Elon Musk – A Man who dreams to make Space travel less costly

Elon Musk is an Engineer, Technology entrepreneur, Industrial designer and Philanthropist.

As a kid Musk taught himself to code; he sold his first game, Blastar, for about $500. His education took him to Queen’s University, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University. He studied Economics and Physics.

Elon Musk with his Co- founder Kimbal (his brother) started a web software company that provided internet maps & direction services, Zip 2 which was later acquired by Compaq in 1999. In March 1999, Elon Musk co-founded an online financial service and e-mail Payment Company ‘X.com’ from the money. In 2000, X.com merged with Cofinity (American software company) having a money transfer service Paypal. In 2001, the company was renamed as Paypal. This Paypal was later acquired by e- bay company in 2002.

This serial entrepreneur in May 2002, founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company, of which he is CEO and lead designer. He joined Tesla Motors, Inc., an electric vehicle manufacturer, in 2004. He was a product architect and later became CEO. In 2006, he helped create SolarCity, a solar energy services company (now a subsidiary of Tesla). In 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit research company that aims to promote friendly artificial intelligence. In July 2016, he co-founded Neuralink, a neuro technology company which is developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect the human brain to computers. In December 2016, Musk founded The Boring Company, an infrastructure and tunnel Construction Company which combines fast, affordable tunneling technology with an all-electric public transportation system in order to alleviate soul-crushing urban congestion and enable high-speed, long-distance travel.

In addition to his primary business pursuits, Musk has envisioned a high-speed transportation system known as the Hyper loop. Musk has said the goals of SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity revolve around his vision to “change the world and help humanity”. His goals include reducing global warming through sustainable energy production and consumption and lessening the risk of human extinction by establishing a human colony on Mars.

Best Products launched:

• Zip 2- Internet Map & direction Service
• Paypal- world’s leading Internet payment system
• Falcon 9 Rocket
• Dragon Space craft
• Falcon heavy rocket- World’s most powerful operational rocket
• Starship- Cargo transport to Moon & Mars
• Starlink – Internet service to remote & un available places

Awards & recognitions:

• In December 2016, he was ranked 21st on the Forbes list of The World’s Most Powerful People, and was ranked joint-first on the Forbes list of the Most Innovative Leaders of 2019.
• In 2014, Musk was awarded the World Technology Award in the categories of Energy and Space, winning two of the twenty awards given by the World Technology Network.
• In 2015 he was awarded IEEE Honorary Membership.
• Musk received R&D Magazine Innovator of the Year for 2007 for SpaceX, Tesla and Solar City, Inc Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2007 for his work on Tesla and SpaceX, 2007 Index Design award for his design of the Tesla Roadster.
• Global Green 2006 product design award for his design of the Tesla Roadster, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev. And many more…

Quotes:

• Failure is an option here. If you are not failing, you are not innovating enough.
• When something is important enough, you do it even if odds are not in your favour.
• Take risks now & do something bold. You won’t regret it.