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He also lucked out on inheriting fortunes from his parents diamond mines. But, there are lots of people who inherit fortunes and do nothing with it. There are l

He also lucked out on inheriting fortunes from his parents diamond mines. But, there are lots of people who inherit fortunes and do nothing with it. There are lots of people with drive and intelligence comparable to Elon Musk who don't have the privilege necessary to accomplish anything. Seems we're still a long way away from a meritocracy.

nickik 6y ago
This old bullshit anti-Musk propaganda nonsense again. Some people will just do anything to prove that actually there are no special people. Everything is just privilege, we would have 100s of Elon Musk if only not for income inequality. And if reality doesn't actually line up with that, hey why not just invent a bunch of stuff. We can do this infinity. Somebody that grew up poor in the US has success. Well, he had food as a child, 100s of starving African could have done the same, but 'who don't have the privilege necessary'. So lets not give credit to anybody ever. If you were not a slave in Somilia at 13 that swam across the ocean by yourself and then build a new technology from the ground up, you deserve nothing and you are just one of those no good privileged people.
Reedx 6y ago
Maybe you're thinking of someone else? “You get really tired of hot dogs and oranges after awhile,” he said. “And of course pasta and a green pepper and a big thing of sauce. And that can go pretty far, too. “So it’s like, ‘Oh, okay, if I can live for a dollar a day then at least from a food cost standpoint, well it’s pretty easy to earn like $30 in a month anyway, so I’ll probably be okay.’ “ This isn’t the only example of a young Musk roughing it. When he started his first company, Zip2, he and his brother slept in their office instead of renting an apartment. They showered at the YMCA. “We were so hard up, we had just one computer so the Web site was up during the day and I was coding at night,” Musk recalled during a commencement speech at USC. “Seven days a week, all the time.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/03/24/when-elon-musk-lived-on-1-a-day/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/03/2...
- saberience 6y ago
  This is bollocks and the sort of mythology that CEO's also love to create about their "beginnings." Read up on Elon's family background and father, he didn't grow up on a farm or in an orphanage in darkest Congo... he lived a well-off and privileged childhood.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- cma 6y ago
  His father was a seed investor in Zip2.
  - Jach 6y ago
    "We started Zip2 with ~$2k from me plus my overclocked home-built PC, ~$5k from my bro & ~$8k from Greg Kouri (such a good guy — he is greatly missed). My Dad provided 10% of a ~$200k angel funding round much later, but by then risk was reduced & round would’ve happened anyway." https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1211064937004589056 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1211064937004589056 Also relevant in that thread: "He didn’t own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. I couldn’t even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day. Where is this bs coming from?" "This is a pretty awful lie. I left South Africa by myself when I was 17 with just a backpack & suitcase of books. Worked on my Mom’s cousin’s farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. Went to Queens Univ with scholarship & debt, then same to UPenn/Wharton & Stanford."
    - cma 6y ago
      >Worked on my Mom’s cousin’s farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. This is pretty intense myth-making. He worked 4 days at a lumber mill.
    - throw_a_say 6y ago
      Not a rebuttal of the Zip2 seed investment point, but the ability to leave SA when he was 17 for CA/USA with a suitcase of books is not something most South Africans would be able to do. Kudos to him for doing it, but most of the population of SA wouldn't have even seen that many books. It's pretty clear that Elon was from a wealthy*N background so the details are kind of irrelevant. Who bought the plain ticket? There is also security, it's easier to take risks with strong familial support and fallback. Not saying this is a bad thing at all, it just is what it is.

nickik 6y ago

This old bullshit anti-Musk propaganda nonsense again. Some people will just do anything to prove that actually there are no special people. Everything is just privilege, we would have 100s of Elon Musk if only not for income inequality. And if reality doesn't actually line up with that, hey why not just invent a bunch of stuff. We can do this infinity. Somebody that grew up poor in the US has success. Well, he had food as a child, 100s of starving African could have done the same, but 'who don't have the privilege necessary'. So lets not give credit to anybody ever. If you were not a slave in Somilia at 13 that swam across the ocean by yourself and then build a new technology from the ground up, you deserve nothing and you are just one of those no good privileged people.

Reedx 6y ago

Maybe you're thinking of someone else? “You get really tired of hot dogs and oranges after awhile,” he said. “And of course pasta and a green pepper and a big thing of sauce. And that can go pretty far, too. “So it’s like, ‘Oh, okay, if I can live for a dollar a day then at least from a food cost standpoint, well it’s pretty easy to earn like $30 in a month anyway, so I’ll probably be okay.’ “ This isn’t the only example of a young Musk roughing it. When he started his first company, Zip2, he and his brother slept in their office instead of renting an apartment. They showered at the YMCA. “We were so hard up, we had just one computer so the Web site was up during the day and I was coding at night,” Musk recalled during a commencement speech at USC. “Seven days a week, all the time.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/03/24/when-elon-musk-lived-on-1-a-day/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/03/2...

saberience 6y ago
This is bollocks and the sort of mythology that CEO's also love to create about their "beginnings." Read up on Elon's family background and father, he didn't grow up on a farm or in an orphanage in darkest Congo... he lived a well-off and privileged childhood.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
cma 6y ago
His father was a seed investor in Zip2.
- Jach 6y ago
  "We started Zip2 with ~$2k from me plus my overclocked home-built PC, ~$5k from my bro & ~$8k from Greg Kouri (such a good guy — he is greatly missed). My Dad provided 10% of a ~$200k angel funding round much later, but by then risk was reduced & round would’ve happened anyway." https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1211064937004589056 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1211064937004589056 Also relevant in that thread: "He didn’t own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. I couldn’t even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day. Where is this bs coming from?" "This is a pretty awful lie. I left South Africa by myself when I was 17 with just a backpack & suitcase of books. Worked on my Mom’s cousin’s farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. Went to Queens Univ with scholarship & debt, then same to UPenn/Wharton & Stanford."
  - cma 6y ago
    >Worked on my Mom’s cousin’s farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. This is pretty intense myth-making. He worked 4 days at a lumber mill.
  - throw_a_say 6y ago
    Not a rebuttal of the Zip2 seed investment point, but the ability to leave SA when he was 17 for CA/USA with a suitcase of books is not something most South Africans would be able to do. Kudos to him for doing it, but most of the population of SA wouldn't have even seen that many books. It's pretty clear that Elon was from a wealthy*N background so the details are kind of irrelevant. Who bought the plain ticket? There is also security, it's easier to take risks with strong familial support and fallback. Not saying this is a bad thing at all, it just is what it is.