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Elon Musk, PayPal Pioneer, Is Paper-Rich, Cash-Poor
- MJR 16y ago"It is pretty aggravating," he told me, referring to the rumors floating around about him... Yet the article does little more than add to the sensational bonfire. He values his investments, so he's prioritized them. It seems like his friends see him as an investment - a good one in my opinion, and have chosen to help him out. With the IPO coming he'll be able to get square and that still leaves him in a fantastic position. He made the choice to be cash-poor and it seems he did so not out of ignorance but with an understanding that he had income sources(friends, businesses, etc) that would help him get through any dry spell. The divorce certainly doesn't help, but this seems pretty logical for an entrepreneur.
- brianobush 16y agomonthly expenses of 200k? Wow, that is quite a lavish lifestyle. Just wondering what costs so much... that is more than 6k per day.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- vaksel 16y agococaine is expensive although since he is going through a divorce(I think), it's probably lawyer fees
- MikeCapone 16y ago> cocaine is expensive Is this a joke? Because that's not an accusation to make lightly, IMHO.
- vaksel 16y agoduuuh
- mbenjaminsmith 16y agoI think it's a silly/unnecessary joke also. But overreacting to it is even worse. What if this guy's career or at least his public perception gets derailed by a dirt-seeking public in some stupid scandal. What a tragic, horrible loss that would be to the rest of us. This man needs to be given a clear road ahead to keep innovating. We need more of people like him, people who not only have lofty, humane goals but have the will to make them a reality. If this guy wants to swim in pools of LSD on the weekends who cares? It's no one's business but his own. What about Feynman and pot? My Mom has never smoked pot, she didn't come up with quantum electrodynamics either.
- MikeCapone 16y agoWho's overreacting? I think my reaction was very proportional. Humor doesn't always translate well to text, so I simply wanted a clarification. It's bad manner to accuse someone of being a coke-head in public without any clear indication that it's a joke, whoever that person is (you, me, Elon Musk). We can think all we want that nobody should care, but we have to live with the world as it is (until we can change it, anyway), and there are many evo. psych. reasons why people care about that kind of stuff.
- sgt 16y ago
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- houseabsolute 16y agoHard to believe he consumes twice in a month what my wife and I do in a year.
- rjett 16y agoHard to believe that you and your wife consume in a year what I would consume in 7 years if I stuck to my current standard of living :)
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- presidentender 16y agoHard to believe that you consume ~14 times what an average Kenyan consumes in a year.
- qq66 16y agoThis is clearly a man who doesn't do anything at ordinary scale. He eats bigger than we do, travels bigger than we do, and starts companies bigger than we do.
- aptimpropriety 16y agoCan anyone comment on the divorce situation? The seemingly huge requests by soon-to-be ex-wife? I mean, CA community property and all, but nonetheless, any insights/opinions? (for those of us not up on the gossip)
- quickpost 16y agoFWIW, I'd try to avoid demonizing the ex-wife in this scenario (not that you are). I've followed her blog off and on during the proceedings, and honestly, her demands don't seem terribly unreasonable: "The irony of this whole thing is that I don't want hundreds of millions of dollars. I think my ex-husband is brilliant and works like a demon and deserves his success and his wealth. But I also think -- after eight years of marriage and six kids (five surviving) -- that I am entitled to a fair settlement..." http://moschus.livejournal.com/140502.html http://moschus.livejournal.com/140502.html She's probably asking for somewhere between 5 and 10% of their combined assets, near as I can tell. I think the bigger issue in the divorce is one of pride, in that Elon doesn't want to give up any shares in the companies he's built... it's more than just money to him. /back to work
- philk 16y agoThe thing is, 5-10% of their shared assets works out to over a hundred million dollars [1] if you include the slices of his companies that she's asking for. So while she couches her request in reasonable language she's actually asking for (IMHO) an unreasonable amount of wealth given she didn't create it in the first place. [1] Which is over forty times the lifetime earnings of the average American simply for marrying well.
- mehtastic 16y agogiven she didn't create it in the first place. simply for marrying well. You make me fucking sick. What right do you have to make judgments on how their relationship affected his success? What the fuck right do you have to spew that horseshit and claim she was of no value? You fucking disgust me.
- 16y ago
- daniel-cussen 16y agoIt's pretty shocking to see two amateurish blog posts about divorce proceedings make it to the nytimes. That's gotta suck.
- EasyCompany 16y agoNo issue here....just a divorce and business as usual for a millionaire!!! Next better ny article.....
- callmeed 16y agoI have never heard the term "PayPal Mafia" until this week (3 times). Is this new?
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- starkfist 16y agoNo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia
- Dirt_McGirt 16y agoWell now, that page seems to have been created 6 months ago, so I'd argue it's pretty new.
- starkfist 16y agoIf you read the page it says the term was first used in 2007.
- lrm242 16y agoGoogle it, you'll find news articles from 2006/2007. This NY Times piece is good. I especially like the diagram. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/technology/17paypal.html http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/technology/17paypal.html
- nixme 16y agoBaader-Meinhof Phenomenon (a recency effect) I'd guess.
- hop 16y agoTesla is a cool project/company, but car companies have never historically been good investments. Massive competition from many established companies, $200M+ tooling costs to roll out a new car, low profit margins, high marketing costs, etc... Not the recipe for striking it rich long term, but he will surely make a handsome sum if he sells at the IPO. But SpaceX, with their $1.6B contract from NASA and options for $3.6B, their successful maiden flight two weeks ago of their Falcon 9 rocket - http://www.spacex.com/F9-001.php http://www.spacex.com/F9-001.php, their newly inked $492M contract with private satellite company Iridium http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20100616 http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20100616 ... and they are just getting started. This could/probably will lay mega-fortune to Musk. I too would leverage myself to the moon to keep that equity.
- lrm242 16y agoCar copmanies haven't been good investments? Seriously? I mean, sure, if you're talking about the last 10 or 20 years, I can dig that. But if you're talking about from inception, you're wrong. Look at Ford: http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=0&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1276286400000&chddm=3285964&chls=IntervalBasedLine&q=NYSE:F&ntsp=0 http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=0&chdd=1&chds=1&... Not only has there been very nice asset appreciation but look at all those dividends. Huge dividends for a very, very long time.
- unexpected 16y agoI think he's arguing that Ford is an outlier. Remember, when the car was invented, there were hundreds of car companies (remember the Stanley Steamer?) If you went back to 1920, and compared the car companies from then and now, Ford might be the only one that has still remained. Even classic nameplates like Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Buick have fallen off. If you went back to the 1960's, and told someone that Oldsmobile and Pontiac would cease to exist in 50 years, they would have called you crazy. Is this going to happen to the electric car as well? Will Tesla be the next Ford or the next Stanley? *The same trend can also be seen with PC manufacturers. How many different PC companies were there in the 1980's. How many exist now?
- zavulon 16y agoFWIW, it's extremely suspicious that he appears broke in the middle of a divorce - of all times. But he may be telling the truth, obviously I don't know his situation. What I do know, is when I get married, it won't happen without a prenup. There's no WAY I'm going to jeopardize the work of my lifetime.
- phaedrus 16y agoIIRC from an earlier article, Elon Musk actually did have a prenup, but his (ex-)wife's lawyer is filing to get it overturned.
- zavulon 16y agoThey have a "postnup", which is very different.. Apparently, she still signed it even though they were married already (which was not that smart of her to do)