Success Story of Elon Musk: The Futuristic Entrepreneur

A great executioner and a marvelous visionary, Elon Musk has carved an immeasurable legacy of innovation behind him. His entrepreneurial endeavors continue to inspire generations ahead. He is all about empowering humans with the power of technology and automation. Like the greatest people of history have proved that –“Behind every success story there are unseen and unheard chapters of struggles”, Elon Musk’s story is no different. Today we have presented an article on the Success Story of Elon Musk: The Futuristic Entrepreneur. We will be exploring all the crucial instances of his successes & failures, and know how he went closer to his aspirations.

Where did it all start for Elon Musk?

Elon Musk had quite a rough childhood and troubled relationships with his family. Musk also faced bullying during his early school life. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) in Physics and Economics. Entrepreneurship was something that always had his interest. His first move towards it is quite surprising to read about. He converted a 10-bedroom house into a nightclub and gave it on rent to his colleagues and earned money for his livelihood. Afterward, he went on to pursue his Doctorate at Stanford University but ended up leaving the course too early. He knew his passion for entrepreneurship and technology.
He along with his brother, Kimbal, launched their first company Zip2 in 1995. Zip2 provided city guides and web directories to newspapers. He sold his company in 1999 for a whopping 307 million dollars. He earned 22 million dollars against his 7% share in the company at the age of 27. Musk looked at it as a failure because he wasn’t able to experiment with the business potential of the Internet.

Second Major Leap in Entrepreneurship

Musk went ahead to lay the foundation of X.com in 1999. It started as a platform for banking and investment services. The firm later merged with its competitor CoInfinity Inc and was renamed PayPal in 2000. This became the largest and most successful Internet-based payment network portal across the globe. Two years later in 2002, eBay acquired the rights of PayPal for 1.5 billion dollars. Musk received 175.8 million dollars for his largest share in PayPal (11.72%).

Journey of Creating Space X

As we said above, he always had a spirit for technology and science. Musk believes that human existence can survive on other planets. He says that we as humans have to divert our attention to this possibility. In 2002, he founded Space Exploration Technologies Exploration (SpaceX). The first rocket named Falcon 1 was launched in 2006 under the mentorship of Musk and his vision of revolutionizing the aerospace industry. The Falcon 1 was a two-stage spacecraft made for designing and sending small aircraft into the Earth’s orbit. SpaceX became the first private company to have accomplished the achievement of launching and returning a spacecraft from Earth’s orbit. It also became the winner of NASA’s competition for funding. This was followed by the “Falcon 9” in 2010 and “Falcon Heavy” in 2018.
Musk is truly SpaceX’s leading designer. His company has a total net worth of 100 billion dollars and is the second largest privately owned company in the world. The pivotal reason behind SpaceX’s popularity is that it is working with a mission to make the cost of space transportation efficient so that Mars colonization can be made possible.

Becoming the CEO of Tesla

As we all know, Elon Musk is the CEO OF Tesla and contributed significantly in terms of funding before taking the position of CEO in 2008. The first electric car was launched in 2008 named the Roadster. He is the person behind Tesla’s product designs, optimizing engineering processes, a global manufacturer of electric vehicles, solar energy products, and a lot more sustainability-centric goals. Today the company has a giant network of 438 stores and 30,000 charging centers.

The Real Struggles of Elon Musk’s

As we have talked about his success, taking a dig at his challenges is also legitimate, isn’t it? Elon Musk says that “I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary”. He recalls spending feeble time with his parents. He spent most of his time juggling with college projects and brewing ideas for business. His bitter relationship with his father is not hidden from the world. Despite his grandeur, he always looks out for striving bigger and bigger, and remains focused on his vision for SpaceX. The way Musk is handling the turmoil of critics and fighting with odds every single moment is commendable par excellence.