Discover the Best Countries with Pristine Air Quality for Your Next Adventure

 

Who is Elon Musk? How he became “The Successful Failure”?

 

 

Elon Musk, (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment firm PayPal and formed SpaceX, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was also one of the first significant investors in, as well as chief executive officer of, the electric car manufacturer Tesla.

Let’s learn the art of failing from Elon Musk:

•       Troubled childhood.
•       First job application.
•       Zip2
•       PayPal
•       Vacation can kill you!
•       Sudden Death.
•       Mars Oasis.
•       SpaceX.
•       Tesla.
•       Elon musk’s Bankruptcy.
 

 
Troubled childhood

Elon Musk was never much of a social being. He was younger and weaker than other students, making him an easy target for bullies. His childhood was ‘excruciating’ to have lived through. In one incident he was thrown down a staircase and beaten afterwards, so much so that he passed out and had to be hospitalized. He sustained an injury because of which he has trouble breathing even now.

 
First job application

Elon Musk had applied for a job at Netscape; however, he did not receive any reply as he had no background in computer science. He had degrees in economics and physics from Wharton School. He even went to their office, but returned as he was too shy to talk to anyone. After this, he decided to pursue his own ideas and hence started Zip2, a web software company, providing business details, something like an online yellow page. Had he not been shy or had Netscape given him a try, both Musk’s and Netscape’s future could have been different. Although many of you might not consider it as a low point in his life, but keep in mind that Netscape was one of the leading tech-companies at that time.

Zip2

The company which Musk and his brother had founded, was doing great with Musk as its CEO. The Board of Directors, looking at the long run, removed Musk as the CEO of his own company. The board claimed that Musk did not have the necessary operational responsibilities and because of that couldn’t be the CEO. Another issue they saw was his inexperience and hence appointed another CEO. He kept his shares, and when the company was sold to Compaq, he received $22 million from it.
 

PayPal

He founded X.com, an online-payment company which went on to become PayPal. In April 2000, Musk was made the CEO of the company. Soon after, Musk got into an argument with the then CTO over which operating system to go forward with, Windows or Unix. The disagreement eventually resulted into his ousting as CEO from PayPal, while he was on his honeymoon.
 

Vacation can kill you!

While on a vacation to his home country South Africa, Musk experienced a near-death experience. He suffered from cerebral malaria, a complication of Plasmodium falciparum malaria, which has a 20 percent mortality rate even if treated. It took him six months to recover and he lost 45 lbs. during that period. He has often stated that the ‘near-miss gave him a renewed focus and energy. The experience has not affected his spirit.

 
Sudden death

Seeing your child die is possibly the worst thing that can happen to anyone. Musk had his first son with his longtime girlfriend and first wife, Justine Wilson, in May 2002. They named him Nevada Alexander. But he died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) at the age of 10 weeks. By the time paramedics got there, he had been deprived of oxygen for so long that he was brain dead. Musk never speaks about the incident again.
 

Mars oasis

Musk, along with few others, travelled to Moscow to look for Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) that could send the envisioned payloads into the space. They met a couple of companies who rejected their proposal. After six months, he visited Russia again for the same project. This time, they were offered a deal for $8 million for a rocket, which Musk considered too expensive. On his flight back from Moscow, Musk thought of creating his own company to make affordable rockets. And, thus, SpaceX came into being.
 

SpaceX (crisis)

Musk founded SpaceX, with an objective to lower space transportation costs and make Mars colonization a reality. Musk invested a lot of money which he got from the sale of PayPal into SpaceX. The company’s first three launches failed which sparked doubt in many investors. They only had enough money for one more launch; they were almost at the verge of bankruptcy. It was a very stressful time for Musk. The fourth launch was a huge success, and as a consequence SpaceX received a contract from NASA for $1.6 billion. SpaceX was sending rockets to space at one third the cost of any other agencies in the business. Musk had gone all out for the SpaceX launch which, fortunately for him, turned out to be a success.
 
 

Tesla (crisis)

Musk founded Tesla Motors in 2003, a company aimed to produce cost-efficient electric cars. The company’s first electric car was Roadster, a high-performance vehicle but not very cost-efficient. The launch was delayed and the company also faced severe financial issues, coming very close to shutting down. By his own admission, 2008 was the worst year of his life. The car was costing almost double the predicted price, thereby making the funds insufficient. Musk had to make an important decision then: Either put all his life’s savings into the company or see his company fade away. The latter wasn’t an option for him, so he put everything in. The gamble turned out to be lucky for this parallel-entrepreneur as the car received great reviews for its performance.
 
 

Elon musk’s Bankruptcy.

Musk was living on personal loans from friends since October 2009. Even the company wasn’t doing very good financially and had to borrow $465 million from The United States Department of Energy. Before this, Tesla had been largely surviving on Musk’s personal investments, which was no longer possible. His divorce settlement with his wife added to his woes. Tesla came to Musk’s rescue, with reimbursing his trips and awarding him 6.7 million stock options. Musk seems like a go-to-guy to learn how to fail successfully. Failure is probably the least of his worries, rather a necessity. In his own words: Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough. Musk effectively manages his three companies, five children, and even makes time to think about the future. With a passionate and innovative billionaire like Musk, only time will tell what he has in store for us.
 

Conclusion

Failures are the part of life, right from the time of birth to the death bed human beings are failure, it’s just the matter of mind set, how we handle it and how we let it effect out lives. Self-belief is the only way to succeed in this dynamic world of technology. You may see the share price for each Tesla and SpaceX to see how “Elon Musk became successful failure”.

To read more about Elon Musk click here.