3 ms·

Musk isn't purely a self-made success story. He was born into emerald mines, got a first class education, and used that inherited wealth to start companies, sel

Musk isn't purely a self-made success story. He was born into emerald mines, got a first class education, and used that inherited wealth to start companies, sell, and then buy stakes in growing companies other people founded (inc. Tesla, incidentally). So is the lesson here to be born rich rather than try to get an education? Or just that when you are born rich education is optional? It is notable that the other founders in companies he'd later buy actually had to get an education, he just used wealth to stand on their shoulders.

sixQuarks 6y ago
Not sure where you’re getting your info from. Musk and his brother started and sold zip2 for millions, while living a very frugal existence. He used that money to start x.com, which merged with PayPal, sold to eBay. He used that money to start SpaceX and invest in Tesla.
- Someone1234 6y ago
  The Musk's families wealth is common knowledge and widely reported[0][1][2]. But more to the point Elon and Kimbal's dad funded Zip2, which completely undercuts your point. > In Ashlee Vance's biography of Elon Musk, it is claimed that the Musks' father, Errol Musk, provided them with US$28,000 during this time, but Elon Musk later denied this. He later clarified that his dad provided around 10% of US$200,000 as part of a later funding round. [0] https://www.businessinsider.co.za/elon-musk-sells-the-family-emeralds-in-new-york-2018-2 https://www.businessinsider.co.za/elon-musk-sells-the-family... [1] https://www.insidehook.com/article/history/errol-musk-elon-father-myths https://www.insidehook.com/article/history/errol-musk-elon-f... [2] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5513787/Billionaire-space-pioneer-Elon-Musk-branded-father-evil.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5513787/Billionaire...
  - kipchak 6y ago
    That last bit seems to come from a tweet by Musk, that would be 10% of $200,000 or $20,000 versus the $28,000 in the biography. [1] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1211064937004589056 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1211064937004589056
  - sixQuarks 6y ago
    You’re really grasping at straws here. Even if the articles you linked to are true, that means Elon raised 90% of the initial $200k from outside his family. $20k from his dad is hardly what I would consider wealth privelage, especially after considering what Elon has gone to achieve
  - Armisael16 6y ago
    The emerald mine story is false, as your second link says. Please stop just regurgitating crap you read on Twitter.
  - btian 6y ago
    Meh $28k is nothing. If you have a credible plan to create a $600B company, I'm happy to personally write you a $200k check.
throwaway0a5e 6y ago
Musk climbed the ladder several rungs. If musk isn't self made then neither is the guy who was born into welfare and dies the owner of a successful independent used car lot. Climbing the ladder is climbing the ladder regardless of where you start.
- Someone1234 6y ago
  One way to "climb the rungs" is education. This is an article/thread discussing his anti-education take, when he himself (in spite of having a first class education) doesn't feel like he gained from it, and suggesting others don't either (or even that education is harmful). His wealth and privilege is absolutely topical because he was able to bypass certain checks due to his family is.
  - the_only_law 6y ago
    I recall something about a degree not being a requirement to be hired by Tesla, but I’m assuming anytime this sort of headline makes the news (supposedly the federal government did something similar recently) they almost exclusively mean “for software developers”. I would be incredibly shocked if Musk was hiring self taught, say... material engineers or any other “traditional” engineer. I’m not really a fan of credentialism, especially when it can be expensive and painful as hell to obtain them, but I don’t put much stock into most “anti education” type stuff.
    - rwmurrayVT 6y ago
      Self-taught engineers of the old fashioned sort typically is a fancy way of saying really good with CAD & some intuition about what will fall apart. Credentials are more important for design engineers compared to software engineers.
  - raidenmechai 6y ago
    elon grew up not rich at all and his mother and his father had an abusive relationship, difference is elon at 13 sold a video game(https://blastar-1984.appspot.com/ https://blastar-1984.appspot.com/) to get pubished by atari...at 13. with a mediocre education, you aint competing with that.
blendergeek 6y ago
> and used that inherited wealth to buy stakes in growing companies other people founded (inc. Tesla, incidentally). His first success was x.com. This was bought by confinity; this led to the creation of Paypal. Who did Musk buy x.com from? When Musk "bought his way into" Tesla, he used his X.com/PayPal money, not the emerald money (which he received little of). Musk also founded SpaceX using his X.com/PayPal. Who do you think Musk bought SpaceX from?
- _Microft 6y ago
  Their first success was a company called Zip2 that the brothers Musk founded and later sold to Compaq . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip2
screye 6y ago
I have genuinely struggled to find this information. * How wealthy was Elon before starting his own products ? * How much of this investment in various companies was non-bootstrapped / not momentum from a past sale ? ________ I feel that many people born rich do not wider idea behind Henry Ford's famous quote: " don't ask me how I made my first million. " It highlights the inbuilt privilege that those born rich/stable have, and the luck/shady-ness required to reach that 1st point. Would Musk have been able to do any of the things he does if zip2 wasn't such a huge success. Would have been able to start anything if he didn't have the financial stability due to being born rich or the access granted by a network at UPenn. I'd say the goalpost has been moved to the point of FIRE. A silicon valley employee won't be able to take any of the risks/efforts needed to summon lady luck. If you're spending 60 hrs/week at work, have family to support or simply a bad visa situation, then good luck taking your 1st leap. "The 1st million don't pop out of thin air."
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
nickik 6y ago
So much nonsense, that gets constantly repeated. Its sad how this nonsense gets repeated even by people on HN. His father was made money from being an engineer. With that money he bought a small stake in a mine, making it out that they were some billionair mine owners is total nonsesne. However Elon had very bad relationship with his father and his father did not want him to go to Canada/US and refused to pay for his education there. So if you want to call everybody that is not born into abject poverty 'not self made' that is of course simply a expression of your (appallingly bad) politics, but its not how the rest of the world uses that phrase. PayPal was merger between two companies doing the same thing. Tesla was not a 'growing company', Tesla was 2 guys who had a business plan written on a piece of paper and nothing else, they were certainty not growing. Elon and JB both wanted to found a company and somebody told them that these two were also working on the same thing. So Elon agree to get together with them rather then start a separate company. Elon financed Tesla basically by himself, without him Tesla would have never existed and it would certainty not be nearly what it is now. There is a reason that all 5, were officially named founders, and not just the 2 guys who came up with the name Tesla. SpaceX, Boring Company, Neurolink and Zip2 were all created by Musk.

sixQuarks 6y ago

Not sure where you’re getting your info from. Musk and his brother started and sold zip2 for millions, while living a very frugal existence. He used that money to start x.com, which merged with PayPal, sold to eBay. He used that money to start SpaceX and invest in Tesla.

Someone1234 6y ago
The Musk's families wealth is common knowledge and widely reported[0][1][2]. But more to the point Elon and Kimbal's dad funded Zip2, which completely undercuts your point. > In Ashlee Vance's biography of Elon Musk, it is claimed that the Musks' father, Errol Musk, provided them with US$28,000 during this time, but Elon Musk later denied this. He later clarified that his dad provided around 10% of US$200,000 as part of a later funding round. [0] https://www.businessinsider.co.za/elon-musk-sells-the-family-emeralds-in-new-york-2018-2 https://www.businessinsider.co.za/elon-musk-sells-the-family... [1] https://www.insidehook.com/article/history/errol-musk-elon-father-myths https://www.insidehook.com/article/history/errol-musk-elon-f... [2] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5513787/Billionaire-space-pioneer-Elon-Musk-branded-father-evil.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5513787/Billionaire...
- kipchak 6y ago
  That last bit seems to come from a tweet by Musk, that would be 10% of $200,000 or $20,000 versus the $28,000 in the biography. [1] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1211064937004589056 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1211064937004589056
- sixQuarks 6y ago
  You’re really grasping at straws here. Even if the articles you linked to are true, that means Elon raised 90% of the initial $200k from outside his family. $20k from his dad is hardly what I would consider wealth privelage, especially after considering what Elon has gone to achieve
- Armisael16 6y ago
  The emerald mine story is false, as your second link says. Please stop just regurgitating crap you read on Twitter.
- btian 6y ago
  Meh $28k is nothing. If you have a credible plan to create a $600B company, I'm happy to personally write you a $200k check.

throwaway0a5e 6y ago

Musk climbed the ladder several rungs. If musk isn't self made then neither is the guy who was born into welfare and dies the owner of a successful independent used car lot. Climbing the ladder is climbing the ladder regardless of where you start.

Someone1234 6y ago
One way to "climb the rungs" is education. This is an article/thread discussing his anti-education take, when he himself (in spite of having a first class education) doesn't feel like he gained from it, and suggesting others don't either (or even that education is harmful). His wealth and privilege is absolutely topical because he was able to bypass certain checks due to his family is.
- the_only_law 6y ago
  I recall something about a degree not being a requirement to be hired by Tesla, but I’m assuming anytime this sort of headline makes the news (supposedly the federal government did something similar recently) they almost exclusively mean “for software developers”. I would be incredibly shocked if Musk was hiring self taught, say... material engineers or any other “traditional” engineer. I’m not really a fan of credentialism, especially when it can be expensive and painful as hell to obtain them, but I don’t put much stock into most “anti education” type stuff.
  - rwmurrayVT 6y ago
    Self-taught engineers of the old fashioned sort typically is a fancy way of saying really good with CAD & some intuition about what will fall apart. Credentials are more important for design engineers compared to software engineers.
- raidenmechai 6y ago
  elon grew up not rich at all and his mother and his father had an abusive relationship, difference is elon at 13 sold a video game(https://blastar-1984.appspot.com/ https://blastar-1984.appspot.com/) to get pubished by atari...at 13. with a mediocre education, you aint competing with that.

blendergeek 6y ago

> and used that inherited wealth to buy stakes in growing companies other people founded (inc. Tesla, incidentally). His first success was x.com. This was bought by confinity; this led to the creation of Paypal. Who did Musk buy x.com from? When Musk "bought his way into" Tesla, he used his X.com/PayPal money, not the emerald money (which he received little of). Musk also founded SpaceX using his X.com/PayPal. Who do you think Musk bought SpaceX from?

_Microft 6y ago
Their first success was a company called Zip2 that the brothers Musk founded and later sold to Compaq . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip2

screye 6y ago

I have genuinely struggled to find this information. * How wealthy was Elon before starting his own products ? * How much of this investment in various companies was non-bootstrapped / not momentum from a past sale ? ________ I feel that many people born rich do not wider idea behind Henry Ford's famous quote: " don't ask me how I made my first million. " It highlights the inbuilt privilege that those born rich/stable have, and the luck/shady-ness required to reach that 1st point. Would Musk have been able to do any of the things he does if zip2 wasn't such a huge success. Would have been able to start anything if he didn't have the financial stability due to being born rich or the access granted by a network at UPenn. I'd say the goalpost has been moved to the point of FIRE. A silicon valley employee won't be able to take any of the risks/efforts needed to summon lady luck. If you're spending 60 hrs/week at work, have family to support or simply a bad visa situation, then good luck taking your 1st leap. "The 1st million don't pop out of thin air."

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

nickik 6y ago

So much nonsense, that gets constantly repeated. Its sad how this nonsense gets repeated even by people on HN. His father was made money from being an engineer. With that money he bought a small stake in a mine, making it out that they were some billionair mine owners is total nonsesne. However Elon had very bad relationship with his father and his father did not want him to go to Canada/US and refused to pay for his education there. So if you want to call everybody that is not born into abject poverty 'not self made' that is of course simply a expression of your (appallingly bad) politics, but its not how the rest of the world uses that phrase. PayPal was merger between two companies doing the same thing. Tesla was not a 'growing company', Tesla was 2 guys who had a business plan written on a piece of paper and nothing else, they were certainty not growing. Elon and JB both wanted to found a company and somebody told them that these two were also working on the same thing. So Elon agree to get together with them rather then start a separate company. Elon financed Tesla basically by himself, without him Tesla would have never existed and it would certainty not be nearly what it is now. There is a reason that all 5, were officially named founders, and not just the 2 guys who came up with the name Tesla. SpaceX, Boring Company, Neurolink and Zip2 were all created by Musk.