Elon Musk’s Family and How He Became A Very Successful Entrepreneur

While you may know one or two things about Elon’s SpaceX, Tesla and his other endeavours, you will find concise details about his family life and success stories here.

Elon’s Father, Errol Musk is an Engineer 

Born on June 28, 1971 during the apartheid-era in South Africa, Elon Musk’s extraordinary tech talents could be traced to the fact that his father, Errol Musk is an engineer. It was thus, easy for Elon to pick some designing/building skills from his dad who owned his own engineering firm. Errol also worked as a sailor and pilot.

At 10, Musk had already developed such deep interest in computers that saw him programming at the very young age of 12! Still at 12, he developed his own software, a video game called ‘Blastar’ which he sold for about $500.

After high school, Elon left South Africa for Canada where he enrolled at Queens University. He however, transferred to the University of Pennsylvania after two years. In 1995, he graduated from Penn with dual Bachelors – one in Physics and the other in Economics.

Meanwhile, Elon has always had a strained relationship with his father despite having a similar career line with him. In a Rolling Stone interview, he described his dad as a “terrible human being”.

His Mother, Maye Musk Worked Five Jobs!

Looking at the Elon Musk of today, one may be tempted to think he had it all rosy from the start. But no, his parents actually divorced when he was just 10. Thenceforth, it was hard times for his mother, Maye Musk, a Canadian dietician and model. At some point, Maye had to do up to five jobs at a time in order to make enough cash to fend for Elon and his siblings.

Elon’s mum is notable for being the oldest woman to feature on the CoverGirl mag. With much hard work, she was able to raise Elon and his two siblings, namely:

Kimbal Musk

• Date of Birth: September 20, 1972
• Occupation: Chef, restaurateur, businessman
• Spouse: Christiana Wyly (m. 2018)
• No. of Children: 3

Kimbal Musk is Elon Musk’s immediate younger sibling and only brother. Just like Elon, Kimbal left SA for Canada after high school. He also enrolled in Queens University but unlike his brother who transferred, he graduated from the institution in 1995. With Elon, Kimbal moved to California where they co-founded an internet tech business called Zip2.

After Zip2, Kimbal branched out from tech to culinary business, becoming an established chef and restaurateur. He is also a successful entrepreneur and owner of The Kitchen restaurant Group. Despite thriving in a different career area, Kimbal remains a board member and shareholder of Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla companies. He is married to Christiana Wyly since 2018 and they have three children together.

Tosca Musk

• Date of Birth: September 20, 1972
• Occupation: Screen and web producer and director
• No. of Children: 2

Tosca Musk is Elon Musk’s youngest sibling and only sister. She works as a film, television and web content producer and director. Just like her brothers, Tosca moved to Canada after high school. There, she attended the University of Columbia, graduating in 1997. She is one of the co-founders of the streaming service and production company, Passionflix.

Elon Musk maintains a close relationship with his family, especially with his mum and siblings. Here’s one of his IG feeds showing them together at a event; L-R: Kimbal, Tosca, Maye and Elon.

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Meet Elon Musk’s First Ex-wife, Justine Wilson

• Full Name: Jennifer Justine Wilson
• Date of Birth: September 2, 1972
• Occupation: Author
• Spouse: Elon Musk (m. 2000; div. 2008)
• No. of Children: 5

Elon Musk’s first wife was Justine Wilson, a Canadian fantasy writer. The duo met while studying at Queens University and courted for some years before tying the knot in January 2000. Unfortunately, Musk and Wilson separated in September, 2008. Justine threw sufficient light on her relationship and marital life with Elon Musk in this Marie Claire article.

With Justine, Elon had five surviving children. The ex-couple’s first child who should have made them six died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) just 10 weeks after his birth in 2002.

He Married Talulah Riley Twice – Here’s Why

• Full name: Talulah Jane Riley-Milburn
• Date of Birth: September 26, 1985
• Occupation: Actress
• Spouse: Elon Musk (m. 2010; div. 2012, m. 2013; div. 2016)

Elon Musk’s relationship with English actress Talulah Riley made headlines on many occasions for different reasons; the most notable being the fact that the duo married each other twice.

Musk began dating Riley in 2008, the same year he divorced his first wife, Justine Musk. After dating for about two years, Elon and Talualah tied the knot in 2010. about two years later (in January 2012), the couple announced an end to their relationship.

Surprisingly, Musk and Riley got back together and remarried each other in July, 2013 after one and half years of staying apart. In December 2014, the former ex-couple once again filed for divorce but later withdrew the action. Riley however, filed another divorce suit in March 2016 which became finalized in December of same year.

Speaking in a recent interview, Talulah Riley attributed her on and off relationship with Musk to the fact that he married her a virgin. That was exactly why, according to her, it was very hard to let go of Musk. Following their final separation, Musk dated American actress and model, Amber Heard for about a year, between January 2017 and early 2018.

Meet Grimes, Elon’s Latest Romantic Partner

• Full name: Claire Elise Boucher
• Date of Birth: March 17, 1988
• Occupation: Musician
• Spouse: Elon Musk (partner since 2018)

As of 2020, Elon Musk is in a romantic affair with Canadian musician, Claire Boucher who is popular with her stage name, Grimes. Musk and Grimes went public with their relationship in May 2018. The couple later welcomed a son in May 2020.

Musk Is a Father of Six, including Twins and Triplets!

As of 2020, Elon Musk has a total of six children. He had his first five kids, comprising a set of twins and triplets with his first wife, Justine Wilson. He later had one other son with his girlfriend, Grimes.

Meet Twins Griffin and Xavier

Griffin and Xavier Musk are Elon Musk’s set of twin boys whom he had with his then wife, Justine Musk through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). They were born in 2004.

Triple Bundle – Kai, Saxon and Damian

Kai, Saxon and Damia Musk are the set of triplet boys Elon had with Justine in 2006. Just like the twins, they were also conceived via IVF.

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Here Comes the ‘Controversial’ Baby X

On May 4, 2020, Elon Musk welcomed a son with his girlfriend, Claire Boucher a.k.a Grimes. musk and Grimes sparked up controversy after they announced their son’s name as “X Æ A-12”. After the name was declared illegal under California law for containing the non-English alphabet letter ‘Æ’, the couple changed it to “X AE A-XII”, with X being his first name and AE A-XII being his middle name. Still confused? We are too!

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Amidst all the Chaos, Elon Musk’s Rare Qualities Shot Him Ahead in His Career

Despite all that was happening behind in his personal and family life, Elon Musk was moving ahead with the speed of a rocket in his career and businesses. You’d certainly love to know the qualities that set him on high, amidst all odds.

Spirit of Invention

Musk’s inventive spirit is for sure the number one quality that shoots him high above his equals. For instance, when everyone else are probably getting irritated while stuck in a traffic, or at least looking for how to while away the time, Musk was busy thinking of an innovative solution. That was exactly how he came up with his car tunnel plan. As a child, his parents had to take him for a hearing test to ensure he has no impairments. This was because, the young chap was always lost in invention daydreams to the point that he scarcely hears what goes around him!

Focus

Yes, undivided focus – like the one of a shark, is another quality that makes Elon Musk so different from others. Musk is that person that puts in all his resources into any goal he envisages in order to bring it to reality. Dead-focused on his goal to transform the world, the inventor invested all the money he realised from selling Paypal into creating SpaceX and Tesla such that he had to borrow money to pay his rent. Note that we are talking about over $150 million here. Anybody else with such hefty pocket would have just purchased a luxury mansion in a pricey LA neighborhood and had a good night sleep; or rather jetted off for a comforting Hawaii vacation!

Determination

And to think that Elon Musk didn’t encounter failures while pursuing his inventive and business goals is so wrong. Per Medium, Musk has “a resume of failures”. However, persevering determination sustains Musk – it keeps him glued to a dream until it becomes a reality. Per his ex-wife Justine, when her ex-husband looks on anything and says “it shall be mine”, he never stops nor looks back until he grabs it! Speaking in a recent interview, Justine said Musk doesn’t take no for an answer. He doesn’t let challenges stop him or even slow him down. This explains why the billionaire engineer sometime slept under his desk at his Tesla factory to enable him wake up easily any time of the night to repair malfunctioning robots. That is determination in Musk’s terms!

Hard Work

Accompanying Elon’s determination is hard work. There are only few people who would spend 24 hours of their birthday working in a car workshop. Musk did that on his 47th birthday – he spent the entire day working in his Tesla factory. What better definition can you give for hard work?

Elon Musk’s bonus talent that makes every of his ventures successful no matter how foolhardy it initially appears to be is his endearing personality – his ability to make people buy and share his idea. For instance, Musk was able to convince people to buy a flimsy flamethrower for $500 by simply making them to share in his vision.

Elon Musk’s Companies and Inventions

With a high degree of all these combined, Elon Musk made it to where he is today; they are in fact, the seasonings of his extraordinary success story. Among his major goals are revolutionizing transportation systems, reducing global warming, setting up a human colony on Mars in order to reduce the risk of human extinction, and advancing artificial intelligence. To realize these goals, Musk has come up with numerous establishments, inventions and innovations, namely:

Zip2

• Year founded: 1995
• Headquarters:

As earlier mentioned, Elon Musk founded his first company, Zip2 Corporation with his brother, Kimbal Musk. Elon had moved to California to pursue a PhD in Applied Physics and Materials Science at Stanford University. He however, dropped out just after two days to venture into internet business which was burgeoning at the time.

With Kimbal, Elon set up the internet technology software company with the help of the $28,000 they got from their father, Errol Musk. Zip2 provided a searchable business directory that could be described as an online version of the yellow pages telephone directory with maps included.

Did you know that: In February 1999, Elon and Kimbal sold Zip2 Corp. to Compaq for USD341 million ($34 million in stock options and $307 million in cash).

X.com – PayPal

• Year founded: 1999
• Headquarters: 2211 North First Str., San Jose, CA, U.S.A.

Later in the year, precisely in November 1999, Musk took $10 million out of his Zip2 sale earnings to create an online financial services and e-mail payment company called X.com. Few months later (in March 2000), X.com merged with Confinity, another software company owned by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek to become PayPal, the world’s first internet payment platform.

In October 2002, eBay acquired Paypal for US$1.5 billion in stock. The company has since remained an eBay subsidiary. Musk who was the largest shareholder at the time of its sale received US$165 million.

Did you know that: The first product of Paypal was voted one of the worst business ideas? But as of 2020, the company ranks with the largest US companies by revenue, making it at #182 on Forbes Fortune 500 list, with a revenue of approximately $18 million.

SpaceX

• Year founded: 2002
• Headquarters: Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.

Inspired by Russia’s refusal to sell him rockets with which to convey some living organisms or plants to Mars, Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with $100 million out of his Paypal sales fortune. With SpaceX, Elon Musk who is the company’s CEO and CTO, created a true spacefaring civilization and advanced the state of rocket technology. The enterprise which develops and manufactures space launch vehicles is in a long-term partnership with NASA since 2008, and has since sent a total of 20 cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. The Space Exploration Tech. company also plans to launch the first cargo mission on Mars come 2022.

Did You Know that: SpaceX is the first private company to launch a rocket that would send a commercial vehicle to the international space station? In 2017, the company launched another new invention which made space travel more affordable – a rocket made from reusable parts. As of 2020, SpaceX is valued at almost $36 billion, per Forbes.

Tesla

• Year founded: 2003
• Headquarters: Palo Alto, CA, U.S.A.

In July 2003, Elon Musk founded an electric car company which he named Tesla Motors, Inc. He is currently the CEO and product architect of the electric car manufacturing company and owns 20.8% of its shares. As 2020, Tesla has six subsidiary companies, namely: SolarCity, Tesla Grohmann Automation, Maxwell Technologies, DeepScale, Hibar Systems, and SilLion.

Did you know that: Tesla ranked as the world’s best-selling plug-in and battery electric passenger car manufacturer in 2019, with a market share of 17% of the plug-in segment and 23% of the battery-electric segment. The Model 3 ranks as the world’s all-time best-selling plug-in electric car, with more than 500,000 delivered. Tesla cars also accounted for 81% of the battery electric vehicles sold in the United States in the first half of 2020. Tesla as well ranked #124 on Forbes’ 2020 Fortune 500 list, with an approximated revenue of $25 billion. Moreover, Tesla’s subsidiary, SolarCity ranks as the second-largest provider of solar power systems in the United States as of 2020.

Hyperloop

In addition to his numerous SpaceX and Tesla creativities, Musk in 2013, came up with an innovative high-speed transportation system called Hyperloop. Working with Hyperloop to realize this dream are several subsidiary companies including Virgin Hyperloop One, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, TransPod, and Hyper Poland, among others.

Did you know that: If realized, the hyperloop tech will convey passengers in pods through a network of low-pressure tubes at speeds as high as 700 mph! It also promises to be the cheapest long-distance mode of transportation.

OpenAI

• Year founded: 2015
• Headquarters: Pioneer Building, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.

OpenAI, Inc. is a non-profit artificial intelligence research establishment which Elon Musk co-founded in December, 2015. Elon and co created the research company with the aim of reducing the risks associated with artificial intelligence. Musk has however, resigned from the board of the organization but a contributor.

Did you know that: In 2019, Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI LP, a for-profit subsidiary of OpenAI, Inc.

Neuralink

• Year founded: 2016
• Headquarters: Pioneer Building, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.

In July 2016, Elon Musk created Neuralink, a start-up that is developing a human brain-computer interface. The neurotechnology enterprise is working on creating a chip that can be implanted into the the brain to make a mind-machine connection or sort of merge possible.

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Headquartered on the same building, Musk’s OpenAI and Neuralink work hand in hand in advancing the technology of Artificial Intelligence.

The Boring Company

• Year founded: 2016
• Headquarters: Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.

Elon Musk’s latest enterprise is The Boring Company (TBC) which he founded in December 2016 and launched in January, 2017. The Boring Company is a Hawthorne-based infrastructure company which specializes in tunnel construction. Elon created the company as a means of fulfilling his dream of getting rid of the frequent Los Angeles road traffic jam. TBC initially kicked off as a subsidiary of SpaceX but later became a company of its own in 2018.

Did you know that: As of 2020, TBC has completed and ongoing projects in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and Las Vegas.

An Inside Look at Elon Musk’s Houses

The business mogul has a penchant for real estate as do most wealthy persons. He has five highly-priced homes, all in the same neighbourhood of Bel-Air, Los Angeles. In 2012, he bought a 22,248 square-foot mansion which has 7 bedrooms and 7 full and 4 half bathrooms for $17 million.

In 2015, it circulated that the man bought a $20 million estate for his on-and-off wife, Talulah Riley. He also purchased a 2,963-square-foot ranch style house over the summer of the same year. Though he has other choice properties, it is estimated that Musk has so far spent a whopping $72 million on his Bel Air properties.

As of January 2020, Bloomberg Billionaires Index places Elon Musk’s real time net worth at $209 billion.