Elon Musk has become a household name as the world’s richest man and the force behind the most successful electric vehicle company in the world, Tesla. However, despite being everywhere, there are some facts about Musk that you didn’t know.
Read on as we present to you five things you didn’t know about Elon Musk.
Musk sold a video game before becoming a teenager
The illustrious entrepreneur cut his teeth in the high-pressure business of selling at the age of twelve when he sold a game to a computer magazine. However, Musk didn’t just sell, as he wrote the code for the shooting game, which he called Blastar. He had developed an interest in coding when he saw a computer in a store at age 10.
The transaction netted him $500. However, his tech entrepreneur spirit was dampened when his parents refused to give Musk and his brother Kimbal permission to open an arcade close to their school. The two boys settled for peddling chocolates to their classmates instead.
Musk spent a total of two days at Stanford University
Musk liked to be educated, so he enrolled for graduate studies in applied physics. However, the timing clashed with his newfound interest in the internet, a new phenomenon. So after just two days as a student, he applied for a six-month deferment, although he would only return if his plans did not work out. His plan did work out, so he never returned.
Musk founded Zip2, which helped organizations get online. He sold the company to Compaq and saw no need to return to school.
Musk gets Some Of His ideas from attending Burning Man
Musk loves to attend Burning Man, an annual festival held in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada in the summer. However, Musk gains much more than music and the sun because place boosts his creative process.
The idea to start a solar company came as he and his cousin, Lyndon Rive, drove to the festival in 2004. Lyndon wanted to do more than sell software and asked Musk for ideas. While the festival was going on, the two fletched out the idea of SolarCity, which went on to become the largest solar provider in the country.
Musk claims he got the idea for VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) electric plane at the same festival.
