Elon Musk is known to be a thinker and creator since childhood, he daydreamed and coded his own video games. He became an entrepreneur after he graduated from college rather than waiting for an internet company to notice him. Musk today manages companies and projects specializing in electric, self-driving cars and private space explorations, Mars colonization, solar energy as well as artificial intelligence.
Musk apart from his top executive roles with Tesla, SpaceX, Open AI and SolarCity spends his time on fatherhood, playing video games, Hollywood, and brainstorming more big ideas.
Here are some facts about Elon Musk that everyone should know.
Musk’s parents thought he might be deaf
When he was a child he would often gaze into the distance while his parents talked to him which made them believe he may be deaf. His adenoids were even removed by doctors but it didn’t make any difference. Turned out he was a daydreamer. According to his mother, when he goes into his brain you see him in another world.
Musk was bullied violently as a child
Elon Musk grew up in South Africa where his classmates bullied him and badly beat him up. When he turned 41, he had to get a surgery to fix a deviated septum. And while he was recovering from it he tweeted Tesla ideas, hopped up on painkillers.
In 1984, Musk wrote and sold a video game
The game was called Blastar, and Musk was then 12. When its source code was published in South African magazine PC and Office Technology he received $500. It was revised by a Google software engineer in 2015 to function in HTML5 and made it playable.
The game’s object was to destroy an alien ship that was filled with mass destruction weapons. According to Musk, it was a trivial game, however, better than Flappy Bird.
Musk is a father of five
Musk and his wife Justine Wilson have five sons. In 2004, twins Griffin and Xavier were born and in 2006, triplets Damian, Kai, and Saxon were born. The couple also had another son Nevada, named after the location of Burning Man, the music and arts festival where he was conceived. However, he died at 10 weeks of age of a sudden infant death syndrome.
Musk owns one of James Bond’s cars
The Lotus Esprit submarine car from the 007 movies The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) was bought by Musk in an auction for $866,000. Musk was disappointed upon learning that it couldn’t actually transform and decided to upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain to make it transform for real.
Musk made a guest appearance on The Big Bang Theory
In 2015, in an episode named “The Platonic Permutation,” Elon Musk made a cameo on the CBS show. Musk is featured washing dishes in a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving. The scene ends with Howard a character on show and Musk sharing a slice of partially eaten pumpkin pie.
Musk’s secret to success is staying clean
A Reddit user asked Elon Musk about his daily habits that he believes has the largest effect on his life. He simply answered, showering unlike the usual response of meditating, waking up early or gratification.
Musk somewhat has a dirty sense of humor
Originally Musk wanted to call the Tesla Model 3, Model E just for obvious humor reasons. If he did name the same the cars would be Model S, E, and X. However, due to Ford trademark lawsuit he, unfortunately, had to settle for the Model 3.
Musk used to drink 96 ounces of Diet Coke plus some coffee daily
There was a period in Elon Musk’s life where he reportedly drank eight cans of Diet Coke as well as several cups of coffee every day. Those were his means of being awake and focused during his 100 hour work weeks process of building and launching his companies.
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