Profesor coordinator: Candidat:
Lucia Melcea Afrasinei Catalin
2020-2021
LUCRARE PENTRU OBȚINEREA ATESTATULUI
PROFESIONAL LA LIMBA ENGLEZĂ
“Elon Musk – the Designer of the Future”
Profesor coordinator: Candidat:
Lucia Melcea Afrasinei Catalin
2020-2021
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Table of Contents
Précis………………………………………………………………………………………......3
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………4
Early Beginnings……………………………………………………………………………....5
Off the Ground………………………………………………………………..……………….7
The PayPal Years……………………………………………………………………..……….8
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Précis
For as long as I can remember, technology has been one of my main interests as I have
always been intrigued by what the future holds. Even from an early age, I have been totally
fascinated by the different new machineries and the state-of-the-art systems that are
continuously being developed and improved.
And what better role model for a young, aspiring boy to choose than the epitome of the
modern engineer, the so-called “real-life Tony Stark”, Elon Musk. Arguably the most
ambitious entrepreneur of our times, he is the brilliant mind behind many innovative
companies, such as electric automotive giant Tesla, SpaceX, which has the utmost goal of
colonizing Mars, and X.com, the forerunner of PayPal.
The South Africa-born industrial designer is not your typical staid and serious businessman
as he is known for his particular sense of humor and laid-back personality, which has made
him quite a likeable figure among young people like myself. This, however, does not mean
Musk is not as hard-working as others, his intense focus and work ethic ultimately being what
led him to success.
Elon Musk’s influence over a multitude of industries and his overall will to change the world
and the future for the better is what truly inspired me and what made me interested in finding
out more about the engineer’s feats and how he achieved them and also about his upcoming
endeavors.
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Introduction
The word “genius” gets thrown around a lot these days, but seems tailor-made for Elon
Musk. Although his name is associated with numerous projects, ideas, and trends, more than
anything he would like to be known for SpaceX, a company whose ultimate goal is to see
humans inhabiting other planets. It’s his testament to a persevering future and commitment to
making it a reality.
Being more ambitious than most people on the only planet we currently occupy, he lives a
beat ahead of the rest of us, with one hand grasped firmly around possibilities beyond our
ken. His tenacious and intrepid abilities have shaped him into a role model for any aspiring
entrepreneur who wishes for success while making a global difference.
For that reason, people like author Ashlee Vance see him “more as a 21st-century Thomas
Edison than a Howard Hughes, with a little P. T. Barnum dashed in for good measure” : a
public figure who has achieved astronomical wealth by capitalizing on people’s need for
wonder. He lives in his own world, yet makes it part of our own.
Musk’s life journey was not a sweet ride though. The man experienced more suffering than
what an average person could take. He graduated from college with a degree in business and
physics. Since he was a child, he had been dreaming of creating things that will make the
future of humanity a brighter one. After graduating from the University, he took a shot at his
dream and went to Silicon Valley to get started.
Now, the name Elon Musk is one of the
most respected names in numerous
industries which nobody thought would
achieve such developments during our
lifetime. It was all thanks to the child who
grew up to take his fantasies seriously and
who never gave up on his ideas.
Elon Musk in 2017. (Picture by Art Steiber)
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Early Beginnings
Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa. His
mother is Maye Musk (née Haldeman), a glamorous model born in Saskatchewan, Canada,
but raised in South Africa and his father is Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical
engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, and property developer. He has a younger brother, Kimbal
(born 1972), and a younger sister, Tosca (born 1974).
Elon, Kimbal, and Tosca at their house in South Africa. Elon Musk as a child (Picture by Maye Musk)
(Picture by Maye Musk)
Musk first made headlines at the age of 12, in 1984, the early days of personal computing,
when a publication printed the code for a video game called Blastar that he wrote himself.
It was Apartheid-era South Africa, and amid this time his parent’s marriage was tumultuous
and ended in divorce. Elon wound up with his father, Errol. An engineer by trade, Errol was a
difficult and strict parent. Elon said his childhood was “like misery” and has vowed to never
let his children meet their grandfather.
By the third or fourth grade Elon ran out of books to read at the school’s library. He would
sneak into a bookstore and read books off the shelf—occasionally getting kicked out. He
eventually began reading the Encyclopedia Britannica, which he loved. His preternatural
knowledge, enthusiasm for learning, creativity, and a focus on the big questions did not
endear him to his classmates. When a friend said he was afraid of the dark, Elon replied that
there was nothing to be afraid of because darkness is merely an absence of light.
As an independent scholar, he did well, but Elon had a tough time in school and was
occasionally made fun of. At 10 years old, he convinced his father to buy him a Commodore
VIC-20 computer.
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It came with a guide meant to be used over six months—Elon exhausted it in three days.
Presaging his times at SpaceX, Elon became interested in building rockets and explosives,
mixing chemicals himself.
Musk with his mother Maye, as a teenager in Ontario, 1992.
At age 17, in 1989, he moved to Canada to go to Queen's University at Kingston, where in
light of his mother’s Canadian roots, Elon was able to secure Canadian citizenship and was
determined to eventually make it to the United States. During his time at Queens’s he met
Justine Wilson, a fellow student and his future wife.
In 1992, Elon received a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania and transferred there.
Throughout university, Elon showed an ability to delve into a subject and completely master
it far more than other high achievers. Elon displayed his passion for clean energy early on.
During his time at Penn, he wrote a paper predicting a fall in the price of solar cells, and a
corresponding rise in their adoption in society. He also wrote papers predicting the rise of a
product similar to Google Books, and another on ultracapacitors and their potential use in
energy storage.
Elon already knew he wanted to change the world, though he hadn’t resolved on how. He
decided to not return to his early roots in gaming after briefly considered it. Video games
would not direct the future of humanity.
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Off the Ground
Before setting off on his own, Elon did two internships in Silicon Valley. One was at
Pinnacle Research Institute, a start-up examining the use of ultracapacitors in electric
vehicles. The other was at Rocket Science Games, a start-up that focused on creating state-of-
the-art video games. After graduating from Penn, Elon and his brother Kimbal created Global
Link Information Network, which would eventually be renamed Zip2.
Zip2 was essentially a mash-up of the old
Yellow Pages directory and a map that
directed customers to nearby businesses. It
was not an instant success. In the very early
days of the web, it was difficult convincing
businesses to pay to be listed on the website.
Elon Musk at the helm of his first start-up Zip2, 1995.
Elon and Kimbal lived a Spartan existence while getting the business off the ground. They
were helped by Greg Kouri, an old acquaintance from Canada, who invested $6,000 and
joined as a cofounder. Then, in 1996, the company received a $3-million investment from a
venture capital firm. With the funds, Zip2 changed its strategy. Instead of selling the service
to businesses, they would create software to sell to newspapers, which had already realized
the Internet might overtake their business in classified ads. Elon became Chief Technology
Officer of the company, and the venture capital firm brought in someone else to be the Chief
Executive Officer. Elon would come to regret giving up the CEO role.
Elon and his brother enjoyed their newfound success—they were able to buy new cars—and
Elon became less volatile and more confident. However, he clashed with the CEO about the
direction of the company. Elon wanted to sell to individual consumers, while the CEO and
board wanted to focus on selling to businesses.
In 1999, American information technology company Compaq swept in and purchased the
company for $307 million, from which Elon made $22 million and immediately began
planning his next move.
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The PayPal Years
Selling Zip2 gave Musk the confidence he needed to shift gears into his next plat- form: an
internet bank that would revolutionize the way money was exchanged on- line. Although the
financial powers that be felt his vision was far too premature, citing security and other
unresolved issues, he paid them no heed. He was, in fact, already working on it before the
Zip2 buyout. What began as X.com set out to revolutionize banking by allowing users to send
money directly to anyone in the world with nothing more than an email address. When Musk
was ousted from the company, later rebranded as PayPal, he wasted no time wallowing in
anger, instead pushing forward as the company’s advisor and biggest shareholder. When
eBay offered to buy them, he insisted they hold out for more money, leading to the $1.5
billion they ended up accepting. With the $180 million of gross profit he earned from that
deal, his innermost desires seemed achievable at last.
Peter Thiel, left, and Elon Musk, two members of the so-called "PayPal Mafia."
This whole sequence of events earned Musk a negative reputation among journalists who
downplayed his involvement in PayPal’s rise to prominence. Such slander was, of course,
unfounded and ridiculous, and it didn’t take long for Musk’s genius to win the public over.
By the same token, he wasn’t exactly your typical CEO. Then again, neither was Steve Jobs.
In any event, no one could deny his prowess, willingness to take risks, and, perhaps above all,
his uncanny attraction for talent. Founders of such ubiquitous platforms as YouTube, Yelp,
and Palantir Technologies all got their start at PayPal.
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In the background of all this, Musk’s relationship with Justine was deepening. They married,
but Justine soon found that, despite his affections, Musk treated her more like an accessory
than an equal partner. When they finally took the honey-moon they’d postponed because of
the X.com coup, Musk was struck by malaria and nearly died upon his return to the States. In
characteristic fashion, he dusted himself off and got back to work as quickly as possible.
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