How an imagination of one man can change our world Part 1
It is called the Tony Stark of the real world, a worthy heir to bill gates and Steve jobs rolled into one. An entrepreneur who made a fortune on Internet startups has turned into a visionary who thinks about a better future for humanity. A Little understanding in Internet banking, rocket science, and electric cars, Elon Musk repeatedly broke into a new industry with confidence that he is better than others knows what customers want. And it turned out that he really knows!
African childhood
Mother Elon musk in his youth was a model, and now occasionally appears on the covers of fashion magazines
Elon Musk was born June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South African. His father Errol was a successful engineer from a respectable family. Mother Mae in his youth was a model, then a successful nutritionist. Elon was the first child in the family. Then the light appeared brother Kimball and the sister of Longing (the future Director and producer). Although parents Ilona had known each other since childhood and Errol for many years sought the hand off may, their marriage was not happy. When Ilona turned seven, the couple filed for divorce.
First, the children remained with their mother, but then Elon moved to the father. As he later recalled, the mother had three kids, and my dad didn’t have one, he looked lonely and sad. Soon, the father moved and Kimball. Later, the brothers have not once doubted his decision: Errol was strict and demanding, difficult to please. Nevertheless, he gave his sons a good education and instilled a love of the exact Sciences.
Elon was different from other children. He was smarter than his peers and did not share their interest in sports and entertainment. The boy often “disconnected” from the external world, self-absorbed. Classmates hounded him. Musk went through a few schools but has not made real friends.
Little Leon loved to read and every now and then clammed up. Problems in school and at home have led to the fact that the Mask from an early age sought refuge in books. In his youth, he was reading novels of Verne, Asimov, Heinlein, and Tolkien. “Academy” and “the Moon’s a harsh mistress” piqued his interest in space, and the novel of Douglas Adams “Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy” helped to cope with a personal crisis at the age of fourteen. Since then, Musk is guided by the principle “the Main thing is to ask the right questions.”
The second Mask passion became computers. Barely in the face of this miracle of technology, he begged his father his first computer — a Commodore VIC-20, popular in the early eighties model with the whole five kilobytes of memory. Musk himself has mastered programming and already at the age of twelve wrote a video game, Blaster, which he sold to one of the local journals for five hundred dollars.
Though Errol and his son bought a computer, he was skeptical about the passion of Ilona, considering computers are just expensive toys. He wanted Elon to become an engineer like himself. The lack of support and prospects for Elon was forced to think about emigration. He dreamed of an America that seemed to him a country of unlimited opportunities for smart and resourceful. Using the fact that the mother was a native of Canada, Musk got a Canadian citizenship and at the age of seventeen went to conquer America.
The American dream: Zip2
Initially, the new place was not easy. The first years Elon constantly moved, were interrupted by menial work, until he settled on the farm with relatives. Soon in Canada moved in may and Kimball. Elon entered the Queen’s University in Ontario, where he continued to study programming. According to him, he chose Queens because among his listeners had the most girls. The calculation was justified on all hundred at the University of Hawaii met his future wife, Justine.
After graduating, Mask he entered the graduate school of the University of Pennsylvania in physics and Economics. Then he spaces, alternative energy and Internet startups. After Pennsylvania, the Musk went to Stanford (CA) to obtain a doctoral degree, but two days later dropped out and together with his brother opened their first business in Silicon valley.
In the mid-nineties, shares in Internet companies have grown by leaps and bounds, and the Mask just couldn’t stay away. Ilona called for the idea to create Zip2 are the digital equivalent of “Yellow pages” that allowed, as he put it, in any area of San Francisco find the nearest pizzeria and learn how to drive.
Initially, the Mask was faced with a problem: nobody wanted to invest in their venture money. The majority of companies still had no idea why they own the site and why the surrendered ads on the Internet. Brothers helped the father, sending twenty-eight thousand dollars. It was enough to rent a small office, purchase of equipment and necessary licenses. The first three months of Elon and Kimbal lived in the office: they had to take shelter. Of furniture they had was a couple of mattresses.
The brothers shared powers: Elon almost never left office, all his time spent on improving products, Kimball was looking for clients. The first time he simply avoided the area and offered their services such as hairdressers, car dealerships, restaurants, and shops. Someone managed to interest. Zip2 talking about, the company had outside investors, and things went uphill.
But the new shareholders doubted the abilities of a young entrepreneur to run his own initiative and invited a more experienced Trustee — rich Sorkin. Sorkin decided otherwise accents: Zip2 now mainly supplied software for Newspapers, and the Musk wanted to focus on working with consumers. He tried to shift Sorkin and to take his place, but the Board did not support Ilona.
Sense to fight soon disappeared. Large firm Compaq acquired Zip2 for $ 307 million, of which 22 million went personally, Ilona. In his twenty-seven years, he became a millionaire. Of course, he bought an apartment and luxury car, but most of the money has taken on a new project.