biography about elon musk

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Eight things we learned from the Elon Musk biography

Widespread access to world’s richest man allowed biographer Walter Isaacson to detail a number of illuminating anecdotes

A new biography of Elon Musk was published on Tuesday and contains colourful details of the life of the world’s richest man.

Musk afforded widespread access to his biographer, Walter Isaacson, the author of the bestselling biography of the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, and the book contains a series of illuminating anecdotes about Musk. Here are eight things we learned from the book.

1. Musk’s difficult relationship with his father

Musk, 52, was born and raised in South Africa and endured a fraught relationship with his father, Errol, an engineer. Isaacson writes that Errol “bedevils Elon”.

Musk’s brother, Kimbal, says the worst memory of his life was watching Errol berate Musk after he was hospitalised after a fight at school (the book says Musk was still getting corrective surgery for the injuries decades later). “My father just lost it,” says Kimbal.

Musk and Kimbal, who are estranged from their father, describe Errol as a “volatile fabulist”. Interviewed by Isaacson, Errol admits he encouraged a “physical and emotional toughness” in his sons.

Grimes, the artist who is mother to three of his 10 children, says PTSD from Musk’s childhood shaped an aversion to contentment: “I just don’t think he knows how to savor success and smell the flowers.” Musk tells Isaacson he agrees: “Adversity shaped me. My pain threshold became very high.”

2. Elon Musk has an issue with the ‘woke mind virus’

Shortly before taking over Twitter, or X as it is now called, Musk told Isaacson that the “woke mind virus” – a derogatory term for progressive politics and culture – would prevent extraplanetary settlement (one of Musk’s fixations).

“Unless the woke mind virus, which is fundamentally anti-science, anti-merit, and anti-human in general, is stopped, civilization will never become multiplanetary,” said Musk.

3. Musk gave Twitter executives short shrift

Musk fired Twitter’s executive team as soon as he completed the takeover of Twitter in October last year and it had been coming. When Musk bought a significant stake in Twitter months before, he agreed to meet the CEO, Parag Agrawal. After the meeting, Musk said: “What Twitter needs is a fire-breathing dragon and Parag is not that.”

They soon fell out. Agrawal texted Musk to say his tweet asking if Twitter was “dying” was not helpful. Musk, on a break in Hawaii, replied: “What did you get done this week?” He added: “I’m not joining the board. This is a waste of time. Will make an offer to take Twitter private.”

This was during discussions about Musk joining the board. Agrawal’s reply underlined the power imbalance, and Twitter’s fear of Musk. He texted: “Can we talk?” Musk soon lodged an official bid for Twitter, which he tried unsuccessfully to wriggle out of, but the die was cast for Agrawal and his colleagues.

4. Sam Bankman-Fried tried to get in on the Twitter takeover

The founder and CEO of the fallen cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, offered via his banker to put $5bn (£4.1bn) into the Twitter takeover, the book claims. Bankman-Fried also wanted to discuss putting Twitter on a blockchain – the technological underpinning for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

A subsequent call between Musk and Bankman-Fried in May 2022 went badly, Isaacson wrote. “My bullshit detector went off like red alert on a Geiger counter,” Musk is quoted as saying.

Bankman-Fried’s offer to invest or to roll over $100m of Twitter stock that he claimed he had invested, came to nothing.

5. Musk tried to recruit Rudy Giuliani as an adviser

In his early tycoon career, Musk pondered recruiting the then mayor of New York as a political fixer to help him turn his PayPal business into a bank in 2001. Musk sought a meeting with Giuliani, then coming to the end of his tenure in office, because he wanted to turn PayPal – an online payments company – into a “social network that would disrupt the whole banking industry”.

In 2001, Musk and an investor, Michael Moritz, went to New York to see if they could hire Giuliani to guide them through the process of turning PayPal into a bank. It didn’t go well.

“It was like walking into a mob scene,” Moritz says in the book. Giuliani “was surrounded by goonish confidantes. He didn’t have any idea whatsoever about Silicon Valley, but he and his henchmen were eager to line their pockets”.

“‘This guy occupies a different planet,’ Musk told Moritz.”

6. Musk is concerned about a dwindling human population

One of Musk’s reasons for founding a new artificial intelligence company , xAI, is addressing the threat of population collapse. In one face-to-face conversation with Isaacson, the multi-billionaire said human intelligence was in danger of being surmounted by digital intelligence.

“The amount of human intelligence, he noted, was levelling off because people were not having enough children. Meanwhile, the amount of computer intelligence was going up exponentially, like Moore’s law on steroids. At some point, biological brainpower would be dwarfed by digital brainpower.”

This conversation was conducted at the Austin, Texas house of Shivon Zilis, an executive at Musk’s Neuralink business who is the mother of two of his children. Zilis told Isaacson she agreed to have children with Musk via IVF after listening to his arguments about having children as a “kind of social duty”. She said: “He really wants smart people to have kids, so he encouraged me to.”

7. Musk is very concerned about AI

Musk tells Isaacson that human consciousness is under threat from the prospect of super-intelligent, and uncontrollable, AI systems.

He says: “What can be done to make AI safe? I keep wrestling with that. What actions can we take to minimize AI danger and assure that human consciousness survives?”

8. Musk’s complicated role in the Ukraine conflict

Musk’s satellite communications unit, Starlink, has a key role in Ukraine’s defence against the Russian invasion. When a Russian cyber-attack crippled Ukraine’s satellite comms network an hour before the invasion, Musk stepped in following an appeal for help from Ukrainian officials and the country’s deputy prime minister.

However, the book alleges that Musk told his engineers to “turn off” Starlink coverage that would have facilitated an attack by drone submarines on Russia’s navy at the Sevastopol base in Crimea.

However, Isaacson has subsequently clarified this excerpt after Musk used his X platform to state that there was no Starlink coverage in that area and he refused a Ukrainian request to activate it. Musk posted: “If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”

Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson is published by Simon & Schuster. To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply.

• Biography books

More on this story

Elon Musk defends stance on diversity and free speech during tense interview

OpenAI fires back at Elon Musk in legal fight over breach of contract claims

Elon Musk acts to move Tesla legal base to Texas after pay package ruling

Science Weekly A fasting prime minister and a mind-reading billionaire: the week in science – podcast

Elon Musk’s $56bn Tesla pay package is too much, judge rules

Three cheers for the Delaware judge who stood up to Elon Musk

Elon Musk says Neuralink has implanted its first brain chip in human

‘Drama magnet’: Elon Musk’s biggest headlines of 2023

Elon Musk says Disney boss should be ‘fired immediately’ amid X ad boycott

Elon Musk’s AI startup seeks to raise $1bn in equity

Most viewed.

Elon Musk co-founded and leads Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company.

As the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon leads all product design, engineering and global manufacturing of the company's electric vehicles, battery products and solar energy products.

Since the company’s inception in 2003, Tesla’s mission has been to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. The first Tesla product, the Roadster sports car, debuted in 2008, followed by the Model S sedan, which was introduced in 2012, and the Model X SUV, which launched in 2015. Model S received Consumer Reports’ Best Overall Car and has been named the Ultimate Car of the Year by Motor Trend, while Model X was the first SUV ever to earn 5-star safety ratings in every category and sub-category in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s tests. In 2017, Tesla began deliveries of Model 3 , a mass-market electric vehicle with more than 320 miles of range, and unveiled Tesla Semi , which is designed to save owners at least $200,000 over a million miles based on fuel costs alone. In 2019, Tesla unveiled Cybertruck , which will have better utility than a traditional truck and more performance than a sports car, as well as the Model Y compact SUV, which began customer deliveries in early 2020.

Tesla also produces three energy storage products, the Powerwall home battery, the Powerpack commercial-scale battery, and Megapack , which is designed for utility-scale installations. In 2016, Tesla became the world’s first vertically-integrated sustainable energy company with the acquisition of SolarCity, the leading provider of solar power systems in the United States, and in 2017 released Solar Roof – a beautiful and affordable energy generation product.

As lead designer at SpaceX , Elon oversees the development of rockets and spacecraft for missions to Earth orbit and ultimately to other planets. In 2008, the SpaceX Falcon 1 was the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to reach orbit, and SpaceX made further history in 2017 by re-flying both a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft for the first time. Soon after, Falcon Heavy , the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two, completed its first flight in 2018. In 2019, SpaceX’s crew-capable version of the Dragon spacecraft completed its first demonstration mission, and the company will fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station for the first time in 2020. Building on these achievements, SpaceX is developing Starship – a fully reusable transportation system that will carry crew and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond ­– and Starlink , which will deliver high speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable. By pioneering reusable rockets, SpaceX is pursuing the long-term goal of making humans a multi-planet species by creating a self-sustaining city on Mars.

Elon is also CEO of Neuralink , which is developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect the human brain to computers.

He also launched The Boring Company , which combines fast, affordable tunneling technology with an all-electric public transportation system in order to alleviate soul-crushing urban congestion and enable high-speed, long-distance travel. The Boring Company built a 1.15 mile R&D tunnel in Hawthorne, and is currently constructing Vegas Loop, a public transportation system at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Previously, Elon co-founded and sold PayPal, the world's leading Internet payment system, and Zip2, one of the first internet maps and directions services.

• Search Search Please fill out this field.

Early Life and Education

Notable accomplishments, personal eccentricities, the bottom line.

• Business Leaders
• Entrepreneurs

Who Is Elon Musk?

Nathan Laine / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Elon Musk, born in Pretoria, South Africa, is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time. Musk has achieved global fame as the chief executive officer (CEO) of electric automobile maker Tesla ( TSLA ) and the private space company SpaceX. Musk was an early investor in several tech companies, and in October 2022, he completed a deal to take X (formerly Twitter) private.

His success and personal style have given rise to comparisons to other colorful tycoons from U.S. history, including Steve Jobs , Howard Hughes, and Henry Ford . He was named the richest person in the world in 2021, surpassing Amazon ( AMZN ) founder Jeff Bezos. Musk is the richest person in the world as of Feb. 15, 2024.

Let’s look briefly at the life of the man who has scaled the pinnacle of the business world.

Key Takeaways

• Elon Musk is the charismatic CEO of electric car maker Tesla and rocket manufacturer SpaceX.
• Following a contested process, Musk completed a deal to buy the company behind X in October 2022, becoming the owner of the social media company.
• Born and raised in South Africa, Musk spent time in Canada before moving to the United States.
• Educated at the University of Pennsylvania in physics, Musk started getting his feet wet as a serial tech entrepreneur with early successes like Zip2 and X.com, which merged with a company that became PayPal.
• Musk has behaved eccentrically from time to time.

Bailey Mariner / Investopedia

Elon Reeve Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa, the oldest of three children. His father was a South African engineer, and his mother was a Canadian model and nutritionist. After his parents divorced in 1980, Musk lived primarily with his father. He would later dub his father “a terrible human being...almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done.”

“I had a terrible upbringing. I had a lot of adversity growing up. One thing I worry about with my kids is they don’t face enough adversity,” Musk would later say.

Bullied as a Child

Musk attended the private, English-speaking Waterkloof House Preparatory School—he started a year early—and later graduated from Pretoria Boys High School. A self-described bookworm, he made few friends in those places.

“They got my best (expletive) friend to lure me out of hiding so they could beat me up. And that (expletive) hurt,” Musk said. “For some reason, they decided that I was it, and they were going to go after me nonstop. That’s what made growing up difficult. For a number of years, there was no respite. You get chased around by gangs at school who tried to beat the (expletive) out of me, and then I’d come home, and it would just be awful there as well.”

Early Accomplishments

Technology became an escape for Musk. At 10, he became acquainted with programming using a Commodore VIC-20, an early and relatively inexpensive home computer. Before long, Musk had become proficient enough to create Blastar—a video game in the style of Space Invaders. He sold the BASIC code for the game to a PC magazine for $500.

In one telling incident from his childhood, Musk and his brother planned to open a video game arcade near their school. Their parents nixed the plan.

Musk’s College Years

At 17, Musk moved to Canada. He would later obtain Canadian citizenship through his mother.

After emigrating to Canada, Musk enrolled at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. It was there that he met Justine Wilson, an aspiring writer. They would marry and have six sons together, a first son, twins, and then triplets, before divorcing in 2008.

Entering the U.S.

After two years at Queen’s University, Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. He took on two majors, but his time there wasn’t all work and no play. With a fellow student, he bought a 10-bedroom fraternity house, which they used as an ad hoc nightclub.

Musk graduated with a bachelor of science degree in physics, in addition to a bachelor of arts in economics from the  Wharton School . The two majors foreshadowed Musk’s career, but it was physics that left the deepest impression.

“(Physics is) a good framework for thinking,” he would say later. “Boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there.”

Musk was 24 years old when he moved to California to pursue a Ph.D. in applied physics at Stanford University. But, with the Internet exploding and Silicon Valley booming, Musk had entrepreneurial visions dancing in his head. He left the Ph.D. program after just two days.

In 1995, with $15,000 and his younger brother Kimbal at his side, Musk started Zip2, a web software company that would help newspapers develop online city guides.

In 1999, Zip2 was acquired by Compaq Computer Corp. for $341 million. Musk used his Zip2 buyout money to create X.com, a fintech venture before that term was in wide circulation.

X.com merged with a money transfer firm called Confinity, and the resulting company came to be known as PayPal. Peter Thiel ousted Musk as PayPal CEO before eBay ( EBAY ) bought the payments company for $1.5 billion, but Musk still profited from the buyout via his 11.7% PayPal stake.

“My proceeds from PayPal after tax were about $180 million,” Musk said in a 2018 interview. “$100 (million) of that went into SpaceX, $70 (million) into Tesla, and $10 (million) into SolarCity. And I literally had to borrow money for rent.”

In 2017, Musk purchased the X.com domain name back from PayPal, citing its sentimental value.

Musk became involved with the electric cars venture as an early investor in 2004, ultimately contributing about $6.3 million, to begin with, and joined the team, including engineer Martin Eberhard, to help run a company then known as Tesla Motors. Following a series of disagreements, Eberhard was ousted in 2007, and an interim CEO was hired until Musk assumed control as CEO and product architect. Under his watch, Tesla has become the world’s most valuable automaker.

In addition to producing electric vehicles, Tesla maintains a robust presence in the solar energy space, thanks to its acquisition of SolarCity. The company currently produces two rechargeable solar batteries. The smaller Powerwall was developed for home backup power and off-the-grid use, while the larger Powerpack is intended for commercial or electric utility grid use.

Musk used most of the proceeds from his PayPal stake to found Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the rocket's developer commonly known as SpaceX. By his own account, Musk spent $100 million to found SpaceX in 2002 .

Under Musk’s leadership, SpaceX landed several high-profile contracts with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Air Force to design space launch rockets. Musk has publicized plans to send an astronaut to Mars by 2025 in a collaborative effort with NASA.

The company was founded in March 2006 as Twitter by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams. Originally a private company, it went public in November 2013. It raised $1.8 billion through its initial public offering (IPO) .

Musk joined the site in June 2009. A frequent poster on the messaging network, Musk disclosed a 9.2% stake in X in April 2022. The company responded by offering Musk a seat on the board, which he accepted before declining days later. Musk then sent a bear hug letter to the board proposing to buy the company at $54.20 per share.

The company’s board adopted a poison pill provision to discourage Musk from accumulating an even larger stake, but they ultimately accepted Musk’s offer after he disclosed $46.5 billion in committed financing for the deal in a securities filing.

In July 2022, Musk attempted to cancel the deal , arguing that X had failed to provide certain information regarding fake accounts. The company sued Musk to require him to complete the deal.

After months of legal wrangling, the billionaire’s plan to buy the social media platform came to fruition, and Musk took control of the company on Oct. 28, 2022. The company was renamed X the following year.

During his May 8, 2021, appearance on the TV show Saturday Night Live , Musk revealed that he has Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. “I’m actually making history tonight as the first person with Asperger’s to host SNL . Or at least the first to admit it,” he said. How does the neurodevelopment condition manifest itself? “I don’t always have a lot of intonation or variation in how I speak, which I’m told makes for great comedy,” Musk explained.

On Sept. 7, 2018, Musk smoked cannabis during a filmed interview for a podcast.

Just a month earlier, Musk posted an infamous tweet claiming he was considering taking Tesla private and had secured the needed funding. Musk subsequently settled a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) complaint alleging he knowingly misled investors with the tweet by paying a $20 million fine along with the same penalty for Tesla and agreeing to let Tesla’s lawyers approve tweets with material corporate information before posting.

In March 2022, Musk filed a court motion to overturn the consent decree stemming from that case. In April 2022 during a live TED Talk, Musk called the SEC regulators on the case “bastards.”

Is Elon Musk Married?

Elon Musk has been divorced three times—twice from his second wife, Talulah Riley. From 2018 to 2022, he was in a relationship with Canadian singer/songwriter Claire Elise Boucher, professionally known as Grimes, with whom he had a son in 2020, a daughter in 2022, and a third child revealed in 2023. They remain best friends. He also has six boys from his first marriage to Justine Musk. He also shares twins with Shivon Zilis. Musk has a total of 11 children.

How Rich Is Elon Musk?

Elon Musk’s net worth was estimated at $205 billion as of Feb. 15, 2024, making him the wealthiest person on the planet.

Was Elon Musk Born Rich?

No, Elon Musk was born into a middle-class family. In 1995, when he founded X.com, he reportedly had more than $100,000 in student debt and struggled to pay rent.

What Does Elon Musk Do at Tesla?

Elon Musk is officially listed as the co-founder and chief executive officer of Tesla on the company’s website. In a 2021 securities filing, the company disclosed an additional Musk title as “Technoking of Tesla.”

What Companies Does Elon Musk Own?

Elon Musk is a large stakeholder in several companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Co., Neuralink, and X Corp.

Musk’s early interests in philosophy, science fiction, and fantasy novels are reflected in his idealism and concern with human progress—and in his business career. He works in fields he has identified as crucial to humanity’s future, notably the transition to renewable energy sources, space exploration, and the Internet.

Musk has defied critics, disrupted industries, and made the most money anyone ever has from PayPal, Tesla Motors, SolarCity, and SpaceX—game changers all, despite the inevitable missteps.

The New York Times. “ Elon Musk Has Become the World’s Richest Person, as Tesla’s Stock Rallies .”

Bloomberg. “ Bloomberg Billionaires Index .”

Rolling Stone. “ Elon Musk: The Architect of Tomorrow .”

Bloomberg. “ Bloomberg Billionaires Index: Elon Musk .”

The Washington Post. “ The 22 Most Memorable Quotes from the New Elon Musk Book, Ranked .”

Gizmodo. “ Elon Musk: The Tech Maverick Making Tony Stark Look Dull .”

Anna Crowley Redding, via Google Books. “ Elon Musk: A Mission to Save the World .” Feiwel & Friends, 2019.

Esquire. “ Elon Musk: Triumph of His Will .”

Marie Claire. “ ‘I Was a Starter Wife’: Inside America’s Messiest Divorce .”

CNBC. “ Elon Musk Ran a Nightclub Out of His College Frat House to Make Money for Rent .”

Inc. “ Elon Musk Just Said MBAs Are Overrated, and He’s Dead Right .”

TED. “ Elon Musk: The Mind Behind Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity... ,” read transcript, 19:19 (Video).

Fortune. “ Why Elon Musk Dropped Out of Stanford After Only Two Days .”

X. “ Elon Musk, Dec. 28, 2019, 6:22 PM .”

CNBC. “ Elon Musk Tried to Pitch the Head of the Yellow Pages Before the Internet Boom: ‘He Threw the Book at Me’ .”

Compaq Computer, via U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “ Form 10-Q for the Quarterly Period Ended Sept. 30, 1999 ,” Page 6.

PayPal, via U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “ Form S-1 ,” Page 9.

PayPal, via U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “ Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended Dec. 31, 2001 ,” Pages 75–78.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “ Exhibit 99.1: eBay to Acquire PayPal .”

YouTube. “ Elon Musk Interview [I Made 180 Million Dollars but Still Had to Borrow Money for Rent] ,” 1:58–2:14 (Video).

X. “ Elon Musk, July 10, 2017, 9:10 PM .”

Wired. “ How Elon Musk Turned Tesla into the Car Company of the Future .”

Tesla. “ Tesla and SolarCity .”

Tesla. “ Powerwall .”

Tesla, via Internet Archive. “ Powerpack .”

SpaceX. “ Updates .”

YouTube. “ People Should Arrive on Mars in 2025 .” (Video)

Britannica. " X ."

X. " Elon Musk ."

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “ Schedule 13G, March 14, 2022 .”

X. “ Parag Agrawal, April 5, 2022, 8:32 AM .”

X. “ Parag Agrawal, April 10, 2022, 11:13 PM .”

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “ Amendment No. 2 to Schedule 13D/A, April 13, 2022 .”

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “ Form 8-K, April 15, 2022 .”

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “ Amendment No. 3 to Schedule 13D, April 20, 2022 .”

CNBC. “ Elon Musk Now in Charge of Twitter, CEO and CFO Have Left, Sources Say .”

The New York Times. " From Twitter to X: Elon Musk Begins Erasing an Iconic Internet Brand ."

YouTube. “ Elon Musk Monologue—SNL .” (Video)

YouTube. “ Joe Rogan Experience #1169—Elon Musk ,” 2:10–2:11 (Video).

X. “ Elon Musk, Aug. 7, 2018, 12:48 PM .”

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “ Elon Musk Settles SEC Fraud Charges; Tesla Charged with and Resolves Securities Law Charge .”

U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. “ Defendant Elon Musk’s Notice of Motion to Quash & to Terminate Consent Decree .”

YouTube. “ Elon Musk Talks Twitter, Tesla and How His Brain Works—Live at TED2022 ,” 27:15–29:11 (Video).

Vanity Fair. “ Elon Musk Splits with Actress Talulah Riley for the Second (or Third?) Time .”

TODAY. " Who Are Elon Musk's Children? "

X. “ Grimes, March 10, 2022, 11:32 AM .”

Vanity Fair. “‘ Infamy Is Kind of Fun’: Grimes on Music, Mars, and Her Secret New Baby with Elon Musk .”

The Economic Times. “ Elon Musk Had Over $100K of Student Debt When He Started 1st Company, Turned His Room into Nightclub to Pay Rent .”

Tesla. “ Elon Musk .”

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “ Form 8-K, March 15, 2021 .”

• Terms of Service
• Editorial Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Your Privacy Choices

Elon Musk biography

Elon Reeve Musk was born on the 28th of June of 1972 in Pretoria, South Africa. He is known for being one of the founders of Paypal, SpaceX, Tesla Motors, OpenAl, and Hyperloop, among other companies. The entrepreneur and inventor appears in the list of the richest in the world, occupying the position number 56, in 2017, with 17.4 billion dollars. Forbes magazine, for the December 2016 publication, named him the 21st person with the most power in the world. His greatest goal, according to Musk, is to change humanity drastically; for this purpose, he works in SolarCity, SpaceX, and Tesla. One of his interests is the abandonment of petroleum fuels in order to reduce global warming. Perhaps Elon’s most ambitious project, so far, is the establishment of a human colony on Mars, with nearly a million people.

He spent his childhood in South Africa with his parents, an engineer from South Africa and a nutritionist from Canada. At age 10, with his first computer, a Commodore VIC-20, he began to learn to programme on his own. Two years later he sold his first videogame called Blastar for about $ 200. At that time he went through difficult times; his schoolmates subjected him to bullying because of his uncommon interests for them. Elon spent his money on science fiction books, comics, and video games.

In the period between 12 and 15 years of age, he entered into an existential crisis influenced by the readings of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. The situation went to the extreme of taking him to the hospital because of beatings by his companions. In his home things were not better, the relationship with his father was quite complicated. He suffered the emotional violence of a father unable to understand him. Compulsory military service bothered him. For these reasons, at age 17, after graduating from high school in Pretoria, he decided to leave South Africa and take refuge with his mother in Canada.

What Musk wanted most was to reach the United States. He found in that country a way to make possible everything he imagined. Elon’s father conditioned his support: he would not pay for a university outside of South Africa. In 1989, while in Canada, he found a chance to study thanks to his maternal relatives, who came from North America. By 1992, Elon counted on a scholarship in the University of Pennsylvania. The young entrepreneur began his studies in Business Administration, in parallel he began his career in Physics. He was fortunate to have the support of one of his teachers, who turned out to be the executive director of Los Gatos, a company located in the southern part of San Francisco Bay, California. The experience gained on ultracapacitors in that company, and then in Pinnacle Research, along with the inspiration it had for inventors such as Nikola Tesla, made him define the fields in which he would focus on the future: renewable energy, the Internet and outer space.

The beginning on the Internet began with Zip2, in 1995, along with his brother Kimbal Musk and a friend named Greg Curry. The company was dedicated to the development and maintenance of web pages dedicated to the media. The idea was a success, managing around 200 sites on the Internet in the year of 1999. For that year the company was sold to Compaq for 300 million dollars; money that would help him found X.com. The next plan was to systematize payments and money management through the Internet, offering security and speed. The ease offered by X.com and security made the project a very profitable idea, as well as merging, in 2000, with Confinity; company that provided a similar service, but only between Palm Pilot devices. In 2001 X.com decided to change its name to Paypal.inc a well-known company that provides the service to make online payments internationally.

With the growing success, problems soon appeared. Different companies tried to close Paypal, including eBay, which ended up buying it in October 2002, for 1.5 billion dollars. The sale of Paypal gave way to the creation, by its former members, of companies such as LinkedIn and YouTube. The next Musk project was called Tesla Motors, the company that created the first functional electric car. The main investment in Tesla was solar energy. The idea was born in 2003 in the company AC Propulsion, which had a prototype electric car. Musk wanted to help design a sports car with the same base of AC Propulsion.

In 2004, along with Matt Tappenhig and Martin Eberhard, Tesla Motors was created, with the intention of mass producing the model T-Zero of AC Propulsion. Musk invested nearly 98% of the capital. The start of the company was hard; the budget for the first models exceeded what was expected, but they managed to sell enough to continue developing models. For 2012, 2100 Tesla Roadster was sold in different countries. In 2015 the Tesla Model X was launched, designed to cover all types of terrain.

Another of Musk’s three projects involves SpaceX. Thinking of establishing a colony on Mars, he began, in 2002, to investigate how to send a rocket to Mars. His initial idea was to obtain reusable rockets to carry out the two trips for reconnaissance missions. For that year, Space Exploration Technologies was founded, focused on launching rockets and reducing fuel costs and materials for launch with increases in viability. In 2008, an agreement was made between NASA for twelve rocket flights. Currently, SpaceX is responsible for the development of Falcon rockets, which use liquid fuel.

You may like

Paris Hilton

Tina Turner

Walter Scott

Vicente Guerrero

Nipsey Hussle

Nipsey Hussle Biography

Ermias Asghedom (August 15, 1985 – March 31, 2019), better known as Nipsey Hussle, was an American rapper, businessman, and community activist, who rose to fame in 2018 with his debut album Victory Lab . Nipsey began his career towards the mid-2000s releasing several successful mixtapes such as Slauson Boy Volume 1, Bullets Ain’t Got No Name series and The Marathon. His fame came to him, along with his first Grammy nomination, with his debut album in 2018. He had previously created his label All Money In No Money Out (2010).

Following his death, he received two posthumous Grammys for the songs Racks in the Middle and Higher. He was known for his social work on behalf of the Crenshaw community.

Early years

He was born in Los Angeles, United States, on August 15, 1985 . Son of Angelique Smith and Eritrean immigrant Dawit Asghedom, he grew up in Crenshaw, a neighborhood located south of Los Angeles, with his siblings Samiel and Samantha. He attended Hamilton High School but dropped out before graduating. Since he was little he looked for a way to help around the home, so over time, he began to work selling different products on the street.

After leaving school he became involved in the world of gangs, however, he turned away from it when he realized that it was not what he expected for his future. Decided then to dedicate himself to music, he sold everything that linked him to the gangs and worked for a time to buy his own production tools. After finishing his studies, he began to write and produce his own mixtapes, which he sold from a car. After finding inspiration from a trip he took to Eritrea with his father and spending time in prison, Nipsey turned fully to his career and business. He always looked for ways to start and help the community in which he grew up: giving jobs, helping students, renovating public spaces, etc …

Community activist

Nipsey was admired for his work at Crenshaw because instead of moving or investing in hedge funds, he preferred to help the community by boosting the local economy.

In late 2005, Nipsey Hussle released his first mixtape, Slauson Boy Volume 1, independently, to great local success. By then he already had a fan base at the regional level, so it took him a while to sign a contract with the Epic Records and Cinematic Music Group labels. Later, the first volumes of the Bullets Ain’t Got No Name series appeared, with which he expanded his popularity. Burner on My Lap, Ridin Slow, Aint No Black Superman, Hussle in the House and It’s Hard out Here , were some of the songs included in the series.

By 2009, Nipsey would make a name for himself collaborating with Drake on Killer and with Snoop Dog on Upside Down. He also released Bullets Ain’t Got No Name vol.3 and in 2010, he left Epic and opened his own label All Money In No Money Out. Under this label, he would soon release The Marathon, a mixtape in which hits such as Love ?, Mr. Untouchable, Young Rich and Famous and Late Nights and Early Mornings appeared. He also created The Marathon Clothing at that time, a sports and casual clothing brand that was based in his neighborhood. He then released the mixtape The Marathon Continues (2011), participated in the We Are the World 25 for Haiti campaign, and was featured in the popular XXL Magazine Annual Freshman Top Ten.

In 2013 came Crenshaw , a mixtape that would become famous because Jay-Z himself bought 100 copies for $ 100 each.

Victory Lap

After many delays, Nipsey would release his long-awaited debut album Victory Lap , on February 16, 2018, to great success. It was praised by critics and received a Grammy nomination for best rap album of the year. It was such a success that many singles entered the Billboard and Itunes charts. However, Nipsey did not enjoy much fame.

Hussle was assassinated on March 31, 2019, outside his store in South Los Angeles. He was shot multiple times by a man he had previously clashed with, he was arrested and charged with murder on April 2 of the same year. After his death, many personalities expressed the pain caused by the news. It is worth mentioning that the Mayor of Los Angeles himself gave his condolences to the family, recognizing Hussle’s social work in Crenshaw.

He was the partner of actress Lauren London and was the father of two children.

Sales strategies and greatest hits

Hussle was known for his sales strategies, since, he used to upload his singles in free download and then sell some limited editions for a cost of 100 to 1000 dollars . It promoted the sale of his work with campaigns such as Proud2Pay and Mailbox Money, in which he gave special incentives (autographed photos, dedication calls, tickets to his studio, and special events) to buyers. His revolutionary ideas promised him a fruitful career.

Some of his greatest hits

• Rose Clique
• Forever On My Fly Shit
• Thas Wat Hoes Do Proud of That (with Rick Ross)
• Face the world
• Bless, 1 of 1
• Where Yo Money At
• Fuck Donald Trump
• Young Rich and Famous

Jimmy Hoffa

Jimmy Hoffa Biography

James Riddle Hoffa (February 14, 1913 – July 30, 1975), better known as Jimmy Hoffa, was an American union activist. A reference to the working class of the 20th century, Hoffa began his union activity at the age of 18 within the trucker union. With time, he was gaining importance and enemies. He mixed with the mob and was the leader of the most important union organization in the U.S.A ., the International Brotherhood of Truckers. His actions took a toll on him and in 1967 he was arrested for bribery. In 1975, he disappeared after having dinner at a Detroit restaurant. To date, it is unknown what happened or where his body is. His disappearance was portrayed in Scorsese’s The Irishman .

He was born in Brazil, Indiana, on February 14, 1913. James was the son of John Hoffa and Viola Riddle. His father passed away when he was 7 years old, of Irish descent and working as a miner. When the dad died, the family moved to Detroit, where Hoffa lived the rest of his life. He studied until he was 14 years old and began working as a teenager, to help the family. At the age of 18, he began to participate in the union demonstrations of the truck driver’s union, and over time he gained recognition. However, Hoffa had never driven a truck.

Jimmy Hoffa, the truckers, and the mob

Despite his clear inexperience, Hoffa managed to earn the respect of all road workers thanks to his charisma and effective acting. He was thus elected president of the famous International Brotherhood of Truckers or “Teamsters” in 1957. From then on he would be known for his aggressive methods and connections with the Cosa Nostra (Italian mafia). It is known that Jimmy used the mob to gain notoriety and destroy his competitors, while the union served as a front to clean up dirty money from the mob.

As time went by, his relationship with Cosa Nostra became increasingly evident, becoming the target of various investigations (fraud, conspiracy, evasion, extortion, laundering…). Behind them was the prosecutor Robert Kennedy, who later became a solicitor, his sole objective being the capture of Hoffa. Although he managed to leave the courts unscathed on several occasions – thanks to his intimidation and bribery strategies – he was finally locked up in 1967.

Hoffa had faced justice several times, so the confinement did not scare him, he planned to continue running the union and all its businesses from jail, leaving someone manageable in command. But this did not turn out as he expected, his puppet rebelled and the mafia took advantage of his confinement to expand their business with more facilities. It was clear that everyone was better off without Hoffa at the helm.

The disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa

In 1971 his sentence was commuted and Hoffa returned to work, he tried to regain his place and strength, but had little luck, because the mafia was clear that the business was better without him. The day he arrived, on July 30, 1975, he was summoned by Anthony Provenzano and Anthony Giacalone, two gangster bosses who were tired of his instance. They summoned him to a restaurant in Detroit, but never showed up, Hoffa waited for more than an hour and then got into a car, disappearing ever since. Nobody saw him again.

Jimmy was powerful, but he had made many enemies and was in the crosshairs of the mob, making his disappearance one of the most famous of the 20th century. His body was never found and in 1982 he was presumed dead. Although over time many took credit for his disappearance (and his death) from him, little is known for sure.

One of the possible culprits is perhaps Frank Sheeran, the Irishman , Hoffa’s henchman, who, pressured by the gangsters, would have killed the union leader. According to Sheeran’s version, that day he would have taken Hoffa to a house, where he shot him three times, and then moved his body to a still uncertain place.

His body and his disappearance became one of the best-known mysteries of the time . To date, the fate of his body is unknown. Many say it is buried, others that it was dismembered and thrown into a river, and others that it was compacted. There were many complaints about the discovery of his body, but all false.

His legacy was continued by his son, the current head of the International Brotherhood of Truckers, James P. Hoffa.

He was married to Josephine Poszywak and was the father of James P. Hoffa and Barbara Ann Crancer.

On July 30, 1982, he was declared legally dead.

Scorsese’s The Irishman

Scorsese’s The Irishman premiered on Netflix in 2019. The film follows Hoffa’s hitman and right-hand man, Frank Sheeran, as he thus narrates his story and participation in the disappearance of Hoffa. In the film, Hoffa is played by Al Pacino , while Sheeran and the prosecutor Kennedy are played by Robert De Niro and Jack Huston.

Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker biography

Peter Drucker (November 19, 1909 – November 11, 2005) writer, consultant, entrepreneur, and journalist. He was born in Vienna, Austria. He is considered the father of the Management to which he devoted more than 60 years of his professional life. His parents of Jewish origin and then converted to Christianity moved to a small town called Kaasgrabeen. Drucker grew up in an environment in which new ideas and social positions created by intellectuals, senior government officials and scientists were emerging. He studied at the Döbling Gymnasium and in 1927, Drucker moved to the German city of Hamburg, where he worked as an apprentice in a cotton company.

Then he began to train in the world of journalism, writing for the Der Österreichische Volkswirt. Then he got a job in Frankfurt, his job was to write for the Daily Frankfurter General-Anzeiger. Meanwhile, he completed a doctorate in International Law. Drucker began to integrate his two facets and for that, he was a recognized journalist. Drucker worked in this place until the fall of the Weimar Republic. After this period he decided to move to London, where he worked in a bank and was also a student of John Maynard Keynes .

Although he was a disciple of Keynes, he assured, decades later, that Keynesianism failed as an economic thesis where it was applied. Because of the ravages of Nazism and persecution of Jews, he emigrated to the United States, where he served as a professor at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, from 1939 to 1949 and simultaneously was a writer. His first job as a consultant was in 1940. He then returned to teaching at Bennington College in Vermont. Thanks to his popularity he received a position to teach in the faculty of Business Administration of the University of New York.

He was an active contributor for a long period of time to magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly and was a columnist for The Wall Street Journal. The quality and recognition of his writings assured him important contracts both as a writer and as a consultant with large companies, government agencies, and non-profit organizations in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Quickly and surprisingly his fortune grew. Drucker served as honorary president of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management.

In 1971, he obtained the Clarke Chair of Social Sciences and Administration at the Graduate School of Management at the University of Claremont. Now, at present Drucker is considered the most successful of the exponents in matters of administration, his ideas and terminologies have influenced the corporate world since the 40s. Drucker was the first social scientist to use the expression “post-modernity” something that caught the attention of this man is that he does not like receiving compliments. He was simple, visionary, satirical and vital.

Within his studies, he says that his greatest interest is people. His work as a consultant began in the General Motors Multinational Companies, from that moment begins to raise the theory of Management, Management trends, the knowledge society. Thanks to this theory he has published several books, these are consulted often and are fundamental for the career of business administrator. In his works, he deals with the scientific, human, economic, historical, artistic and philosophical stage.

He was founder and director of a business school that bears his name. For Drucker, it was beneficial that many of his ideas have been reformed because of the innovative way of thinking and analyzing business issues. Although approaches such as the knowledge society are the basis of the current company and the future is still maintained. He has published more than thirty books, which include studies of Management, studies of socio-economic policies and essays. Some are Best Sellers. The first book was The end of economic man (1939), The future of industrial man (1942), The concept of Corporation (1946). Later he published The Effective Executive (1985). He focused on personal effectiveness and changes in the direction of the 21st century. In 2002 the society of the future was published.

His first book caused much controversy because he talked about the reasons why fascism initiated and analyzed the failures of established institutions. He urged the need for a new social and economic order. Although he had finished the book in 1933, he had to wait because no editor wanted to accept such horrible visions. Now, Drucker has dealt with such controversial issues as individual freedom, industrial society, big business, the power of managers, automation, monopoly, and totalitarianism.

We must indicate that his analysis of the Administration, is a valuable guide for the leaders of companies that need to study their own performance, diagnose its failures and improve its productivity, as well as that of your company. Several companies have taken their approaches and put them into practice, such as Sears Roebuck & Co., General Motors, Ford, IBM, Chrysler, and American Telephone & Telegraph.

The consultant assured that there are some differences between the figure of the manager and that of the leader. For him, true leaders recognize their shortcomings as mortal beings, but they systematically concentrate on the essentials and work tirelessly to acquire the decisive competences of management. Actually, the contributions of this character in the world of administration and in the economic and social world have been significant. Drucker died on November 11, 2005, leaving a great legacy.

Jeff Bezos biography

Jeff Bezos (January 12, 1964). His birth name is Jeffrey Preston Bezos. Businessman and founder and CEO of Amazon. He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. His mother, Jacklyn Gise, had him as a teenager and his biological father, Ted Jorgensen, left them as soon as he heard the news. Years later his mother married Miguel Bezos a Cuban. Now, Miguel adopted Jeffrey and he received his last name. The family moved to Houston, Texas. Jeffrey Bezos studied at River Oaks Elementary, he was always a very smart and witty little boy.

They moved to Miami, where he studied at Miami Palmetto Senior High School. And upon graduating he entered Princeton University to study Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, his thesis was cum laude. In 1996, he started working in a fiber optic company, FITEL, where he was responsible for the development of computer systems, his performance was so good that he became vice president. After moving to New York with the idea of ​​entering the world of finance, in Bankers Trust, he also held the position of vice president in 1990. In the following four years, Bezos worked with another Wall Street company: D.E. Shaw and Co.

Bezos realized that the purchase/sale of products and services on the internet or other electronic means would be a great field to explore and exploit. For this reason, he founded the electronic commerce company Amazon in 1995. Its service was something new for the netizens, which produced an increase in the visits quickly. Only in the first month of operation had books been sold in all corners of the United States. Months later it reached 2,000 daily visitors, a figure that would multiply abysmally in the next year. In 1997, the success made Amazon become one of the most important companies online.

Bezos had managed to conquer the internet business. Encouraged by the reception of consumers, he undertook the diversification of products, including CD and DVD media and electronic devices. As demand increased, this ingenious man included new products to his virtual store. The growth and its popularity were such that today it distributes from food to home, clothes and shoes, video games and music, to toilet paper and diapers. Amazon has experimented with the lucrative benefit of advertising since it gives the possibility to companies to advertise their products and mark them as featured products.

Bezos established independent Amazon websites for United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Austria, France, China, Italy, Spain, Japan, the Netherlands, Brazil, India and Mexico, the variety of products can be several in each country. Currently, the services are enjoyed by companies such as Target Corporation, Marks & Spencer, the NBA, Sears Canada, Timex or Bombay Company. The AOL online sales service also supports. In 2007, Bezos shook the world with the creation and launch of Amazon’s alter ego: Amazon Kindle, a device specially designed for the visualization of electronic books. Amazon Kindle was launched for the first time in North America and is currently available in 45 countries.

In 2011, The Economist awarded Bezos and Gregg Zehr an Innovation Award for the Amazon Kindle. The following year, Bezos was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Fortune. It is part of the Bilderberg Group. Bezos has given several conferences in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and participated in the conference in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Business Council in 2011 and 2012. In 2018, he appeared on the Forbes list, where a net wealth of 106 billion dollars was estimated. He has also received other awards as the best CEO in the world by Harvard Business Review. Jeff Bezos has also been on Fortune’s list of the 50 best leaders in the world. In September 2016, he was awarded the Heinlein Prize for advances in Space Marketing. He donated the prize money to the international student organization Students for the Exploration and Development of Space by Bezos.

Since 2017, he has seen an increase in Amazon shares. They went up more than 130%, which made him have a profit of more than 100 billion dollars, after this, he returned to be the richest person in the world. He was named Person of the Year in Time magazine and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science and Technology degree at Carnegie Mellon University in 2008. Really, the awards and awards have been impressive. Much of this is because Bezos, started in the field of journalism, looking beyond its commercial horizons; beyond the web. Bezos entered the world of media, acquiring the traditional newspaper The Washington Post for the sum of 250 thousand dollars.

Henry Gantt

Henry Gantt Biography

Henry Laurence Gantt (May 20, 1861 – November 23, 1919) industrial engineer . He was born in Calvert County, Maryland, United States. During his childhood and youth, he and his family lived devastating moments, especially in the economic part. His parents owned crops in Calvert but remained in ruins after the devastation caused during the Civil War. After that political and social event, they did not overlap economically so they had to live various hardships.

In spite of this, his parents did everything possible so that the young Gantt finished his school training at McDonogh School in 1878 and went to Johns Hopkins University to study industrial engineering. His performance was very good, when he graduated he started working as a teacher and draftsman, Gantt had a great skill for drawing since he was a kid. Then he studied mechanical engineering at the same university. In 1887, he was hired in Frederick W. Taylor to carry out an application of the principles of the Scientific Administration with his work in Midvale Steel and Bethlehem Steel, he carried out this work until 1893. In his career as a consultant, he invented the Gantt diagram.

Later, he designed some systems to measure the efficiency and productivity of workers, such as task bonds and the payment system and other methods that facilitate this process. This diagram became very popular for its simplicity, performance, and quality at that time, as well as at this time, pointed out the various tasks to be performed in a horizontal timeline, it has been used as a tool in operations that require strict temporal planning. However, Henry Gantt’s studies focused on the analysis of the performance of work methods, which depends on his judgment of the willingness to use the correct methods and skills.

Gantt was very concerned about leaving his knowledge embodied in paper, therefore, in 1908 presented before the American Society of Mechanical Engineers the text: Training of workers in habits of diligence and collaboration, in which he exposed the need to change the employer’s tactics; it is not a way of acting in the place, in the techniques, in the work, in the information, in the habits, in the possibilities, in the efficiency and in the efficiency of his work. As a complement to this, it is a bonus system that has been added to work and work done in a standardized time standard.

With these measures we tried to raise, not only the quantity, but above all the quality of work, following Taylor’s theory, the so-called common prosperity theory: what he says is that the worker has a kind of personal satisfaction to do the job well, this generates a feeling of pride that will make you try harder. For his part, the employer will notice an increase in productivity and the sum of a reduction in labor disputes. This is exposed with mastery in work, wages, and benefits (1913).

In the field of administration, his most known contribution is the graph of the bars such as the chart or the Gantt chart, which is composed in a diagram in which the horizontal axis represents the units of time, and in the vertical is recorded the different functions, which are represented by horizontal bars. With the help of this engineer, companies and the discipline of business administration is very broad, some of them are: the Gantt diagram, the development of the concept of industrial efficiency, the implementation of the system of Bonds of Tasks, with this adopted the premium to the workers. And he also implemented the Daily Balance Chart.

It was also very emphatic to ensure that companies have a social responsibility, in their opinion, companies have obligations for the welfare of society. His support for the scientific organization of work is also highlighted. When he worked for Frederick W. Taylor, with whom he collaborated in the application of his own doctrine to improve productivity, and in the second stage of the Industrial Revolution .

After 14 years of being at Taylor’s side, he made the decision to separate from this because his interest was the humanization of industrial practices and the dehumanized theories of Frederick Taylor . Unfortunately, in his last years of life, Gantt did not have the opportunity to finish several of his projects because his health was undermined. Finally, Henry Gantt died on November 23, 1919, in the town of Pine Island in New York .

His importance lies in the fact that it is the founder of scientific administration , an activity developed in the United States that later spread throughout the world with the idea of ​​achieving humanization, rationalization, and performance.

Related Content: Industrial Engineering

Celebrities

Nicola Porcella

Nicola Porcella Biography Nicola Emilio Porcella Solimano (February 5, 1988), better known as Nicola Porcella, is an actor and TV...

Wendy Guevara

Wendy Guevara Biography Wendy Guevara Venegas (August 12, 1993), better known as Wendy Guevara, is an influencer, actress, singer, and...

Paris Hilton Biography Paris Whitney Hilton (February 17, 1981), better known as Paris Hilton, is a socialite, businesswoman, model, DJ,...

Leonardo DiCaprio

Biography of Leonardo DiCaprio Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is a renowned actor and film producer who has won numerous awards within...

Denzel Washington

Biography of Denzel Washington Denzel Washington is an African American actor born on December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New...

Ryan Reynolds

Biography of Ryan Reynolds Ryan Rodney Reynolds was born on October 23, 1976 in Vancouver, Canada, and he is a...

Biography of Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt, better known as Brad Pitt, was born on December 18, 1963 in Shawnee,...

Entrepreneurs

Luciano Benetton

Luciano Benetton Biography Luciano Benetton (May 13, 1935) Born in Ponzano, Treviso, Italy. An Italian businessman and fashion designer, co-founder...

Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton Biography Louis Vuitton (August 4, 1821 – February 25, 1892) businessman and fashion designer. Founder of the leather...

Peter Drucker biography Peter Drucker (November 19, 1909 – November 11, 2005) writer, consultant, entrepreneur, and journalist. He was born...

Paul Allen biography Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953) entrepreneur, business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He was born in Seattle,...

Nik Powell biography Nik Powell (November 4, 1950) businessman and co-founder of the Virgin Group. He was born in Great...

Most Popular

Henri Fayol

Walt Disney

Taiichi Ohno

Philip B. Crosby

Kaoru Ishikawa

Ariana Grande

Adolf Hitler

5 Things You May Not Know About Elon Musk

He developed and sold a video game at age 12

The budding CEO got his start in the technology industry after seeing a computer in a store for the first time at age 10. He learned to program and developed the code for a shooting-spaceship game called Blastar, which he sold to a computer magazine for $500. Naturally, the boy with grand ambitions didn't stop there, and he devised plans with his younger brother, Kimbal, to open an arcade near their school. However, those plans were nixed when their parents refused to provide their legal consent for a permit, and the brothers wound up selling chocolates to classmates instead.

He spent just two days at Stanford University

Musk enrolled at Stanford in 1995 for graduate studies in applied physics, but by that point, he was consumed with the game-changing capabilities of the internet. When applying for academic deferment, Musk said he would return in six months if his endeavors didn't pan out; the department chairman replied that he didn't expect to see the young computer whiz again, a prediction that proved 100 percent accurate. Musk went on to found Zip2, which established an online presence for brick-and-mortar organizations, and by the time Compaq swooped in to buy the company four years later, there was little need to resume his formal education.

He inspired the creation of a solar power company

In 2004, Musk was driving with his cousin Lyndon Rive to Burning Man, the annual late-summer festival held in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. A successful software entrepreneur in his own right, Rive confessed a desire to embark on a more meaningful enterprise. Musk suggested he consider the possibilities of solar power, and over the course of the drive and subsequent hedonism in the desert, the idea blossomed. Rive and his brother Peter created SolarCity, which grew into the country’s largest solar provider with their cousin on board as chairman. Something about Burning Man clearly fires up Musk’s imagination; he claims to have conceived the idea of a vertical takeoff and landing electric plane at the festival, calling it a "very creative place."

He is the real-life model for 'Iron Man's' Tony Stark

When Iron Man writer and director Jon Favreau was exploring ways to humanize the character of Tony Stark, the charismatic, super-smart protagonist of the comic book and movie series, actor Robert Downey Jr. suggested he get in touch with Musk. Favreau wound up shooting parts of Iron Man 2 at the SpaceX factory, and Musk later found a way to replicate his fictional counterpart’s methods of designing rocket parts on a computer screen by waving his hands across a sensor.

He owns a James Bond car

Musk owns the Lotus Esprit from the 1977 James Bond flick The Spy Who Loved Me , which (spoiler alert!) turns into a submarine after Bond and his beautiful female companion zoom off a pier to escape the enemy. Known as "Wet Nellie," the stunt car languished for years in a storage unit before being sold to an anonymous buyer at a London auction in 2013. After the buyer was revealed to be Musk, he released a statement in which he expressed disappointment that the car did not actually turn into a real submarine, adding, "What I'm going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real."

Famous Business Leaders

Enzo Ferrari

Get to Know Enzo Ferrari’s Sons, Piero and Dino

Suge Knight

Rupert Murdoch

Who Is Music Mogul Scooter Braun?

Ty Warner's Complicated Life Beyond Beanie Babies

Elizabeth Holmes

Martha Stewart Headlining 'SI' Swimsuit Issue

Who Is New Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino?

• Biographies & Memoirs
• Professionals & Academics

Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Amazon Prime includes:

Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.

• Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
• Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
• Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
• A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
• Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
• Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access

Important:  Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.

Buy new: $17.80 $17.80 FREE delivery: Friday, March 29 on orders over $35.00 shipped by Amazon. Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com

Return this item for free.

Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges

• Go to your orders and start the return
• Select the return method

Buy used: $15.99

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and Amazon Prime.

If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you grow your business. Learn more about the program.

Other Sellers on Amazon

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Elon Musk Hardcover – September 12, 2023

Purchase options and add-ons

• Print length 688 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Simon & Schuster
• Publication date September 12, 2023
• Dimensions 6.13 x 1.9 x 9.25 inches
• ISBN-10 1982181281
• ISBN-13 978-1982181284
• See all details

Frequently bought together

Similar items that may deliver to you quickly

From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster (September 12, 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 688 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1982181281
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1982181284
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.25 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.13 x 1.9 x 9.25 inches
• #1 in Computer & Technology Biographies
• #2 in Scientist Biographies
• #3 in Business Professional's Biographies

Videos for this product

Click to play video

HONEST REVIEW! Must watch before buying!

Brian & Camila's Must Haves

Look inside the new Elon Musk book before buying

Chris Hughes

My thoughts after finishing this book

✅ Kyle's Reviews

Exceptional book .mp4

Dan The Reviewer

Highlights of this Book and My Thoughts

Nicole with Travel to Money

The REAL Story of Elon Musk that YOU Probably DIDN'T KNOW!

Ray's Reviews

Loving this book so far, recap of some of the chapters

inside look at overall review of this book

A great addition to our library, here is why.

Heidi Leatherby

Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.

Cary Decker

About the author

Walter isaacson.

Walter Isaacson is writing a biography of Elon Musk. He is the author of The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race; Leonardo da Vinci; Steve Jobs; Einstein: His Life and Universe; Benjamin Franklin: An American Life; The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution; and Kissinger: A Biography. He is also the coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. He is a Professor of History at Tulane, has been CEO of the Aspen Institute, chairman of CNN, and editor of Time magazine.

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Reviews with images

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Start Selling with Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

Manic moods and 3 a.m. texts: How Walter Isaacson navigated Elon Musk and his demons

• Show more sharing options
• Copy Link URL Copied!

When celebrated biographer Walter Isaacson set out to write about Elon Musk, his subject was not just one of the richest men on the planet but the most polarizing of global billionaires.

How to steer the narrative of a man he considered a visionary but also “crazy at times,” plagued by “manic moods” and self-destructive “demons”?

And how to earn his trust?

“I don’t have an agenda,” said Isaacson, 71, in an interview with The Times. “There’s a large percentage of this country that thinks he’s a villain. They hate him. And there’s, I think, an equally large percentage of people who are wide-eyed fans and think he walks on water.”

When a close friend of Musk’s suggested Isaacson undertake a biography, “I was, like, wow! That would be cool,” he said. “It was at a time when he was bringing us into the era of electric vehicles and becoming Time’s [2021] Person of the Year and making rockets that can land and be reused and was the only person shooting astronauts from the U.S. to space.”

But in a meeting with the tycoon running Tesla and Space X, the author set conditions.

“I said, here’s the two things I’d like,” recalled Isaacson, who has written biographies of Steve Jobs, Henry Kissinger, Jennifer Doudna and Leonardo da Vinci. “One is: I don’t just want a few interviews. I want to spend two years at your side, at all times, at all meetings — nothing excluded, nothing off-limits. And to watch you in action rather than give you a set of questions. Secondly, I want you to have no control over the book.”

And, Isaacson said, “Surprisingly, he agreed.”

The 688-page opus details Musk’s brutal treatment of workers and colleagues, his impulsive business moves and his chaotic romantic life.

The biggest ideas and pettiest rages in Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk biography

Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk distilled, from fierce mood swings and Ukraine intervention to his ‘dumb’ Pelosi tweet and that time he had the 405 repainted.

Sept. 11, 2023

But it also delves into how Musk’s abusive father and childhood bullying in South Africa shaped his character. Isaacson writes that Musk’s “reality-distorting willfulness” and his “readiness to run roughshod over naysayers” may be “superpowers that produced his successes along with his flame-outs.”

The ferocious drive of the 52-year-old entrepreneur may not be balanced with empathy for others, Isaacson suggested, but, “As Shakespeare writes, the best are molded out of their faults. So he’s got a lot of faults. To what extent did that mold him?”

Musk gave Isaacson full access to contentious private meetings; encouraged colleagues, family members, ex-wives and girlfriends to speak to him candidly; and, in interviews and 3 a.m. texts, opened up about turmoil in his businesses and his relationships.

It was, the author recalled, “Elon, being up late at night and vomiting because of the stress but also channeling some of the things his father said.”

Controversially, Musk shared — and Isaacson published — encrypted messages with a top Ukrainian official over limits on the Starlink communications satellites that Space X was donating to foil Russian hackers.

The book describes Musk as cutting off Starlink access around Russia-annexed Crimea to stop Ukrainian drones from targeting Russia’s Black Sea fleet. But over the weekend Musk claimed, “At no point did I or anyone at Space X promise coverage over Crimea. Our terms of service clearly prohibit Starlink for offensive military action.” Musk denied Kyiv’s “emergency request” to activate the network in order to avoid “conflict escalation.” Isaacson acknowledged the clarification, but whatever the details, the episode drew new scrutiny of Musk’s foreign policy influence.

Despite Musk’s impetuousness and his open hostility toward journalists, Isaacson said the unpredictable billionaire never backtracked on allowing him unfettered reporting.

“For better and for worse, he has an epic sense of his place and mission in our world, that he’s going to get us to Mars and he’s going to get us sustainable energy,” said Isaacson. “And if you’re that way, you don’t mind having a biographer ride by your side.”

Isaacson’s strategy was to shadow his subject relentlessly. He tailed him along clangorous Tesla assembly lines as Musk micromanaged manufacturing and jetted on a moment’s notice to the hot, dusty town of Boca Chica, Texas, where Space X launched rockets and where Isaacson slept in an Airstream trailer a few hundred yards from Musk’s house.

In April 2022, on the day Twitter’s board accepted Musk’s offer to buy the company, Isaacson assumed a celebration would take place. “But oh no, it was [rush] down to Boca Chica to deal with a methane leak on a Raptor engine,” he said.

“You just always learned to have a very small overnight bag and a couple of changes of shirts,” said Isaacson.

Musk would often lapse into long reflective reveries, and the biographer would learn not to interrupt.

“Sometimes after a meeting, we’d be sitting in the conference room, just the two of us,” Isaacson said. “When he is mentally processing things, he goes silent for two, three, four, five minutes. You are a reporter — imagine restraining yourself from trying to start up the conversation again. [But] that turned out to be a useful approach.”

Also, there is Isaacson’s innate fascination with technology. His father and uncles were electrical engineers, he recounts in his book “The Innovators,” a survey of digital pioneers, and he grew up as an “electronics geek.” At Harvard, he majored in history and literature, but he also learned programming.

Isaacson spent years as a journalist, rising to editor of Time magazine and, after a stint at CNN, heading the Aspen Institute. But he looks back to his childhood in New Orleans, where he now teaches history at Tulane, and recalls, “We had a workshop. We fixed cars. We fixed TV sets. We made ham radios together.”

In hours spent with Musk in engineering meetings or on factory floors, Isaacson said, “I was genuinely curious about, ‘OK, stainless steel for the axial skeleton of the Cybertruck? How are you going to make the chassis?’ These were questions I asked. … A key to the story is understanding how caring about assembly lines, valves and chassis is important to the successes he has had.”

Musk emigrated from South Africa to Canada at 17 and then to the U.S., where, after college, he made millions from his involvement and part ownership in PayPal. He had homes in Silicon Valley, where he ran Tesla, and in Los Angeles, where he built Space X.

Musk has fathered 11 children with three women, including musician Grimes , sharing custody and even bringing his toddler, X, to work with him at Space X. Nothing has hurt Musk more, Isaacson said, than the loss of his first-born to sudden infant death syndrome and the estrangement from his transgender daughter Jenna after he said she embraced Marxism.

What drove Elon Musk — onetime Democratic ‘fanboy’ — to troll progressive politics

In his ‘Elon Musk’ biography, Walter Isaacson examines the billionaire’s political evolution, from fundraising for Democrats to trolling progressive politicians.

Sept. 8, 2023

Musk has said he has Asperger’s, a form of autism, and that “gives him a very analytical engineering mind-set,” said Isaacson. “Autism manifests itself in a thousand ways in different people. But it means he doesn’t have good receptors for other people’s emotions, nor does he have a craving to make people like him.”

The book describes Musk’s obsessions with science fiction, with violent video games, with establishing a “multiplanetary civilization” and with founding colonies on Mars via Space X rockets.

Is the Mars fixation crazy? Isaacson isn’t sure: “The people who are crazy enough to think they can do that may be the ones who do.”

Nonetheless, Isaacson shakes his head recalling how Musk relished his weekly “Mars Colonizer” meetings. “They’d spend an hour, sometimes two hours, and they’d talk about, What would the cities look like on Mars? What would people wear? What would the robots do? How would they govern themselves? What form of decision-making would they use? I’m going, whoa! I’d have to pinch myself.”

Isaacson acknowledges he is “not a big fan” of Musk’s Twitter purchase: “Enabling extremists to blather on conspiracy theories on Twitter turns me off.”

Let’s put a stake in the ‘great man’ biography — starting with Isaacson’s ‘Elon Musk’

Call it the ‘Isaacson Accord’: the agreement behind Walter Isaacson biographies, including ‘Elon Musk,’ to leave the assumption of difficult genius untouched.

But he also allows, “It probably wasn’t bad to open the aperture to more debate on some of these topics.” And he contends that despite Musk’s attacks on “woke-mind virus,” he doesn’t have “just have one set of politics. He’s not always pushing views on the far right or far left. There are times when he’s very moderate. So, like in everything, he’s mercurial.”

In the final analysis, Isaacson considers Musk to be “one of the three great innovators of our time.”

“Steve Jobs brings us into the era of the digital revolution with human-friendly computers and a thousand songs in our pocket, and smartphones. Jennifer Doudna brings us into the era of life sciences by showing us how to edit our DNA. And Musk is bringing us into a future of electric vehicles and space adventures — as well as blowing a few things up, including Twitter.

“But they’re each people who, 50 years from now, you’ll look back and say they’ve touched the surface of history and you can still feel the ripples.”

Book Club: Walter Isaacson

What: Bestselling author Walter Isaacson joins the L.A. Times Book Club to discuss “Elon Musk” with Times columnist Anita Chabria .

When: 2 p.m. Pacific Oct. 1

Where: The El Segundo Performing Arts Center. Get tickets on Eventbrite.

Join: Sign up for the Book Club newsletter for the latest books, news and live events.

How to support the L.A. Times Book Club and Book Prizes

Do you enjoy our book conversations? Here’s how to support the Los Angeles Times Community Fund and the newspaper’s literary and literacy programs.

Aug. 24, 2023

Sign up for our Book Club newsletter

Get the latest news, events and more from the Los Angeles Times Book Club, and help us get L.A. reading and talking.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Former staff writer Margot Roosevelt covered California economic, labor and workplace issues for the Los Angeles Times.

More From the Los Angeles Times

World & Nation

Kate Middleton is helping her kids through cancer diagnosis. How to talk to your children

March 23, 2024

GoPros, gummies, reckless abandon: Why ski slopes are getting more dangerous

March 22, 2024

Company Town

Almost everyone in Hollywood wants to get back to work. What’s taking so long?

March 21, 2024

UC regents debate stricter control of views on Israel and other topics on campus websites

We Don’t Need Another Antihero

In Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Elon Musk, the focus on psychology diverts us from the questions we should be asking about the world’s richest man.

This past December, Elon Musk’s extended family gathered for Christmas. As was their tradition, they pondered a question of the year, which seemed strategically designed for Elon to answer: “What regrets do you have?”

By that point in 2022, Musk had personally intervened in Russia’s war by controlling Ukraine’s internet access; had failed to tell his on-and-off girlfriend and co-parent Grimes that he had also fathered twins with one of his employees, and had been forced by a judge to follow through on a $44 billion purchase of Twitter; then fired most of its staff and alienated most of its advertisers. His main regret, he told his family, according to an account in Walter Isaacson’s new biography, Elon Musk , “is how often I stab myself in the thigh with a fork, how often I shoot my own feet and stab myself in the eye.”

In Isaacson’s study of the world’s richest man, the reader is consistently reminded that Musk is powerless over his own impulses. Musk cannot control his desperate need to stir up drama and urgency when things are going well, Isaacson explains. He fails to show any kind of remorse for the multiple instances of brutally insulting his subordinates or lovers. He gets stuck in what Grimes has dubbed “demon mode”—an anger-induced unleashing of insults and demands, during which he resembles his father Errol, whom Isaacson describes as emotionally abusive.

To report the book, Isaacson shadowed Musk for two years, answering his late-night text messages, accompanying him to Twitter’s office post-acquisition, attending his meetings and intimate family moments, watching him berate people. Reading the book is like hearing what Musk’s many accomplishments and scandals would sound like from the perspective of his therapist, if he ever sought one out (rather than do that, he prefers to “take the pain,” he says—though he has diagnosed himself at various moments as having Asperger’s syndrome or bipolar disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder).

Choosing to use this access mostly for pop psychology may appeal to an American audience that loves a good antihero, but it’s a missed opportunity. Unlike the subjects of most of Isaacson’s other big biographies, including Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and Leonardo da Vinci, Musk is still alive, his influence still growing. We don’t need to understand how he thinks and feels as much as we need to understand how he managed to amass so much power, and the broad societal impact of his choices—in short, how thoroughly this mercurial leader of six companies has become an architect of our future.

What does it mean that Musk can adjust a country’s internet access during a war? (The book only concludes that it makes him uncomfortable.) How should we feel about the fact that the man putting self-driving cars on our roads tells staff that most safety and legal requirements are “wrong and dumb”? How will Musk’s many business interests eventually, inevitably conflict? (At one point, Musk—a self-described champion of free speech—concedes that Twitter will have to be careful about how it moderates China-related content, because pissing off the government could threaten Tesla’s sales there. Isaacson doesn’t press further.)

The cover of Elon Musk shows Musk’s face in high contrast staring straight, with hands folded as if in prayer, evoking a Great Man of History and a visual echo of the Jobs volume. Isaacson’s central question seems to be whether Musk could have achieved such greatness if he were less cruel and more humane. But this is no time for a retrospective.

Read: Demon mode activated

As readers of the book are asked to reflect on the drama of Musk’s past romantic dalliances, he is meeting with heads of state and negotiating behind closed doors. Last Monday, Musk convened with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; on Tuesday, Israel’s prime minister publicly called him the “unofficial president” of the United States. Also, Neuralink, Musk’s brain-implant start-up—mostly discussed in the book as the employer of one of the mothers of Musk's 11 known children—was given approval from an independent review board to begin recruiting participants for human trials. The book does have a few admiring pages on Neuralink’s technology, but doesn’t address a 2022 Reuters report that the company had killed an estimated 1,500 experimented-on animals, including more than 280 sheep, pigs, and monkeys, since 2018. (Musk has said that the monkeys chosen for the experiments were already close to death ; a gruesome Wired story published Wednesday reported otherwise .)

Isaacson seems to expect major further innovation from Musk—who is already sending civilians into space, running an influential social network, shaping the future of artificial-intelligence development, and reviving the electric-car market. How these developments might come about and what they will mean for humanity seems far more important to probe than Isaacson’s preferred focus on explaining Musk’s abusive, erratic, impetuous behavior.

In 2018, Musk called the man who rescued children in Thailand’s caves a “pedo guy,” which led to a defamation suit—a well-known story. A few weeks later, he claimed that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 a share, attracting the scrutiny of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Isaacson covers these events by diagnosing Musk as unstable during that period and, according to his brother, still getting over his tumultuous breakup with the actor Amber Heard. (Ah, the toxic-woman excuse.) He was also, according to his lawyer Alex Spiro, “an impulsive kid with a terrible Twitter habit.” Isaacson calls that assessment “true”—one of the many times he compares Musk, now 52, to a child in the book.

The people whose perspectives Isaacson seems to draw on most in the book are those whom Musk arranged for him to talk with. So the book’s biggest reveal may be the extent to which his loved ones and confidants distrust his ability to be calm and rational, and feel the need to work around him. A close friend, Antonio Gracias, once locked Musk’s phone in a hotel safe to keep him from tweeting; in the middle of the night, Musk got hotel security to open it.

All of this seems reminiscent of the ways Donald Trump’s inner circle executed his whims, justifying his behavior and managing their relationship with him, lest they be cut out from the action. Every one of Trump’s precedent-defying decisions during his presidency was picked apart by the media: What were his motivations? Is there a strategy here? Is he mentally fit to serve? Does he really mean what he’s tweeting? The simplest answer was often the correct one: The last person he talked to (or saw on Fox News) made him angry.

Read: What Russia got by scaring Elon Musk

Musk is no Trump fan, according to Isaacson. But he’s the media’s new main character, just as capable of getting triggered and sparking shock waves through a tweet. That’s partially why Isaacson’s presentation of the World’s Most Powerful Victim is not all that revelatory for those who are paying attention: Musk exposes what he’s thinking at all hours of the day and night to his 157.6 million followers.

In Isaacson’s introduction to Elon Musk , he explains that the man is “not hardwired to have empathy.” Musk’s role as a visionary with a messianic passion seems to excuse this lack. The thinking goes like this: All of his demands for people to come solve a problem right now or you’re fired are bringing us one step closer to Mars travel, or the end of our dependence on oil, or the preservation of human consciousness itself. His comfort with skirting the law and cutting corners in product development also serves a higher purpose: Musk believes, and preaches in a mantra to employees at all of his companies, that “the only rules are the ones dictated by the laws of physics. Everything else is a recommendation.”

By presenting Musk’s mindset as fully formed and his behavior as unalterable, Isaacson’s book doesn’t give us many tools for the future—besides, perhaps, being able to rank the next Musk blowup against a now well-documented history of such incidents. Instead of narrowing our critical lens to Musk’s brain, we need to widen it, in order to understand the consequences of his influence. Only then can we challenge him to do right by his power.

​When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

How the Elon Musk biography exposes Walter Isaacson

One way to keep musk’s myth intact is simply not to check things out..

By Elizabeth Lopatto , a reporter who writes about tech, money, and human behavior. She joined The Verge in 2014 as science editor. Previously, she was a reporter at Bloomberg.

Share this story

The trouble began days before the biography was even published.

CNN had a story summarizing an excerpt of Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk that claimed Musk had shut down SpaceX’s satellite network, Starlink, to prevent a “Ukrainian sneak attack” on the Russian navy. The Washington Post followed it up, publishing the excerpt where Isaacson claimed Musk had essentially shut down a military offensive on a personal whim.

This reporting did not pass the smell test to me, and I said so at the time ; I wondered about the sourcing. One of the things that anyone covering Elon Musk for long enough has to reckon with is that he loves to tell hilarious lies. For instance:

• “Funding secured.” Remember when Elon Musk pretended he was going to take Tesla private and had everything in order, and then whoopsie, that was not at all true ?
• Tesla share sales. Of course, there’s the time in April 2022 when he sold Tesla shares and said he had no further sales planned , followed by him selling more Tesla shares in August 2022, when he said he was done selling Tesla shares . He sold more shares in November 2022 .
• Tesla and Bitcoin. Remember when Musk said, “ I might pump but I don’t dump ,” and then Tesla sold 75 percent of its Bitcoin ?
• The staged 2016 Autopilot demo video. In the demo video, which features the title card “The car is driving by itself,” the car was not driving by itself , Tesla’s director of Autopilot software said in a deposition. Musk himself asked for that copy.
• The batteries in Teslas will be exchangeable. Refueling your EV will just be a battery swap that will happen faster than pumping gas.
• The time he said Teslas might fly. I am not making this up . He really said he’d replace the rear seats with thrusters, and journalists spent time trying to figure out what the fuck that meant .

The thing you learn after a while on the Musk beat is that his most self-aggrandizing statements usually bear the least resemblance to reality. Musk says a lot of stuff! Some of it is exaggeration, and some isn’t true at all.

Isaacson’s sweeping 670-page biography has an intense amount of access to the man at its center. The problem is the man is Elon Musk, a guy who in 2011 promised to get us to space in just three years . In reality, the first SpaceX crew launched into orbit almost a decade later. Sure, access is the appeal of the biography — but access gives Musk lots of chances to sell his own mythology.

I wanted to know if Isaacson had done his homework

So when I opened the Musk biography, I wanted to know if Isaacson had done his homework. The first thing I did was flip to the back, where the author lists his sources for the Ukraine thing. They are: interviews with Musk, Gwynne Shotwell, and Jared Birchall (Musk’s body man); emails from Lauren Dreyer; and text messages from Mykhailo Fedorov, “provided by Elon Musk.” Other sources are news articles, one of which was about SpaceX curbing Ukraine’s use of drones . Crucially, though, this article says nothing about Ukrainian submarines — instead, it’s primarily about aerial vehicles.

 In his book, Isaacson writes:

Throughout the evening and into the night, he [Musk] personally took charge of the situation. Allowing the use of Starlink for the attack, he concluded, could be a disaster for the world. So he secretly told his engineers to turn off coverage within a hundred kilometers of the Crimean coast. As a result, when the Ukrainian drone subs got near the Russian fleet in Sevastopol, they lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly.

That final sentence is arresting, isn’t it? I could find no support for it in any of the news articles that Isaacson listed as sources for this chapter. There is a Financial Times story that confirms some Starlink outages during a Ukrainian push against the Russians, but it says nothing about drone subs or washing ashore harmlessly. A New York Times article confirms Musk doesn’t want Starlink running drones but says nothing about drone subs.

What could the possible source for this sentence be? In the following paragraph, Isaacson quotes text messages from Fedorov, who had “secretly shared with him [Musk] the details of how the drone subs were crucial” to the Ukrainians. Not very secret now, I suppose.

Musk disputed Isaacson’s account on Twitter: “SpaceX did not deactivate anything,” he said. “There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol,” he went on, though he did not specify which government’s authorities . “If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”

Isaacson caved immediately :

To clarify on the Starlink issue: the Ukrainians THOUGHT coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not. They asked Musk to enable it for their drone sub attack on the Russian fleet. Musk did not enable it, because he thought, probably correctly, that would cause a major war.

Tremendous statement. “To clarify” obfuscates what’s going on: is Isaacson saying his book is wrong? Surely that is what this means since “future editions will be updated” to correct it . The Post corrected its excerpt , anyway. “The Ukrainians thought” — which Ukrainians, and how did Isaacson know their thinking? In his listed sources, we have only the text messages of one Ukrainian, who, for diplomatic purposes, may be obscuring what he knows. “They asked Musk to enable it for their drone attack” is an entirely different account than the one given in the book, which says Musk shut off existing coverage rather than approving extended coverage; what could possibly be the source here? And of course, the last sentence — “Musk did not enable it because he thought, probably correctly, that would cause a major war” — is simple boot-licking.

We are dealing with not one but two unreliable narrators: Musk and Isaacson himself

Isaacson “clarified” further in another tweet. ”Based on my conversations with Musk, I mistakenly thought the policy to not allow Starlink to be used for an attack on Crimea had been first decided on the night of the Ukrainian attempted sneak attack that night,” he wrote on Twitter . “He now says that the policy had been implemented earlier, but the Ukrainians did not know it, and that night he simply reaffirmed the policy.”

There was a way to find out what’s true here, and it would have been to interview more sources, both Ukrainian and US military ones. Isaacson chose not to. Musk’s word was good enough for him — and so, when Musk contested the characterization, Isaacson rolled over.

I am lingering here because it highlights a major problem with Isaacson’s biography. We are dealing with not one but two unreliable narrators: Musk and Isaacson himself. After all, just before issuing his clarification, Isaacson had been touting a walk through the SpaceX factory with CBS’s David Pogue to promote his book. 

Isaacson writes a specific kind of biography. There is even a “genius” boxed set of his biographies that includes Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, and — somewhat incongruously — Steve Jobs. 

One way to keep Musk’s myth intact is simply not to check things out

Having made a pattern of writing biographies of important men — and one important woman, Jennifer Doudna of CRISPR fame — Isaacson is now in the position of a kind of kingmaker. To keep up his pattern, everyone he writes about implicitly is branded a genius. 

One way to keep Musk’s myth intact is simply not to check things out. Within the first three paragraphs of the book, Isaacson describes a wilderness survival camp Musk attended, where “every few years, one of the kids would die.” This is a striking claim! I flipped to the “notes” section to see if Isaacson had interviewed any of Musk’s schoolmates. He hadn’t. There are no news articles backing it up, either. So what is the source? Presumably one or more of the Musks — Elon is quoted directly as saying the counselors told him not to die like another kid in a previous year. 

Arguably the entire Musk family has an interest in presenting Elon Musk as preternaturally tough and also as using his tough childhood as an excuse for his continuing bad behavior. There are some weird choices as a result.

Isaacson writes that Musk’s “blood boiled if anyone falsely implied he had succeeded because of inherited wealth or claimed he didn’t deserve to be called a founder of one of the companies he helped start.” The bolding on “falsely” is mine because Isaacson had earlier detailed Errol Musk, Elon’s father, giving Elon and Kimbal Musk “$28,000 plus a beat-up car he bought for $500” to help them start Zip2. Maye, Elon’s mother, contributed another $10,000 and “let them use her credit card because they had not been approved for one.” Certainly Musk got started with family money. Is the problem about the meaning of “inherited wealth”?

Skipping how dependent Musk is on Texas is a howler

Here’s another strange choice. “Over the years, one criticism of Tesla has been that the company was ‘bailed out’ or ‘subsidized’ by the government in 2009.” This is not quite right. Over the years, the criticism has been that Tesla has gotten a great deal of assistance from state, federal, and local governments , sometimes screwing them in the process, as demonstrated by the Buffalo Gigafactory. By one estimate, Tesla alone has gotten more than $3 billion in loans and subsidies from state and local governments . While Isaacson gives a detailed accounting of Tesla’s $465 million in loans from a DOE program, he skips all the rest of the assists Musk has gotten over the years — goodies that have inspired jealousy from the likes of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos .

Then there’s this description of Neuralink, Musk’s brain implant company: “The idea for Neuralink was inspired by science fiction, most notably the Culture space-travel novels by Iain Banks.” Maybe so, but there’s actual science fact : brain-machine interfaces had been implanted in humans as early as 2006 , something Isaacson doesn’t mention. Musk certainly didn’t come up with the idea; brain-machine interfaces already existed. Nor does Isaacson mention the gruesome allegations about Neuralink’s test subjects .

But I want to get to the real big one: Musk’s politics. This is a recurring theme for Isaacson, and his perspective is bewildering.

Musk’s dependence on taxpayer largess plays a role here; skipping how dependent Musk is on Texas is a howler. Musk has often donated in ways that will benefit him in Texas , where he has a substantial operation. So writing a sentence like “Musk has never been very political” when Musk has donated more than $1 million to politicians in the last 20 years is odd.

Now, I personally view Musk as a political nihilist, willing to say whatever he needs to say to get taxpayer money. But it’s undeniable that he’s spent decades palling around with libertarian-to-far-right types (most famously Peter Thiel and David Sacks, who is inexplicably described as “not rigidly partisan” despite coauthoring a noxious book with Thiel that, among other things, suggested date rape wasn’t real ). 

If you know these details, Musk looks like a dolt

These long-standing right-wing ties belie the notion advanced by Isaacson that the real cause of Musk’s right-wing pivot is his daughter, Jenna; I found these sections of the book difficult to read, as they essentially amount to victim blaming. In Isaacson’s telling, “Jenna’s anger made Musk sensitive to the backlash against billionaires.” She stopped speaking to her father in 2020 and transitioned without telling him. 

I wonder, though Isaacson doesn’t, if she didn’t tell him because she was afraid to. Musk found out from a member of his security detail — and it’s revealing to me that none of the people around Musk who knew, including Grimes, wanted to break the news. It’s not unusual for queer people to hide from parents they suspect will reject them; there is a reason many gay and trans people have “ found families .” 

When Musk tweets, “Take the red pill,” in 2020, Isaacson notes that it’s a reference to The Matrix but does not add that The Matrix is a movie made by two people who later came out as trans. In fact, The Matrix itself is a trans story — in the ’90s, prescription estrogen was literally a red pill . Isaacson includes Ivanka Trump’s reply (“Taken!”) but not that of Matrix creator Lilly Wachowski: “ Fuck both of you .” If you know these details, Musk looks like a dolt — sort of a problem for a biographer trying to write a Great Man book.

Similarly, Isaacson falls flat on racial issues — the existence of apartheid in Musk’s youth is barely mentioned. It’s a strange omission; Musk’s maternal grandfather, Joshua Haldeman . was the chair of the national council of the Social Credit Party, which was openly antisemitic. Haldeman’s beliefs are characterized by Isaacson as “quirky conservative populist views,” which… led him to immigrate to Pretoria, South Africa, which was ruled by the racist apartheid regime. 

Justine Musk and Amber Heard are both disparaged

One of the other things Isaacson doesn’t mention is the alleged racist working conditions at Tesla’s Fremont factory . Recently, a former Tesla worker was awarded millions for racist abuse at work . This does seem relevant to Musk’s politics.

Also relevant: how Isaacson treats Musk’s exes. Justine Musk and Amber Heard are both disparaged. Of Justine Musk, Elon’s mother said, “She has no redeeming feature.” Kimbal Musk, Elon’s brother and sometimes business partner, is quoted as saying, “This is the wrong person for you.” We don’t hear Justine’s side of the story, except via a magazine article she published during her divorce, “ I Was a Starter Wife .” It makes me wonder: is Justine under a non-disclosure agreement? Did she sign something with a non-disparagement clause, like Tesla founder Martin Eberhard ? Isaacson spoke to her — so why did she have nothing to say?

Similarly, Amber Heard is described by Kimbal as “so toxic,” by Grimes as “chaotic evil,” and by Musk’s chief of staff as “the Joker in Batman… She thrives on destabilizing everything.” Heard is even blamed for Musk’s misbehavior — including “funding secured” in 2018. Even so, Heard’s response is muted enough (“I love him very much,” she says. “Elon loves fire and sometimes it burns him.”) that I wonder if she, too, is NDA’d. By not even bringing up this possibility, Isaacson’s story is inherently skewed.

There is one person we do know is under an NDA: a flight attendant who says Musk propositioned her in 2016 . We also know that five women at SpaceX have said that harassment was regular at the company and that women workers at Tesla say they have been subjected to “nightmarish” sexual harassment . This does not especially interest Isaacson.

Isaacson does have time for a lot of Steve Jobs comparisons, which, after a while, begin to feel like product placement

The workers at Musk’s companies, generally, don’t interest his biographer much. Isaacson begins describing the 2018 Fremont production push from Musk’s perspective: “Musk had come to realize that designing a good factory was like designing a good microchip.” During the production surge, Musk began walking the floor, barking questions at workers, and “making decisions on the fly.” He decided that safety sensors were “too sensitive, tripping when there was no real problem.” 

In this chapter, Isaacson cites stories where rank-and-file workers complained about being pressured to take shortcuts and work 10-hour days. “There was some truth to the complaints,” Isaacson writes. “Tesla’s injury rate was 30 percent higher than the rest of the industry.” Leave aside the risible “some truth.” There is a very obvious question that Isaacson had the access to explore: how did Musk’s meddling with the safety sensors, the seat-of-the-pants fixes changes to the manufacturing process, and general “production hell” affect that injury rate? He chose not to. The injuries among Tesla’s workers aren’t mentioned further.

Isaacson does have time for a lot of Steve Jobs comparisons, which, after a while, begin to feel like product placement for his other book. In the index, Jobs is listed as showing up on 20 pages. You’d be forgiven for thinking Jobs was an important part of Musk’s rise, based on the index alone.

It’s impossible to escape the conclusion that Musk views everyone around him as disposable. The biography teems with mentions of Musk firing people on the spot, demanding to have things his own way even when it is stupid and expensive, and being unable to tolerate even the slightest dissent. “When Elon gets upset, he lashes out, often at junior people,” Jon McNeill, the former president of Tesla, says. 

The later chapters aren’t very revealing

“You definitely realize you’re a tool being used to achieve this larger objective and that’s great,” says Lucas Hughes, who worked as a financial analyst at SpaceX and was one of the junior people Musk lashed out at. “But sometimes tools get worn down and he feels he can just replace that tool.” Musk believes that “when people want to prioritize their comfort and leisure they should leave,” Isaacson writes.

The later chapters aren’t very revealing. Isaacson is bought in on Musk’s vision of AI and his hinky Tesla Bot . The biographer has swallowed Musk’s hype here wholesale. But I remember the days of the “ alien dreadnought, ” the promises for swappable batteries that never materialized, and the countless other things Musk said that turned out to be, at best, exaggeration. In 10 years, the big revelation that Musk switched off the Ukrainian internet access during a battle may not be the most embarrassing thing Isaacson has committed to the page.

Isaacson wraps up the book by ponderously wondering if Musk’s achievements are possible without his bad behavior: 

Would a restrained Musk accomplish as much as a Musk unbound? Is being unfiltered and untethered integral to who he is? Could you get the rockets to orbit or the transition to electric vehicles without accepting all aspects of him, hinged and unhinged? Sometimes great innovators are risk-seeking man-children who resist potty training.

This seems to me to be the wrong set of questions. Here are some other ones: If Musk were more receptive to criticism, would his companies be in better shape? If Musk cared more about the team around him, what else could he have accomplished by now? Is achieving the specific vision Musk has for the world worth the injuries he’s inflicted on his workforce? Do we — the readers of Isaacson’s book — want this particular man’s vision of the future at all?

While Isaacson manages to detail what makes Musk awful, he seems unaware of what made Musk an inspiring figure for so long. Musk is a fantasist, the kind of person who conceives of civilizations on Mars. That’s what people liked all this time : dreaming big, thinking about new possible worlds. It’s also why Musk’s shifting political stance undercuts him. The fantasy of the conservative movement is small and sad, a limited world with nothing new to explore. Musk has gone from dreaming very, very big to seeming very, very small . In the hands of a talented biographer, this kind of tragic story would provide rich material.

Correction 11:00AM ET: The original version of this mischaracterized Musk’s donations — he has donated more than $1 million, not more than $1 billion. We regret the error.

3 Body Problem VR headset review: magical tech in need of more apps

United states v. apple is pure nerd rage, ‘even stronger’ than imagined: doj’s sweeping apple lawsuit draws expert praise, boom’s first test flight could signal the return of supersonic air travel, 32°n’s liquid-lens sunglasses double as reading glasses for genxers.

How Elon Musk’s Buddy Rode Tesla Shares To Become A Billionaire

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

Chance led investor Antonio Gracias to meet Musk and put money in Tesla early on. That–and his focus on problem-solving at the manufacturing level—has been key to his outsized success.

By phoebe liu , forbes staff.

D uring a grueling time for Elon Musk six years ago, his friend Antonio Gracias–a board member at Tesla and an early investor in the company–proved his mettle as both supportive buddy and invaluable problem solver. It was the summer of 2018, and Gracias and Musk were working nearly around the clock to ramp up production of the electric carmaker’s Model 3, sorting out supply chain issues and manufacturing problems. For a few hours each night, they slept in adjacent conference rooms off the factory floor. Gracias, now 53, described it as an “all hands on deck, 24/7” operation, calling it the hardest thing he’d ever done. The two men rarely left the premises—even celebrating Musk’s 47th birthday with a cake from the grocery store next door, because they couldn’t step away long enough for a proper party.

Gracias, a fast-talking, Midwest-born-and-raised investor, became one of Tesla’s first institutional investors in 2005 via his firm Valor Equity Partners and started investing in SpaceX about three years later, per Valor’s website. Over the nearly two decades since then, Gracias’ hands-on investment strategy and bets on Musk’s companies have paid off. He’s now a billionaire, Forbes estimates, thanks mostly to his Tesla shares and other investments made by $14.2 billion (regulatory assets under management) Valor Equity Partners, which he founded in 2001. Along the way, he’s become close friends with Musk, skiing and going on family vacations together. (“If we didn’t go on vacations with the kids, we wouldn’t see the kids. We were working that much,” Gracias once said.) And Musk has invested in Gracias’ Valor Equity Partners, putting $2 million in both its first and second funds, surely lending the firm more credibility. Gracias declined to comment on his net worth or be interviewed for this article. But he has acknowledged in court proceedings that he amassed “dynastic or generational wealth” from investing in several of Musk’s companies—including Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity.

Gracias’ friends, co-investors and portfolio company executives describe him as intense, demanding and always working. “Antonio is surely the most wildly successful, impactful investor who nobody knows,” proclaims Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, CEO of delivery drone maker Zipline.

What sets him apart, they say, is his willingness to help solve a company’s unglamorous problems. Valor has a 20-person “scale team” whose job is to work full time to help portfolio companies do exactly that. Gracias’ manufacturing expertise and a passion for cognitive science–inspired by his neurosurgeon father–have informed the strategy behind Valor’s portfolio of early-stage and growth-stage companies, which have ranged from produce delivery (Misfit Markets) to artificial intelligence data (Dataminr) and defense software (Anduril). It used a similar strategy for a portfolio companies it once owned that ran hundreds of Little Caesars and Dunkin’ Donuts franchises.

At an investors conference in Florida in February, Gracias described Musk’s and his firm’s relationship with him as such: “We can’t all be genius engineers, but we can take the garbage out. We’re good at that.”

G racias was born in Detroit, Michigan, to immigrant parents–his dad is from India and his mom from Spain. His dad was a neurosurgeon and his mom is a trained pharmacist who ran a lingerie shop. When Gracias was in middle school, his mom gave him the money to make his first investment—$300 worth of Apple stock, which he still holds today. He reportedly exported condoms to Russia while studying international economics and finance at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in the early 1990s–where he stayed on to get a master’s degree, graduating in 1993. He then spent two years at Goldman Sachs and went to study law at the University of Chicago.

While in law school, Gracias launched an investment business, calling it MG Capital, a reference to his mother’s initials. Using $400,000 from family, friends and earnings from his Goldman days, as well as a bank loan, MG Capital started more like a buyout firm, buying small, struggling manufacturing companies, aiming to turn them around and sell them for a profit. His first bet was on a California-based electronic plating plant, where he learned about operations by running it himself, flying back and forth between Chicago and Los Angeles to spend time on the factory floor.

“That sounds like the story of how someone lost a lot of money,” Zipline’s Cliffton recalls thinking when Gracias told him that story. “I mean, how many law students would go and buy a factory that’s probably on its way out? It’s actually mind blowing.”

Gracias agreed: “Only someone who’s 24, 25-years old, super naive, could ever do something quite so dumb,” he said in 2022 on the podcast Invest Like The Best , adding that they took the company from $10 million to $125 million in revenue before selling it.

After he finished law school, chance intervened and altered the course of Gracias’ investing. One of his law school classmates, David Sacks (who later cofounded Craft Ventures), was working at software and payments startup Confinity in 1999, and Gracias’ MG Capital invested. Confinity then merged with Musk’s payments firm, X.com, and eventually renamed itself PayPal. PayPal went public in early 2002 and was acquired by eBay later that year for $1.5 billion. As a result, MG Capital’s investment ended up returning three to four times what Gracias put in. And it led to something far more lucrative for him: a relationship with Musk.

A few years later, in 2005, Musk contacted Gracias to ask if his firm–by then MG Capital had morphed into fund-based investment firm Valor Equity Partners–would participate in Tesla’s Series B funding round. Gracias said yes, and took part in the $13 million funding at a mere $35 million valuation. Over the next three years, Valor invested some $15 million in the electric vehicle company—at a time when Tesla didn’t yet have a functional product and there wasn’t a clear market for electric cars. Valor’s team ended up investing significant time attempting to lower supply chain costs related to Tesla’s first model, the Roadster, and helping create its original sales plan. Gracias then joined Tesla’s board in 2007.

Around that time, Valor began investing in SpaceX, putting in $25 million approximately six years after the rocket firm was founded. Gracias’ firm has put money in SpaceX via every Valor fund since then—a total of at least $500 million that’s now worth nearly $5 billion. (SpaceX is currently worth a reported $180 billion.) Valor also invested in other Musk-run companies, including $24 million into SolarCity (which Tesla acquired in 2016) and $15 million to $20 million each in Neuralink and The Boring Company.

Over the years, to make sense of why some of his investments succeeded and others failed, Gracias leaned on inspiration from his neurosurgeon father. He started reading cognitive science research, eventually summing up his investment strategy with the buzzword “pro-entropic.” The term refers to the idea that entropy, or chaos, is the norm, and technologies that are “actually disrupting industries and causing entropy” will go through difficult cycles, according to a former Valor executive.

By 2021 Gracias’s personal stake in Tesla grew to be worth approximately $1 billion, thanks to the electric vehicle firm’s skyrocketing share price, Tesla’s generous director compensation and the lion’s share of Valor distributions—for example, 50% of profits distributed to general partners from Valor’s venture fund, according to court documents. Valor exited Tesla after its 2011 public offering.

Gracias has since sold more than $250 million worth of his Tesla stock, some of which went to his ex-wife in their 2021 divorce; the majority of his remaining shares are held in trusts for his children, which Forbes counts towards his net worth. As of October 2021, when Gracias stepped down from Tesla’s board, 99% of his shares were also pledged as collateral for loans. ( Forbes discounts pledged Tesla shares by 25%, the maximum percentage Tesla allows directors to borrow against their shares.)

The longtime Musk confidant left the board in part due to pressure on Tesla by regulators to improve its corporate governance amid criticism that Gracias was too close to Musk to be Tesla’s lead independent director–since Gracias’ relationship with Musk went far beyond business dealings, including those ski vacations. (Three other Tesla directors stepped down, too.)

His close ties to Musk have also pulled him into the spotlight tied to Musk’s purchase of Twitter, now called X: Valor reportedly helped oversee its mass layoffs after Musk took ownership, essentially doing tasks that would typically fall to a chief financial officer, The Information reported . Gracias was one of the Tesla board members who approved Musk’s massive compensation package at Tesla, which a Delaware judge struck down in January. Many of the details about their relationship and Gracias’ career come from Gracias’ testimony in the trial. And the Wall Street Journal reported in February that Gracias was one of several Tesla directors who have consumed illegal drugs with Musk. (Valor did not respond to a request for comment on the allegation of drug use.)

In a 2022 text to Musk, referenced in court filings, Gracias had written “I am 100 percent with you, Elon, to the mattresses no matter what,” in a conversation about free speech, referencing a line from The Godfather , one of Gracias’ favorite movies–and indicating he’d fight alongside Musk against others.

Gracias sometimes portrays Musk as a superhero—one whose tail he’s grabbed. Musk is “like the Michael Jordan of investing. And I’m from Chicago,” Gracias said in court in 2022, where he repeatedly called Musk “extraordinary” and a product genius. (Gracias was testifying in the Delaware court case alleging that Musk was overpaid, since was on Tesla’s compensation committee when the pay package was approved.)

VALOR EQUITY PARTNERS' GROWTH OVER THE LAST DECADE

Amounts represent valor's regulatory assets under management at the end of each indicated year, in billions of usd..

The Musk relationship likely helped Gracias deliver above average returns of 20% annually on its first two funds, and raise increasingly large funds. Its later fourth and fifth funds largely contain non-Musk companies like mattress firm Eight Sleep, video game software Genvid and insurance company AgentSync (Gracias sits on the boards of the first two companies, per PitchBook).

VALOR EQUITY PARTNERS FUND PERFORMANCE

Valor is about to close a sixth fund and demand has been robust; its $2 billion target was oversubscribed, according to a colleague of Gracias, who asked not to be named. Going forward, one focus for Valor is defense and security—in part fueled by Gracias’ concern about the United States’ position in the world.

Valor led a giant $1.5 billion fundraise in December 2022 for Anduril, which makes AI-powered weapons and other defense-focused hardware and software—and has its own polarizing cofounder, Palmer Luckey.

Trae Stephens, another Anduril cofounder and partner at Founders Fund, which also invests in many of the same companies as Valor, said Valor’s day-to-day involvement in the hardware side of Anduril’s business differentiated it not only from Founders Fund, but also the rest of the venture market.

“Literally, after they made their first investment, they sent a team in to work day to day with us to help us get our stuff together on the hardware and manufacturing side of things,” Stephens told Forbes , citing Valor’s help with managing inventory and delivery when orders come in sporadically.

Stephens, who also graduated from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, also emphasized that Gracias’ background in international relations rather than finance has influenced his tendency to think about geopolitical power and its nuances when deciding on what companies to invest in.

But Gracias is also nothing if not practical and knows how Valor can help, as it did early on with Tesla. “The kinds of problems we deal with are repeated problems for us, but they’re the first time for a first time founder,” Gracias said on the Invest Like The Best podcast. “We will lower the risk. We will lower the pain. We’ll increase the speed, and if anything goes wrong, we can help you fix it. That’s why you want us.”

MORE FROM FORBES

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

RBG's family condemns the selection of recipients of an award named in her honor

Emma Bowman

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in 2020, months after approving an award in her name to honor women who have made a positive difference. Ginsburg is pictured speaking at Amherst College in Amherst, Mass, on Oct. 3, 2019. Jessica Hill/AP hide caption

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in 2020, months after approving an award in her name to honor women who have made a positive difference. Ginsburg is pictured speaking at Amherst College in Amherst, Mass, on Oct. 3, 2019.

An award named after Ruth Bader Ginsburg has gone to a slate of accomplished women since it was launched four years ago to honor the legacy of the late Supreme Court justice known for championing women's rights and liberal causes. This year is different.

Next month, the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation will present the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award to four men and Martha Stewart. Among the winners are two convicted felons, the founder of right-wing Fox News, and Elon Musk.

RBG award ceremony canceled amid controversy over recipients

Stewart, Musk, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Milken and Sylvester Stallone are the five "iconic" and "exceptional" recipients of the 2024 RBG Leadership Award, the organizing foundation said in a news release on Wednesday.

Ginsburg's family is blasting the foundation's selection of this year's recipients, saying the decision is an "affront" to the memory of the late justice and her values.

"This year, the Opperman Foundation has strayed far from the original mission of the award and from what Justice Ginsburg stood for," Jane Ginsburg, daughter of the Supreme Court justice, said in a statement.

The award was conceived in 2019 to recognize "an extraordinary woman who has exercised a positive and notable influence on society and served as an exemplary role model in both principles and practice." Past recipients have included Queen Elizabeth II and Barbra Streisand.

It's Been a Minute

The life and legacy of ruth bader ginsburg.

This year, "woman" has been dropped from the name of the award, and the criteria has expanded to include "trailblazing men and women" who "have demonstrated extraordinary accomplishments in their chosen fields," the Opperman Foundation said.

"Justice Ginsburg fought not only for women but for everyone," the foundation's chair, Julie Opperman, said in the news release. "Going forward, to embrace the fullness of Justice Ginsburg's legacy, we honor both women and men who have changed the world by doing what they do best."

The Ginsburg family says it was not informed of the changes in name or criteria for the award. It is pressing Opperman to remove Justice Ginsburg's name from the award "unless the original award criteria, as accepted by Justice Ginsburg, are restored," as Trevor Morrison, Ginsburg's former law clerk, wrote in a letter to the foundation's chair that spoke on behalf of the Ginsburg family.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Legacy As Women's Rights Champion

Until then, Morrison said, the justice's family wishes "to make clear that they do not support using their mother's name to celebrate this slate of awardees, and that the Justice's family has no affiliation with and does not endorse this award."

"Each of this year's awardees has achieved notable success in their careers, and each may well deserve accolades of one form or another. But the decision to bestow upon them the particular honor of the RBG Award is a striking betrayal of the Justice's legacy," he wrote.

Most of the awardees' track records bear controversies and scandals rivaling their achievements.

Milken, an investment banker famous for creating the junk bond market, was arrested in the late '80s for securities fraud. After he was released from prison, he built a reputation on his philanthropy. President Trump pardoned Milken in 2020.

Stewart, who built a multimillion-dollar empire as a homemaking maven, served prison time for lying to investigators about a fishy stock sale.

Rupert Murdoch says Fox stars 'endorsed' lies about 2020. He chose not to stop them

Murdoch, the retired mogul who leveraged his media outlets to embrace right-wing leaders and views, allowed Fox News stars to promote baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Musk, the billionaire owner of SpaceX, has been accused of antisemitism and, since taking over Twitter — now known as X — reportedly allowed pro-Nazi content to proliferate on the platform, prompting companies to pull ad revenue.

Actor Stallone of Rocky fame has faced multiple allegations of sexual assault, all of which he denies and for which he's never been charged.

Stallone escorted Justice Ginsburg to the stage — as the franchise's theme song played — during the award's inaugural ceremony in 2020, as Opperman noted at the time.

At that ceremony, Justice Ginsburg stated her hopes for the award: "By honoring brave, strong and resilient women, we will prompt women and men in ever-increasing numbers to help repair tears in their local communities, the nation and the world, so that the long arc of the moral universe will continue to bend toward justice."

In an email to NPR, RBG's son singled out two recipients in his condemnation of the new criteria.

"... that is quite a step down from the original criteria and, apparently, means people like Murdoch and Musk who are antithetical to everything Mom stood for, qualify," Jim Ginsburg said. "Speaking only for myself, I would say that those who foment hatred and undermine democracy do not stand for the ideals of equality, respect, and engagement my mother strived to advance."

The Opperman Foundation has not yet responded to NPR's request for comment.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

After R.B.G. Awards Go to Musk and Murdoch, Justice Ginsburg’s Family Objects

The children of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who championed liberal causes and women’s rights, said the choice of recipients this year was an “affront” to the memory of their mother.

By Minho Kim

Reporting from Washington

When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a champion of liberal causes whose advocacy of women’s rights catapulted her to pop culture fame, helped establish a leadership award in 2019, she said she intended to celebrate “women who exemplify human qualities of empathy and humility.”

But this year, four of the recipients are men, including Elon Musk, the tech entrepreneur who frequently lobs tirades at perceived critics ; Rupert Murdoch, the business magnate whose empire gave rise to conservative media; and Michael Milken, the face of corporate greed in the 1980s who served nearly two years in prison . It has prompted family members and close colleagues of Justice Ginsburg to demand that her name be removed from the honor, commonly called the R.B.G. Award.

In a statement, her daughter, Jane C. Ginsburg, a law professor at Columbia University, said the choice of winners this year was “an affront to the memory of our mother.”

“The justice’s family wish to make clear that they do not support using their mother’s name to celebrate this year’s slate of awardees, and that the justice’s family has no affiliation with and does not endorse these awards,” Ms. Ginsburg said.

Even as he declined to specify any of the recipients who he believed undermined the spirit of the award, Trevor W. Morrison, a former dean of New York University School of Law and one of the justice’s former law clerks, expressed concern that not all of them reflected the justice’s values.

“Justice Ginsburg had an abiding commitment to careful, rigorous analysis and to fair-minded engagement with people of opposing views,” he said in a letter addressed to the organization that confers the awards, the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation. “It is difficult to see how the decision to bestow the R.B.G. Award on this year’s slate reflects any appreciation for — or even awareness of — these dimensions of the justice’s legacy.”

The recipients, who also include the businesswoman Martha Stewart and the actor Sylvester Stallone, will receive the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award in April at the Library of Congress, where there is typically a ceremony and gala.

The Opperman Foundation declined to comment on the pushback. But in announcing its decision to recognize both men and women — until this year, the honor was called the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award — it said it sought to uphold the value of gender equality.

“Justice Ginsburg fought not only for women but for everyone,” Julie Opperman, the chairwoman of the foundation, said in a statement. “Going forward, to embrace the fullness of Justice Ginsburg’s legacy, we honor both women and men who have changed the world by doing what they do best.”

Still, this year’s winners stand in stark contrast to past recipients, who include Queen Elizabeth II, the fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg and the actress and singer Barbra Streisand.

Some critics said a few of the honorees were antithetical to what the justice stood for.

“A self-described ‘flaming feminist litigator,’ Justice Ginsburg represented both men and women who defied gender norms and stereotypes as a way of advancing gender equality,” said Shana Knizhnik, an author of “Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” “Honoring Elon Musk, who uses his platform to promote anti-feminist and anti-L.G.B.T.Q. sentiments, and Rupert Murdoch, who has used his immense power to undermine democracy, dishonors what Justice Ginsburg spent her career standing for.”

Mr. Musk and Mr. Murdoch did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The justice cut a distinctive path from the start.

When she entered Harvard Law School in 1956, she was one of the nine women in a class of over 500. In her first year, she balanced the intensity of law school with raising a child and caring for her husband, who had been recently diagnosed with cancer. She remained at the top of the class.

Nevertheless, she was still chastised for taking a man’s spot in the class.

Over the nearly three decades she spent on the court, she emerged as a progressive voice, on the winning side in cases involving abortion, affirmative action and gender equality. Even when she found herself in the minority, she did some of her most notable work in dissent.

Reflecting on the awards, Justice Ginsburg’s son pointed to the timing of the announcement.

“Today would have been Mom’s 91st birthday,” said James S. Ginsburg, the founder of Cedille Records, a classical music recording company. “So it would be a perfect day to correct the record on this insult to her name and legacy.”

The World of Elon Musk

The billionaire’s portfolio includes the world’s most valuable automaker, an innovative rocket company and plenty of drama..

A Testy Interview:  In the wake of a rough interview with Elon Musk that touched upon Donald Trump, his reported drug use and hate speech on X,  the former television anchor Don Lemon said that his deal for a new talk show on X was called off  just days before it was scheduled to air.

Tesla:  Amid slower car sales and growing competition, investors are growing concerned about the future of the Musk-owned company .

The Musk Foundation: After making billions in tax-deductible donations to his charity, Musk has failed recently to donate the minimum required to justify a tax break  — and what he did give often supported his interests.

OpenAI: Musk, who helped found the A.I. start-up in 2015, has filed a lawsuit  accusing the company and its chief executive  of breaching a contract  by putting profits and commercial interests ahead of the public good.

SpaceX: Musk said that the private rocket company, which he founded in 2002, had switched where it was incorporated to Texas from Delaware , a move that could bolster the Lone Star State’s standing with business .

Neuralink: Neuralink, a company working to develop computer interfaces that can be implanted in human brains, placed its first device in a patient , said Musk, who founded the company.

Don Lemon asks about ketamine use, hate speech on X in contentious Elon Musk interview

The first episode of Don Lemon 's new show, and his tense interview with Elon Musk , is here.

The former CNN anchor on Monday premiered the debut episode of "The Don Lemon Show," which consists of an hour-long, contentious interview with the Tesla CEO. Last week, Lemon, 58, revealed that after the interview was conducted, Musk, 52, decided to cancel a partnership between his show and X, formerly Twitter.

"Elon Musk has canceled the partnership I had with X, which they announced as part of their public commitment to amplifying more diverse voices on their platform. He informed me of his decision hours after an interview I conducted with him on Friday," Lemon, who was fired by CNN in 2023 , said.

Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.

X  responded that Lemon's show is "welcome to publish its content on X" but that the company reserves the right "to make decisions about our business partnerships, and after careful consideration, X decided not to enter into a commercial partnership with the show." Musk also posted on X that Lemon's "approach was basically just 'CNN, but on social media,' which doesn't work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying."

Lemon says he took show to X after Musk's 'months of begging me'

"We're still here," Lemon declared at the start of the premiere episode of "The Don Lemon Show," clarifying that the show wasn't "canceled" by X since it was never going to be exclusive to the platform.

Don Lemon's show canceled by Elon Musk on X, a year after CNN firing

"Yes, after months of begging me, wooing me to offer some exclusive content on his platform, Elon Musk decided to scrap the deal," Lemon said. "But our plan is, and always has been, to release this show everywhere."

Lemon added that he isn't sure what "went wrong" with the interview but challenged Musk to watch it and "tell the world why this isn't what you claim you want on X." The full interview was shared on X and YouTube.

Lemon asks Musk about his ketamine use, hate speech on X

One early contentious moment in the interview came when Lemon asked Musk whether he is "sober" when he posts "controversial stuff" on X. "Almost always, yes," Musk replied. Lemon also questioned Musk on his use of ketamine to treat depression.

"It's pretty private to ask somebody about a medical prescription," Musk replied, saying ketamine is helpful for getting him out of a "negative frame of mind."

Lemon followed up by asking Musk if he ever abuses ketamine. Musk denied doing so and said he takes a "small amount once every other week."

Lemon subsequently grilled Musk on some of his controversial X posts, including claims that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) puts lives at risk by lowering medical standards. Lemon strongly pushed back on this assertion, while Musk maintained that this "could become an issue."

Has Elon Musk gone too far? Outrage grows over antisemitic 'actually truth' post

"The actual evidence and history shows the exact opposite if you look at how minorities are treated by the medical system," Lemon said, adding, "There's no actual evidence of what you're saying."

Lemon and Musk also argued over whether X needs to do more to moderate hate speech on the platform, with the news anchor showing antisemitic posts that remain on X. "From your own content policy, these posts should have been deleted," Lemon said. Musk responded that X deletes posts if they're "illegal" before adding, "So Don, you love censorship."

Following an argument regarding Musk's controversial posts about immigration, Musk told Lemon he doesn't "have to answer questions from reporters" and only agreed to do this interview "because you're on the X platform and you asked for it."

Musk tells Lemon he's 'upsetting me' with question about X

The interview closed on a tense note as Musk warned Lemon he was running out of time and admitted to being upset by one of his final questions. Lemon questioned Musk's statement that advertisers who leave X could kill the company, asking, "Doesn't the buck stop with you?"

After Musk took a long pause before responding that he is trying to "preserve freedom of speech in America," Lemon said he is "not trying to get you or anything" before asking, "Why would that question upset you? You seem upset by it. Are you?"

"You are upsetting me because the way you're phrasing questions is not cogent," Musk told him.

Lemon says Musk isn't used to being questioned by someone 'who doesn't look like him'

In an interview with People ahead of the episode, Lemon alleged that Musk is "not used to being held to account" and "not used to having to answer to anyone, especially someone like me who doesn't share his worldview, who doesn't look like him." The journalist also said that although he has "interviewed many world leaders, presidents to convicts," no one "has been more sensitive or touchy than Elon Musk."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Don Lemon asks about ketamine use, hate speech on X in contentious Elon Musk interview

Elon Musk was spotted with his son X Æ A-XII at a German Tesla factory as his custody battle with Grimes drags on

• Elon Musk took his son X AE A-XII to a Tesla factory in Germany as it reopened after a power cut.
• The factory had been without power for nearly a week due to a fire at a nearby pylon.
• Musk and his son were seen together amid the Tesla chief's custody battle with Grimes.

Elon Musk took his son X AE A-XII to a Tesla factory in Germany this week as his custody battle with Grimes over their children continues to play out.

The Tesla CEO was spotted carrying X AE A-XII on his shoulders as he visited the site.

The factory reopened Wednesday after a nearby electricity pylon was set on fire , leaving the plant without power for almost a week. In a letter posted on website kontrapolis.info , a militant group claimed responsibility for the fire that caused the power cut.

Related stories

Tesla's X account posted a photo of Musk with the caption: "Thanks for visiting" after it resumed production.

Musk and musician Grimes have been embroiled in a dispute over their three children. The billionaire quietly sued her in September , seeking to "establish the parent-child relationship" with their children Exa and Tau, as well as X AE A-XII.

Then, later in September, Grimes filed a petition to establish a parental relationship," court records showed.

Musk brought X AE A-XII to a meeting with the Turkish president that same month, who asked him where his wife was, even though the couple had never married. "Oh, she's in San Francisco," Musk replied. "We're separated, I take care of him mostly."

In Musk's lawsuit, he accused Grimes of moving to California to "circumvent the jurisdiction" of Texas courts, which cap child-support payments at $2,760 a month for three children, BI previously reported.

Then Grimes said that she and two of their children had been living in California when Musk filed the petition, per a November filing previously obtained by Business Insider .

The trip to the German factory marks at least the second time that Musk has taken X AE A-XII on an overseas trip this year, as they also visited Auschwitz in January.

Elon Musk didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

Watch: Photos show Elon Musk hanging out with Jared Kushner at the World Cup final

• Main content