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| Elon Musk at the age of 17 in 1989. Source: Tweeted by @maymusk (Creative Commons License). |
Many people are fascinated with how the CEO of two giant companies grew up. In this article, we dive into what early life was like for Musk.
Musk's Early Life
On June 28, 1971, Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, to an engineer father and dietician/model mother from Canada. He was the first child and would later have two siblings, Kimbal and Tosca.
Following his parents' divorce, Musk, then age nine, and Kimbal went to live with their father. School days were unpleasant as he was reportedly bullied multiple times, even getting beaten up. He made the perfect target, being the youngest and smallest kid in class who was also nerdy. Musk was thrown down a set of stairs and beaten until he blacked out on one occasion.
Even his parents misunderstood him, mistaking his solitude for deafness, which then allowed him to dream up his future inventions.
However, Musk's technical and entrepreneurial gifts began to manifest early. At 12, Musk developed a computer game, Blastar, which he sold to a computer magazine for $500. Decades later, he boasted the game was better than Flappy Bird.
The rest, as they say, is history. However, most of Musk's darkest childhood memories involved his father, Errol Musk.
Later Years
Musk relocated to Canada with his mother Maye, brother, and sister after finishing high school. He then proceeded to study at Queens University in Ontario, although he would spend only two years there. He would complete his studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned degrees in physics and economics.
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| Elon Musk and Maye Musk. Source: Photograph by Charles Eshelman (Creative Commons License). |
Stanford University would later admit Musk to a Ph.D. program, but he didn't last more than two days as the lure of the dot-com boom was too much to resist for him.
He would never return to complete the program.
The rest, as they say, is history.
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| Elon Musk celebrating Tesla's fourth-quarter profit. Source: REUTERS/Noah Berger. |
However, most of Musk's darkest childhood memories involved his father, Errol Musk.
Despite his father being a well-to-do engineer and supporting the family in an affluent neighborhood, the two had a rocky relationship. Musk has described his childhood as miserable and claimed Errol was capable of carrying out evil deeds.
Apart from being allegedly abusive, which his mother also hinted at, Musk claimed his father never supported his ambitions and even believed his son would return from Canada as a failure.
Musk would get a stepbrother in 2017 in the most embarrassing way, which would not help the relationship between the two. Errol fathered the child with his stepdaughter, over 40 years younger.
Elon's father claimed he didn't see his stepdaughter as his stepdaughter because she was raised apart from his family.