Is it true that Elon Musk was poor as a child? Many people think so, but it is possible for billionaires to be poor. Despite this, he has a very frugal lifestyle and is famous for it. The question is, did Elon Musk grow up poor? Let’s find out. Here are some interesting facts about Musk’s childhood.
He read an Encyclopedia Britannica at age nine, spent up to 10 hours a day reading books. His reading habits were influenced by the books “The Lord of the Rings”, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” and Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” series. Elon Musk built a computer game called “Blastar” at the age of twelve. It was similar to the classic “Space Invaders” arcade game,
Despite his successful career, Elon Musk was born into a poor family. His parents divorced when he was ten years old and he moved to Canada with his family to avoid conscription in his home country. He eventually attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied business and physics. After graduating, he went on to start his own company. This company, SpaceX, has a record of making $1 billion+ annually, so it’s a wonder that he was so poor as a child.
The story of Elon Musk’s childhood is not as rosy as many people might think. He was raised by an abusive father who exploited workers in sub-Saharan Africa and apartheid-era South Africa. His father, Errol Musk, owned an emerald mine in Zambia and he made a fortune. The industry of African mining is notorious for its exploitation of native Africans and their children.
While attending the University of Pennsylvania, Elon Musk took out student loans worth about $100 thousand. In 1998, he and a friend founded Zip2 software. Musk then borrowed $2,000 from his family to launch Zip2’s website. He worked on it in the evenings, as he didn’t have a second computer at his disposal. The Zip2 website was a sort of early internet version of the Yellow Pages. It included maps to every location.
After becoming rich and famous, Elon Musk still lived a very simple life. He lived in a $40,000 house, with no security. His former girlfriend, Grimes, used to film Musk and Grimes at home because she found the lifestyle hilarious. Musk also reportedly spent eight days eating peanut butter. In fact, this kind of lifestyle is the most extreme example of a frugality that Musk can claim.
When Elon Musk was a child, he had a voracious appetite for learning. He would often read a book a day, and his desire to learn led him to convince his parents to buy him a Commodore VIC-20 computer. Interestingly, the manual for this model states that it takes six months to learn the BASIC language. Elon Musk managed to learn the basics in three days. Eventually, he designed a video game on the VIC-20, and received $500 for it.
In his book, “Becoming an Entrepreneur: The Untold Story of Elon Musk’s Childhood,” Ashlee Vance offers personal accounts of the successful entrepreneur and founder of SpaceX and PayPal. She also shares her own childhood experiences in the book. The author’s research also shows that Elon Musk did not grow up in an environment where he could play with computers. Although he was disadvantaged, his early talent for computers was very apparent. He even created a computer game when he was just twelve years old and sold it to a computer magazine. After obtaining his Canadian passport, Elon Musk left South Africa and relocated to the U.S. in 1988 to pursue better opportunities.
A quick look at Elon Musk’s childhood will reveal that his childhood was not so wealthy. Although he did grow up with parents who were financially poor, he did not inherit his fortune. Instead, he worked hard and innovated his way to success. He grew up in the United States and eventually sold his Zip2 invention to Compaq Computers for $307 million. Elon Musk is the youngest billionaire in history.
A few years ago, Musk released a concept for a transportation system called the Hyperloop. It was supposed to cut travel time between major cities by up to 50%. The Hyperloop would also be weather resistant and powered by renewable energy. It would propel pods through a network of low-pressure tubes at speeds of up to 700 mph. Elon Musk estimated that the project would take seven to ten years to complete.