Elon Musk: from bullied schoolboy to world's richest man
How the Tesla and SpaceX chief rose to the top in the business world, in 10 steps
Elon Musk overtakes Amazon’s Bezos to become world’s richest person
Elon Musk’s journey from South African schoolboy to the world’s richest man, pushing the boundaries of space travel, has been one of the more extraordinary tales in the modern business world. Here’s how he got there.
Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa, to parents who divorced before he was 10. His mother was a model, his father an electromechanical engineer and property developer. Musk had an early interest in computing and taught himself computer programming. He was badly bullied at school and was even admitted to hospital for two weeks after a gang of boys threw him down some stairs. He became obsessed by moving to the US, which he saw as a land of opportunity.
He collected degrees from a host of universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, while holding down internships in Silicon Valley. Eventually he was accepted for the PhD programme at California’s prestigious Stanford University. He dropped out after two days in favour of the booming world of internet startups.
The first of his business ventures began in Palo Alto, California, famed for hosting tech companies such as Apple. His first venture, a software firm called Zip2 founded with his brother Kimbal, took time to succeed. They started it in 1995 and Musk has spoken of sleeping in the office because he couldn’t afford an apartment. He received $22m for his
