Building a trillion-dollar empire of self-driving cars, space exploration, social media, satellite internet, scientific breakthroughs, and more, there's no wonder why Elon Musk is currently the richest man alive today. However, his success story was the fruit of his ambitious mindset as a teenager from South Africa, Canada, and finally, the US.
Interest in Science and Technology
South Africa was home to Musk for years since his father, Errol, was based in the area as an engineer and became a part-owner of an emerald mine located in Zambia, according to Business Insider. His family did experience financial comfort until his parents divorced when he was 8 years old, with him choosing to live with his father in South Africa.
As a 13-year-old, Musk developed an early interest in technology, where he became oddly fascinated with space, computers, and everything science. He coded a space-themed video game called Blastar, which he sold to a computer magazine for around $500, when he was 12.
With a successful venture at an early age, he began to face isolation while in South Africa due to bullying. But for Musk, the sky's the limit, especially with the skills he now realizes he can further improve and capitalize on. Instead of letting bullies take over his life, he channeled his energy into learning.
Read more: Musk's $70M GOP Donations Under Fire as Biden Claims Visa Violations for Alleged Illegal Work in US
Early Work Experience
Business Insider also noted that even after choosing to live with Errol, the two never had a good relationship after the divorce. This led to Musk leaving South Africa to move to Canada, with hopes of reaching the United States. With the help of his mother, he was able to receive Canadian citizenship at age 17. This allowed him to stay legally and seek work opportunities.
During this time, Yahoo Finance learned that he started working on his cousin's farm in the rural village of Saskatchewan, where he does vegetable gardening and grain shoveling to bins to support himself. But his character was not built this way because when he turned 18, he sought the highest-paying job.
Eventually, he landed a job at a lumber mill's boiler room in Vancouver where he earned $18 per hour. The reason why it started at a higher rate is because he has to crawl into tight and hazardous spaces while wearing a hazmat suit so that he can shovel hot residue. The job was so challenging that only a few lasted more than a week. He and his two co-workers, out of 30, were the only ones left working at the end of the week.
Business Ventures
At 19, Musk is ready to move into formal higher education, so he enrolled at Queen's University with an Engineering course with a general arts curriculum. Yahoo Finance shared that while studying, the now-billionaire entrepreneur was already sharpening his business skills. To be specific, he organized ticketed house parties to help pay for his tuition.
However, Musk felt that he could be more than his Father's legacy and started seeking specialized education in what he's highly interested in, which is tech and science. After completing 2 years in Queens, he moved to the University of Pennsylvania in the US by allegedly obtaining a student visa. He pursued degrees in economics and physics.
From Penn University forward, Elon Musk gathered more than enough work experience and formal education to support his dreams of pursuing the tech and science industry while exploring entrepreneurial ventures. In 1990, Thomasnet stated that he already co-founded two companies, Zip2 and X, which propelled him to more businesses in 2000 and beyond like Paypal, Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and more.
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