What Challenges Did Elon Musk Face?
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Prior to becoming the man launching rockets into orbit and cool cars that are electric, Elon Musk had a rough beginning. As a child growing up in South Africa, he was far from the popular kid. In fact, he got bullied so horribly in school that one day he landed in the hospital. He was tiny, shy, and obsessed with reading books, particularly science fiction and computers. While his peers were playing sports, Elon was coding games and reading books on space. It may sound hip today, but in those days it made him a bully magnet. Being beaten and bullied was not a one-time occurrence—it was a recurring aspect of his life for years.
He Took A Huge Risk By Leaving His Home Country Alone Just To Chase A Dream That Was Still Super Unclear
When Elon was 17 years old, he packed his bags alone and emigrated to North America by himself. Just picture it: leaving it all—your family, your friends, your comfort level—behind because you think there is something else waiting for you. That’s what he did. He initially moved to Canada, then later to the U.S., on little money and a vague idea. He had odd jobs here and there, scraped by on shoestring budgets, and subsisted in some rather low-rent accommodations just to keep himself in school. It wasn’t glamorous, but he persevered. For anybody, that type of leap is intimidating, especially as a teenager doing it all on his own.
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His First Companies Were Not Instantly Successful And He Had To Fight Hard Just To Be Taken Seriously
Everybody always thinks that Elon's first company made him wealthy overnight, and that is not exactly how it happened. He co-founded a company called Zip2 with his brother, and in the beginning, they were sleeping in the office and showering at the YMCA. He took the company to investors, was rejected, and had to keep trying until someone took a chance on him. Even when Zip2 was taking off, the board pushed him out of the leadership role, which was a huge setback. And then there was X.com, later named PayPal, where he was also pushed out of the company. So even when his companies were successful, he was still getting kicked to the side.
He Put Everything On The Line For Tesla And SpaceX And Almost Lost Everything In The Same Year
Elon Musk was working on two enormous projects by 2008: SpaceX and Tesla. And both were collapsing concurrently. Tesla couldn’t get its first electric car made and was almost running out of cash. SpaceX had lost three straight rocket launches, and if it lost the fourth, that would’ve been it. Elon borrowed money to even pay the rent at one point. Elon used his own cash to keep both companies going when everyone else had lost faith in them. Most others would’ve quit, but he didn’t. That fourth launch? It succeeded. And NASA contracted SpaceX, giving it a second life.
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His Ideas Often Sounded Way Too Crazy And People Laughed At Him More Than They Cheered Him On
Let's be honest, lots of people thought that Elon had lost his mind when he started talking about colonizing Mars, digging tunnels under cities, and making brain chips. They taunted him online, mocked him using derogatory epithets, and branded him as everything ranging from threatening to impossible. People wrote him off, investors lost faith, and he even got in trouble for tweeting too much. There was never anything easy or safe about him. But he kept going forward rather than going in reverse. He kept his mind on the bigger picture despite whether or not others thought that he was crazy.
He Is Still Facing New Problems Every Day But He Keeps Showing That Failing Does Not Mean You Are Finished
Elon Musk is certainly not having an easy life these days. Tesla has quality issues and recalls. SpaceX has rockets that are exploding. His new company, Neuralink, is controversial. Plenty of drama happened on Twitter (formerly known as X, which is what he called it). The issue is that he won't stop. It's all his whole story really - make a mistake, fall, then get back better. It's not about being perfect. It's about keeping going when it begins to fail.
