There is no doubt that Elon Musk has an exceptional mind that has led him to major success. He did pick up a company that was very close to dying and turned it into one of the most important automotive companies in the world. He is known for major successes that have changed the world. When he was in college, he predicted that three things would have a major impact on the future of humanity: the internet, sustainable energy, and multi-planetary life. His plan was to be a part of all of them.
He is the inspiration for Tony Stark’s entrepreneurial character
Iron Man director, Jon Favreau, turned to Musk as a real-life inspiration for Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. Musk was given a short cameo in Iron Man 2, where he plays himself discussing his last technological idea.
He coded his first video game at the age of 12
Blastar, as he named it, is now available online. It is like a knock-off from the game Space Invaders, but then it was coded by Musk when he was 12 living in South Africa. The game was never officially released but its code is featured in a book about Musk published in May this year. Musk taught himself programming before coding this game.
He is co-founder of PayPal
Musk wanted to create a way to safely make money transactions. In 1999 he founded X.com, an online payment company that later became PayPal, which would later be acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock, of which $165 million went to Musk.
Sold his first company for $307 million
Zip2 was established by Musk right after dropping out of grad school. The site provided online newspapers with maps and directions. He sold it in 1999.
Co-founded Tesla Motors
This is probably what Musk is mostly known for, especially due to the press that Tesla auto-pilot cars have generated. He is now the CEO and chief product architect of Tesla.