The peregrine falcons fly high up in the sky at jet speed to reach the top. You can compare several people’s success to this super fast bird. A person who has flown to be the second richest man in the world can be the best example of the wondrous bird. Yes, you guessed it correctly! We are talking about Elon Musk. He has flown his way to fortune in 2020 from being the 35th richest person to be the second wealthiest man in the world. So, are you not eager to know possibly everything about this super-rich and flourishing entrepreneur? Keep scrolling down to learn about Elon Musk net worth, companies, success stories and more!
Table of Contents
Who Is Elon Musk?
Elon Musk was the founder and owner of PayPal that was formerly known as X.com in the year 1999. Later, he gave birth to SpaceX in the year 2002 and finally Tesla Motors in the year 2003.
Elon Musk net worth began to increase when he sold off his first startup company Zip2. The event took place during his late 20s that became the start of his multimillionaire journey.
Musk was the first to send a commercial vehicle by a rocket to the International Space Station. His company SpaceX was the one to launch the rocket in May 2012.
Later, in the year 2016, he bought the SolarCity that helped him strengthen his portfolio. More so, his position as an industry advisor during the administration of President Donald Trump sealed his place as an industry leader.
Elon Musk – Early Life
Elon Musk took birth in 1971 on June 28 in a place called Pretoria in South Africa. Since childhood, Musk would live in his own world of imagination and would daydream. More so, this habit worried his parents that compelled them to take him to doctors. Later, these doctors asked him to go for a hearing check test too.
Elon Musk age 10, started developing a unique attraction and curiosity towards computers and other tech programs. The love for computers was so much that Musk successfully sold off his first game software at 12. Blaster was the name of the software he created and sold at that young age.
Musk belonged to the category of children who were shy and introverts. So, he spent hours with his books and would hardly speak to anyone. After receiving a lot of bullying from his fellow students, he decided to revolt when he was 15 years. And his way of approach of defending himself was wrestling and karate.
Elon Musk Family
Elon Musk was the child of a well-off South African engineer and Canadian model. Musk’s father, Errol, had broken up and divorced his wife when their son was only at the age of 10.
So, Musk’s mother had to work very hard to support the family. There was a point where Maye, Elon’s mother, had to keep five jobs running together. His mother, Maye Musk, was the only oldest lady that made it to the Covergirl campaign. She was the only oldest person to be a star in the campaign.
During Musk’s early childhood, he spent most of his time in South Africa with his sister Tosca and brother Kimbal.
Elon Musk Education
There was a time in South Africa in 1989 that youngsters would have to join the military service. To avoid that, Elon fled to Canada and joined the Queen’s University at the age of 17.
Even more, Musk got his citizenship in Canada that year. And he felt that in that way, his US citizenship would be convenient.
Later in 1992, Elon moved to the University of Pennsylvania to study physics and business and left Canada. Elon Musk got an economics undergraduate degree and graduated. But he stayed on to acquire his physics bachelor’s degree.
As soon as he got the bachelor’s degree, Elon left for California. He joined Stanford University to study energy physics and do his PhD degree.
Elon Musk’s move to California and the internet boom happening at that time is considered coincidental and lucky. He quickly dropped off from Stanford on the second day of his admission to be a part of the internet boom. So, Elon Musk came up with Zip2 Corporation, his first company in 1995.
After staying in the United States of America for seven years in 2002, he got his citizenship.
Elon Musk Net Worth
When the year 2020 started, Musk was at the 35th richest person in the world. But the massive rise in Tesla’s stock gave him this skyrocketing success.
Today, Elon Musk net worth is 128 billion dollars making him the second wealthiest man in the world.
He paved his way to be this wealthy man in 2020 by adding over 100 billion dollars to his net worth. Elon Musk net worth has overpassed Bill Gates in this year. The enormous surge in Tesla’s stock made Musk add a vast sum to his net worth. Moreover, he is only a few million dollars away from topping the charts and beating Jeff Bezos.
Elon Musk Companies
Musk is the owner of several companies. He began his career young and reached the summit with all his determination and far-sightedness. So, now that you know Elon Musk net worth, let us check out the companies that help him achieve this skyrocketing success:
Zip2 Corporation
Among all the Elon Musk companies, the Zip2 corporation was his first. He began this company in 1995 after leaving his PhD degree midway during the internet boom in America.
Zip2 was a collaboration he had done with Kimbal Musk, Elon’s brother. Very soon, Zip2 started offering content for the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times. Both of which were new websites during 1995.
After four years, during 1999, Zip2 was sold to Compaq Computer Corporation for 34 million dollars in stocks and 307 million dollars in cash.
PayPal
Once Elon and his brother sold off Zip2, they had enough money and wanted to invest in a new venture. So, they came up with the idea to make an online payment company that provides all kinds of financial services over the internet.
First, it was known as X.com but later, it was known as PayPal as all of us know it now.
During 2002, PayPal got 1.5 billion dollars through eBay stocks. That was the first billion that added to Elon Musk net worth.
Before Musk sold PayPal, he was the owner of 11% stock in the company.
SpaceX
Among all the Elon Musk companies, SpaceX was his third. SpaceX is also known as Space Exploration Technologies Corporation. It was founded in 2002 and manufactures spacecraft that can be used for commercial goods travel.
It took six years for SpaceX to establish itself and get a contract of International Space Station cargo transport by NASA. More so, they came up with the idea to substitute the space shuttle missions owned by NASA and instead use SpaceX’s spacecraft for astronaut transport.
Some of the inventions of SpaceX used by NASA are Falcon 9 Rockets, BFR mission to Mars, and Starlink Internet Satellites.
Tesla Motors
Tesla Motors is also one of the Elon Musk’s companies, formed in 2003. He is the product architect, co-founder, and CEO of Tesla. It is a company that deals in making electric cars for the mass market, solar roofs, and battery products.
Musk is responsible for looking after the company’s product designs, product development, and engineering. Tesla’s rise in stocks in 2020 has been the principal cause for Elon Musk net worth today.
Let us check out below the small elaborations of the products Tesla produced:
Roadster
Roadster is the creation of Tesla in the year 2008 March. It is a sports car that accelerates from 0 to 60 mph only in a matter of 3.7 seconds. More so, its lithium-ion battery can help you travel for more than 250 miles.
Later, Tesla Motors got into a partnership with Toyota and launched Roadster to the public in 2010 during June. It was strategical and gained 226 million dollars.
Model S
Tesla during August 2008, declared that they had plans to launch Model S that was going to be the first electric sedan of the company. It indirectly imposed a competition to the BMW 5 car series.
Finally, in 2012 Model S went into production and marked its beginning price at $58,570. It was covering almost 265 miles in one charge successfully and was soon declared as the Car of the Year in 2013 by Motor Trend Magazine.
During April in the year 2017, Tesla became the most valuable carmaker in the United States surpassing General Motors.
Model 3
Musk delayed the production and announced it officially for the Model 3 in March 2019. Initially, the price of the car was $35,000.
It was an affordable price than the prices of Model X and S sedans. The starting prices of the Model X and S were $69,500.
When Musk started aiming a 5000 production in a week for the new Model 3 during 2017, he faced problems and pushed it to 2018 March. But then again, he changed plans and sent it over to June.
The change in the release and production left the industry experts in no surprise. That is because it was evident that he was having problems in production. And also, the delay in production meant investors to wait longer, which was also in question.
There was news that during April 2018, Musk removed his engineering head and oversaw the production himself.
Additionally, he reorganized the company and laid off many of his management staff but kept the production team intact.
During June 2018, the reconstruction plans helped Musk reach his goal of producing 5000 cars of the Model 3 in a week. Plus, also producing 2000 cars of the Model X SUVs and Model S sedans.
Awards and Accolades
Now that you know the Elon Musk companies and net worth let us go through some of the awards that he has been honored. Here are the following:
- In 2007, Musk was declared the entrepreneur of the Year by Inc. Magazine for SpaceX and Tesla. He was also honored with the Index Design award in 2007 for Tesla’s Roadster.
- Musk got the award of National Conservation Achievement in 2008 for SolarCity and Tesla.
- He got the Von Braun Trophy by the National Space Society for his work and contribution to space.
- Musk was honored with the most prestigious award of space. The Federation Aeronautique Internationale gave him FAI Gold Space Medal.
- In 2010, Musk was considered as the Living Legend of Aviation for creating Dragon spacecraft and Falcon9 rocket.
- Heinlein Prize for Advances in Space Commercialization awarded Musk with $250,000 in 2011 June.
- The Royal Aeronautical Society honored Musk with a gold medal in 2012. It is considered as their highest level of an award.
- In 2014, March 16, Musk was given the President’s Award for Exploration and Technology.
- The Edison Achievement Award was given to him in 2014 for his outstanding innovation
- Musk was given the Oslo Business for Peace award in 2017.
- He was also honored with the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication in 2019.
Lessons of success by Elon Musk
A person who has reached the epitome of his career is sure to teach us some lessons of life and success. Here are some of the principles followed by Elon Musk:
Never Give Up
Musk believes that you must keep going even if every odd is not in favor of you. You must keep doing what is essential and keep thriving towards success.
Endurance Is the Key
Musk believes in endurance. He tells us not to give up until everything around you is forcing you. Keep your persistence level high.
Think Each day As a New Day
Only when you have self-determination and positivity, you will reach the top. If you believe in yourself and think it is going to be the best day, only then, your day will be bright. But if you think others are going to push you forward, it does not happen. Self-belief is the only key to success.
Have an Aim for the Next Day
Only when you sleep with the dream to live, you will get up with a bright feeling. If you go to sleep with a broken heart, you will never feel a good morning. Musk tells us that a change starts from within and then transforms into an invention.
Final Thoughts
Though we come to the end of our blog today, we wish the successes of Elon Musk keeps reaching heights. We have a lot to take back with us with his stories of struggles, success, and determination. So, we hope he keeps setting an extraordinary example to each aspiring entrepreneur with his achievements and triumphs.
