founded a year after the creation of SpaceX, in 2003.

The field of activity of this company is the creation of environmentally friendly electric vehicles. Quite a sound idea, given that oil reserves are still running out, and air is in settlements is getting dirtier.

Tesla Motors introduced the first car available for sale in 2008. We know this electric car called Tesla Roadster. And although the car was not as we would like, it was very enthusiastically received by the world, in particular, we can recall that Elon Musk and his company worked hard on more advanced electric vehicles and in 2011 the Tesla Model S was introduced to the world. And it is something. You can read more about the electric car here -.

At the end of 2014, Tesla Motors will introduce a new interesting electric crossover car.

It is also expected to create a budget electric car in 2015.

More details about the activities of the company, its achievements can be found in the article.

2018 is already the worst year in history. The electric car maker is still struggling to reach its stated production capacity, quarterly losses are mounting at a record pace, its reputation is cracking at the seams, investors are outraged, and Musk's eccentric behavior only adds fuel to the fire. Now shareholders and a British diver are trying to sue him, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is sniffing out something for financial manipulation. The main innovator of our time is seriously at risk of falling under civil and even criminal prosecution. How Elon Musk pulls own company to the bottom - in the material.

Tweets are spinning - laveha is mutiny

In early August, the news instantly spread all over the Internet that Musk was going to take all the shares of Tesla and turn it into a private company. The entrepreneur announced this easily and naturally on his Twitter, adding that "funding is secured." Musk said he was willing to pay $420 per share of Tesla, about 15 percent more than the current market supply at the time. The statement of the head of the company instantly provoked a stir in the securities market, as those who wanted to earn extra money on the price difference rushed to buy Tesla shares, as a result of which quotes rose by seven percent.

A little later in the day, the head of Tesla warmed up the situation by saying that he would not sell his package and, to be sure, repeated his offer again. As a result, NASDAQ was even forced to suspend trading in Tesla shares for some time, and at the time of their closing, the company's stock quotes added a total of 11 percent. Musk is estimated to have earned $1.4 billion from a couple of Twitter posts. True, a few days later, those who, on the contrary, lost money, showed up.

"Shortists", or Tesla stockholders who are short, lost more than a billion dollars on Musk's scandalous tweet. Some of them united to go to court. The plaintiffs allege that the head of Tesla violated securities laws, and his statement about securing funding for the company's delisting is unreliable. In other words, dissatisfied shareholders believe that Musk had one single goal: to push stocks up. However, the actions of the head of the company were not liked not only by investors shorting Tesla shares - the reliability of his words and the US Securities Commission.

Deftly jumped off

Musk explained his initiative by saying that turning into a private company would help the successful development of Tesla. He noted that the status of a public company is more likely to harm its promotion, in particular, due to the need to publish quarterly financial reports and stock price fluctuations. However, as always, the entrepreneur's loud statements resulted in almost a week of silence. On August 13, Musk released an update saying that the company is ready to be bought out by the Saudi Arabian Sovereign Wealth Fund (PIF), which already has a five percent stake. Thus, he confirmed the information of sources who had previously reported Riyadh's interest in Tesla.

True, already on August 17, in an interview, Musk said that he wished for reality. According to sources, negotiations with representatives of the fund instilled confidence in the businessman to support the undertaking, but the Saudis did not ultimately confirm their interest in privatizing Tesla. At the same time, there are rumors in the media that PIF is negotiating with a competitor of the American company, the Chinese startup Lucid Motors, and the Tesla buyout can be financed by Space X. True, where Musk's other company gets $66 billion - how much it will take to buy it without taking into account the package of the company's CEO - was not specified .

A few days later, Musk announced that everything would remain as it was - Tesla would not be private. "Based on the feedback I've received, it's clear that the majority of Tesla's current shareholders think we're better off as a public company," reads a post posted on the electric car maker's official blog. Musk said he knew beforehand that the process of going completely private would be difficult, but after consulting, he realized that it would be "even more time-consuming and confusing."

And nothing has changed

In addition to new proceedings, the company's old problems also make themselves felt - namely, its unprofitability and difficulties in production. Having abandoned the idea of ​​making Tesla private, Musk admitted that leaving the stock exchange would prevent the increase in production of Model 3 electric vehicles, which remains a priority today. Tesla crept up to the Model 3 output of 5,000 vehicles a week six months later than promised - as of August 31, 4,588 electric vehicles rolled off the assembly line weekly. Musk promised to achieve this level of production at the end of 2017. Moreover, according to the results of the second quarter of 2018, he announced plans to reach the production level of six thousand Model 3 per week by the end of August - and again words are lost.

In early August, the company reported its financial results for April-June 2018. And although Tesla's total revenue rose to $4 billion from $2.79 billion a year earlier and beat analysts' expectations of $3.29 billion, the company's losses also grew. Net loss for the second quarter was $717.5 million compared to $336.4 million for the same period in 2017. But Elon Musk still assured investors that by the end of 2018 the company would reach a steady profit and begin to repay its debts. He also apologized to analysts for their last conversation: then Musk answered "stupid" questions and said that he was bored. And Bloomberg praised the businessman, writing that he behaves like a “real CEO,” but it’s hard to believe in Musk’s promises.

Dude, you are very strange.

The extravagant behavior of the head of the company is superimposed on financial and production problems. Lately Musk does not get out of the scandals and has already gained fame as an odious figure. Now not only Tesla shareholders are suing him, but also a British diver who rescued Thai children from a flooded cave, whom the billionaire is unprovenly a “pedophile”. Such a reaction from the entrepreneur was caused by the fact that the diver Vern Unsworth criticized mini-submarine, which was assembled by Space X engineers specifically for the rescue operation. According to Unsworth, the submarine, which was nothing more than a PR stunt, had no single chance get to the kids locked in the cave. In the end, he concluded that Musk could shove this submarine to hell. The businessman himself, as the main shareholder, lost almost $ 300 million after a showdown on Twitter. He also got into a verbal altercation with a couple more followers. One of them said that Musk is extorting money from all over the world for the sake of his projects. To this, the engineer replied that, unlike the author of the question, he created jobs for 300 thousand people, and was curious about what the subscriber could boast of.

In his Twitter, the entrepreneur then about the bankruptcy of Tesla due to the sale Easter eggs, then because of a stolen drawing of a unicorn. In terms of the degree of eccentric behavior on social networks, the head of Tesla can easily compete with the President of the United States. They are especially related to quarrelsome relations with the media. For example, in July, Musk launched a harassment against Business Insider journalist Lynette Lopez, according to which Tesla writes off about 40 percent of its raw materials for scrap metal, and defective batteries are installed in the Model 3. Prior to this, the engineer