A Living Legend – Elon Musk is well-known for revolutionizing our current society! Indeed, with his Tesla, SpaceX, and PayPal, life couldn’t have been any more interesting.
Born on June 28, 1971, Elon Reeve Musk is hailed among the Most Powerful People in the world. He is a renowned engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur. With his foundation of several companies – SpaceX, Neuralink, Tesla, among others – he now ranks as the 40th richest person in the world. Further, his influence in the modern society of today and the future is immeasurable.
Check out the interesting facts below and discover how awesome Elon Musk is.
Elon Musk Facts
1. Musk has is a citizen of three nations
Elon Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa. When he turned 17 years old, he migrated to Canada to study at Queen’s University. Two years later, he shifted to the University of Pennsylvania where he finally received his college degrees in Physics. At the same time, Musk received his bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University’s Wharton School.
With all these transfers, Musk was able to acquire three different citizenships, namely South African, Canadian, and American citizenship, an interesting fact about Elon Musk.
Indeed, not only was he able to collect academic degrees, but also citizenships too!
2. Musk was a voracious reader as a kid!
Elon Musk is a living testament that reading is a very important factor for success! In his case, he even claims that it was books who have actually raised him!
At age 9, Musk read the entire encyclopedia books. At age 10, he devoured information about computer programming. This led him to his early video game creation – the Blastar – which he sold to PC and Office Technology for about US $500.00. Indeed, he was able to convert the theoretical knowledge he gained from books into practical practice.
The influence of his childhood favorite book – Foundation series by Isaac Asimov – resonates in his life up until today. From the said book, he learned that he should take action to preserve human civilization by decreasing the period of the dark age. Eventually, this became his guiding principle.
3. Musk was a Stanford dropout
In 1995, Elon Musk received his undergraduate degrees – Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics – from the University of Pennsylvania. Thereafter, he was admitted to the doctorate program in Energy Physics and Material Science at Stanford University in California.
However, during this period, he saw a lot of opportunities in the boom of the Internet! Thus, eager to partake with this phenomenon, Musk dropped out after attending 2 days of classes at Stanford and launched his very first company – Zip2 Corporation, an interesting Elon Musk fact.
Indeed, Musk knows the real opportunity when he sees one!
4. Musk is the real-life Iron Man
Well, not because he saves the Earth from human and alien terrorists – or maybe he does? Who knows? But because Elon Musk was the inspiration for the character of Iron Man!
In fact, Tony Stark was somewhat based on the personality of Musk. To capture this, Robert Downey Jr., the actor who plays Tony Stark/Iron Man, meets with Musk for his acting inspiration.
Interestingly, Musk made a cameo appearance in Iron Man 2. Further, this movie was also filmed at SpaceX!
5. Musk made numerous cameo
Indeed, it is no longer surprising to suddenly see a cameo appearance of Elon Musk! Apparently, he really likes to take part in different popular shows like The Simpsons, The Big Bang Theory, South Park, among others.
Recently in 2019, Musk became PewDiePie’s co-host in his “Meme Review”! Also, he took a role as Elon Tusk in a season four episode of Rick and Morty.
Indeed, not only Musk knows how to create, but he also knows how to have fun!
6. Musk does not believe in religion
As expected from a science expert, Elon Musk is vocal about his non-religious beliefs. He refused the idea that there is an actual higher being – a master intelligence – who have created everything since it would only lead to a circular argument. Further, he claims the Universe can actually be explained using the fundamental laws of physics. Nonetheless, he holds that there is a destiny involved in humanity.
In the end, Musk does not adhere to the idea that science and religion could even co-exist, an interesting Elon Musk fact.
7. Like Tony Stark, Musk is a philanthropist
Elon Musk founded the Musk Foundation to provide solar-power energy systems in areas affected by natural disasters. In 2010, this foundation, in collaboration with the SolarCity, donated a 25-kilowatt solar power system to hurricane-stricken Coden, Alabama. In 2011, the Musk Foundation invested about US$250,000 for Japan’s solar power project in Sōma in response to the recent tsunami which shattered the city.
Recently in 2018, Musk donated over US$480,000 to all Flint Michigan schools for the installation of new water fountains with a water filtration system. A year later, over 30,000 students therein were able to have access to safe drinking water. In 2019, he also donated US$1 million to #TeamTrees’ – a tree-planting project by the YouTube community.
This list goes on. With these philanthropic efforts, we could see that Musk really cares about the environment!
8. Musk has a huge net worth with little salary
With Tesla, SpaceX, and PayPal, Elon Musk ranks as the 40th richest person in the whole world! In fact, he has a net worth of over $23.6 billion.
On the contrary, his salary for Tesla is just less than US$40,000.00 annually, a fun fact about Elon Musk. You did not expect this, did you? Interestingly, he rarely even cashes these checks too. After all, with his over 35 million Tesla shares, he definitely is not working for nothing!
Conclusion
Elon Musk has definitely lived his life. However, there is no sign of him stopping yet! With his efforts, he can revolutionize our system of transportation – not only on Earth but also in space.
Indeed, from being an avid reader to making the impossible possible, Musk is a 100 percent interesting guy, and the facts above prove that!
I hope that this article on Elon Musk facts was helpful. If you are interested, visit the Historical People Facts Page!
