1. Family background

Musk was born on June 28, 1971 in a white family in Pretoria (now Tshwane), the administrative capital of South Africa. His father was a British-Dutch mixed-race, working as an electromechanical engineer in South Africa. He was very rich, not only with well-trained horses, private yachts and airplanes, but also with an emerald mine. His net worth reached about 20 million US dollars in the 1980s.

His mother was born in Canada and is a model. She also works as a writer and nutritionist. Musk's mother is named May Musk. She started her modeling career at the age of 15 and has been doing so for 50 years.

In 1970, she married Errol Musk and gave birth to three children, among whom our protagonist Elon Musk is their eldest son. With a wealthy family and the influence of his parents, Musk's achievements today are inseparable from his family.

2. The road to study

In his childhood, Musk showed extraordinary talent. In 1980, his parents divorced and he lived with his father. At the age of eight, he could read the Encyclopedia Britannica fluently. At the age of nine, he finished the programming guide that others needed six months to learn in three days.

In 1983, 12-year-old Elon Musk successfully designed a space game software called "Blastar", and then sold it to "PC and Office Technology" magazine for $500, earning his first pot of gold in life.

In 1988, Musk went to Canada and lived with May's relatives. Unfortunately, the family was not rich. For a period of time, Musk could only live on one dollar. In 1989, Musk entered the University of Pennsylvania to study economics. After obtaining a bachelor's degree in economics, he stayed in school for a year and obtained a bachelor's degree in physics.

In 1995, the 24-year-old Musk entered Stanford University to study for a master's degree in materials science and applied physics, but soon after school started, he dropped out and started his own business. Regarding dropping out of school, Musk said humorously, "For students like me, staying in school is more risky than dropping out to start a business."

Dropping out again! Bill Gates, the world's richest man, dropped out of school in his junior year and founded Microsoft, Steve Jobs dropped out of school in his freshman year and founded Apple, Yahoo founder Jerry Yang dropped out of school while studying for a doctorate and started a business, Michael Dell dropped out of school in his freshman year and started a business, and the founders of Internet giants such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter all dropped out of school to start a business.

But, these are only a few examples of successful dropouts. Do regard dropping out as your first step towards success. The entrepreneurial environment is no longer like it used to be. You can't find a job without a diploma or degree. Honestly completing our studies is our most stable guarantee.

III. Early Internet Entrepreneurship

Back to the point, after dropping out of school, Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk founded Zip2 with random angel investment from a small group in Silicon Valley. In 1999, American computer manufacturer Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash and $34 million in stock options. The 28-year-old Elon Musk made a profit of $22 million from the acquisition. In March of the same year, Elon Musk invested $10 million and founded an online financial services and email payment business company "X.com" with two partners from Silicon Valley.

In 2000, Elon Musk merged X.com with Confinity, founded by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, to solve the competition in the online quick transfer business. The new company was renamed PayPal in February of the following year.

In October 2002, PayPal, which focused on mobile payment, was acquired by eBay, the world's largest online merchant company at the time, for $1.5 billion. Elon Musk was the largest shareholder of PayPal, holding 11.7% of the shares and receiving $165 million of the proceeds.

After these two entrepreneurial ventures and acquisitions, Musk has accumulated a certain amount of funds and experience. And Elon Musk's wonderful story has just begun.

Sogou CEO Wang Xiaochuan once said: South Africa, where Musk lived at the time, had the inherent freedom and roughness of the African continent, and was accompanied by fierce racist bloodshed, which made him feel ashamed as a white wealthy class. Vance firmly believes that this social environment has led Musk to put saving humanity first from the beginning, rather than solving the problems of South Africa or even the African continent.

The Vance mentioned in this sentence is Ashley Vance, the author of "Silicon Valley Iron Man: The Adventures of Elon Musk". I also recommend everyone to read this book.

Musk is a dreamer. He wants to immigrate to Mars, build rockets by himself, and create a super high-speed rail. But he is also a doer. He is not obsessed with those 140 characters. The early Internet entrepreneurship is just to provide financial support for him to truly realize his dream.