change the world in three areas and reveal Musk's highest road tech geek

author: Cheng Cheng Cheng

source: micro-channel public number "Cheng Cheng Cheng" (ID number:Zheng 365)

recently, the US stock Tesla (TSLA) shares hit a record high in January 6 Basedon the closing price of $ 451.54, the total market value reached $ 81.39billion.

In terms of market value alone, Tesla has surpassed Daimler (the parent companyof Mercedes-Benz), BMW, General Motors and other traditional cargiants. However, Tesla is just a new energy vehicle company founded morethan 10 years ago. A few days ago, Tesla officially announced that itwould reduce the price of Model 3 vehicles to 299,000 yuan each, which is evenmore threatening, making the country's new car manufacturing power as felt.

How did Tesla rise? What is the legendary past of its leader ElonMusk? Why can he change the world in more than three fields? It allstarted in the summer of 1950.

01

adventure gene

Joshua Haldeman is a maverick and eccentric people.

In the summer of 1950, his family moved from Saskatchewan, Canada to Pretoria,South Africa, in search of a lost city in the Kalahari Desert inAfrica. (This span is almost half the span of the earth.)

Joshua's social profession is a chiropractor, and he is also a naturaladventurer.

He once flew a small plane from South Africa to Australia, using no electronicequipment and relying only on a compass. He had to keep refueling on theroad, but in some places there was only diesel and in others only gasoline, andhe had to modify the engine himself. (For explorers, criticize gasoline 92and 95 for being weak.) After

Joshua and his wife and their children

settled in South Africa, he often took his family to African jungleadventures. In the jungle at night, Joshua and his wife and their childrenoften share interesting things they encountered during their adventures aroundthe campfire.

However, there is a very dangerous aspect to this journey: hyenas and leopardsroam around the campfire. Even once, when a family woke up in the morningand found a lion standing a few meters away from the tent, Joshua immediatelygrabbed a luminous lamp, waved at the lion, and scared the lionaway. (Joshua and his wife Winnie are both sharpshooters. They also wonthe rally championship. They have a wealth of wild survival experience.Ordinary people cannot imitate their adventures at will.)

The ultimate destination of a general who has fought all his life is always thebattlefield. For Joshua, his battlefield is every adventure. In 1974,Joshua, 72, was killed in a plane crash.

Joshua and his wife Winnie have a pair of beautiful twin daughters, one ofwhich is Meyer Hardman. Meyer grew up as a model and nutritionist, andmarried a local South African electromechanical engineer named Ello Musk (notethat Ello is not a native of South Africa, but an English-Dutchhybrid). On June 28, 1971, one year after Meyer and Arrow were married,their first child was born.

This child is Alan Musk.

The year my grandfather died, Ellen Musk was only 3 years old when he was atoddler. In childhood, he loved listening to his grandfather's heroicdeeds and watching numerous slides of jungle travel. Many years later,Elon Musk acknowledged that his extraordinary adventurous character camedirectly from his grandfather, and he loved adventure and exploration. (Familyatmosphere usually affects a person's life.)

In Elon Musk's childhood, he was a little autistic, not very talkative, andeven bullied on campus. He used to be considered a mediocrechild. But soon, some special characteristics began to appear in him.

Elon Musk's mother found that he was always learning fast, especially hiseye-catching reading. It is common for him to read 10 hours a day. Hecan read two books in different subjects a day. If you can only read onebook a month, Musk reads 60 times more than you.

When Musk was in the third and fourth grades of elementary school, he hadalready read "The Lord of the Rings", "Base", "StarTrek", "Walking Guide to the Galaxy" 010, "EinsteinBiography" and other books, and then he browsed the school and nearbybooks Library of all books. Musk also urged librarians to order morebooks.

In order to solve the embarrassing situation where no book can be read, hemanaged to find a complete set of "Newton" (32 volumes, 33,000 pages,43.5 million words). As a result, when he was 9 years old (ChengChengcheng seemed to be playing with mud when he was 9 years old), he carefullyread the whole set of Encyclopedia Britannica, and took note of it instead ofglancing at it, which also helped him raise him. Become a skill that will neverbe forgotten. Through reading, Musk reached two important conclusions:first, he didn't know much; second, the answers to all the questions can befound in the book.

If you think that young Musk is only content to learn theoretical knowledgefrom books, you are wrong.

From an early age, Musk was very interested in homemade explosives (a verydangerous hobby that ordinary people cannot imitate) and rockets. He alsooften brought home-made rocket models to the campus for display (very excitingscene), and since then, he has gathered a group of fans and sisters who followhim all day.

A young musk full of dreams.

When few people in South Africa knew what a computer was, Musk was fascinatedby computers and programming. When he was 10 years old, he got a Vic-20Brigadier Computer with 5KB of memory (oh , My god, only 5KB!) And randomadditional programming instruction manual. For adults, this manual alsorequires about 6 months of study time. The 10-year-old Musk went crazywhen he got it. After not sleeping for three days and three nights, hefinished reading everything.

Therefore, when a person has a strong interest and desire for one thing, he orshe can do almost nothing.

After learning how to program, Musk quickly began to feel veryticklish. As an avid video game fan, he wrote his own gameprogram. When he was 12 years old, Musk completed a space-based mini-game"Blastar" and sold it to a magazine. He made a net profit of $ 500and timely harvested the first bucket of gold in his life.

Young Musk is such a child. He is full of wonderful ideas, dares to break therules and often surprises people. The most surprising thing he did to hisparents was to leave South Africa at the age of 17 to pursue his dream.

02

Studying in North America

Although born in South Africa, Elon Musk is destined to be a passer there.

For young Musk, the United States, and especially Silicon Valley, means thatthe most advanced technology is a paradise for explorers and a place to realizedreams.

Musk decided to flee South Africa directly because he had reached the age ofmilitary service. In apartheid South Africa, Musk believes he has resistedblack forces oppressing blacks.

However, obtaining a US passport is not easy. Fortunately, Musk's mother isCanadian-American. With this status, Musk can move to Canada and thensouth to the United States.

This year, Musk, 17, has just graduated from Pretoria Boys HighSchool. Although his divorced parents have not supported his departurefrom South Africa, Musk is determined. He bought a one-way ticket toCanada and left without hesitation for North America.

After leaving the airport, Musk realized that his life in Canada was not asgood as he thought. At present, his most urgent need is to find a place tolive. Fortunately, he found several distant relatives who could seekasylum through his seven-to-eight relationship (originally foreign countriescan also seek asylum).

In his first year in Canada, Musk switched jobs to make a living. First,he worked on a relative's farm, then he worked as a lumberjack in a lumbermill, and then he worked as a boiler cleaner for a high salary (yes, genius isso humble).

"At work, I have to put on protective clothing, wobbly through a narrow,dark aisle, then take out a steamy, sticky thing, shove it outside, and waitfor someone to push the dirty thing with a cart Go. "

Many years later, Musk recalled the scene of cleaning the boiler as if he wasstill there.

However, a person destined to change the world cannot be a boiler cleaner allhis life.

Musk's character as a student bully comes into play. He applied foradmission to two prestigious Canadian universities, Queens University and theUniversity of Waterloo. At that time, he also had a fear ofhappiness. Which university did he go to?

No investigation, no right to speak. The famous saying of a great man inthe east also applies to Musk.

Musk decided to go for a walk and look at the scene.

The Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo was originally Musk'sfavorite, but when he walked around the campus and found few girls, he wasdisappointed. Queen's University, on the other hand, is famous for itsname. Musk was impressed by the beauty of the campus.

In a time when hormones dominated, Musk decisively chose Queen's University.

It turned out to be a wise decision. Musk met his first wife, JustinWilson, at Queens University.

When the library saw Justin, Musk was like Jack on the Titanic. He knewfor the first time that there were girls like Ruth in the world. His eyeswere filled with different light.

Action is better than mind.

Musk stayed at the door of Justin's dormitory, pretending to meet her, sayinghe had seen her at a party before (always looking for excuses). However,Justin was not very cold about this handsome boy with substandard South Africanaccent, so Musk's first courtship and invitation failed.

Sometimes chasing and softening hard foam is more useful than love at firstsight.

After a while, Justin became Musk's true girlfriend.

Let's talk about Musk's research.

Some people are born seeds of reading, and Musk happens to be such aperson. He reads very fast and has great learning ability. Theprogress of this course always lags far behind his self-study progress, so herarely goes to class and can only cope with all the exams by reading books byhimself.

Of course, Musk has never forgotten that Canada is just a springboard for hisdream. His true goals are the United States and Silicon Valley.

Soon, this opportunity came.

In 1992, after two years at Queen's University, Musk received a transferopportunity and a full scholarship from the Ivy League University ofPennsylvania.

Musk is one step closer to his dream.

To make the most of the resources brought by this rattan school, Musk earned"greedily" two degrees: one is an economics degree from WhartonSchool and the other is a physics degree. Learn physics because you wantto know the laws of the universe. The purpose of studying business schoolis to understand the logic of human economic activity.

Musk here is like ducks running into the water. He gets along well withhis teachers and classmates. His vision is broader, his business sense ofsmell is sharper, and his thinking is more mature. Here, his talent waspolished like a sharp sword, just waiting to be pulled out.

While at the University of Pennsylvania, Musk seriously considered the threeareas that will have the greatest impact on humanity in the future: theInternet, clean energy, and space exploration. This is Musk's only son,"Longzhong Pair." In a few years, Musk will disrupt these threeareas globally.

03

Bull's first attempt

There is a very strange phenomenon in the American businesscommunity. Many bosses have experienced voluntary dropouts at thebeginning of their business, such as Jobs, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, andrising star Mark Zuckerberg. It seems that in order to achieve a greatgoal, "dropout" has become the standard.

How could Musk be absent from something as "cool" as dropping out ofschool?

After earning a double degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Musksuccessfully applied for a PhD research project at Stanford University inCalifornia and was fascinated by Silicon Valley.

But plans always lag behind.

Musk is increasingly unable to restrain his high entrepreneurial desire anddeep interest in the Internet industry. Especially when he learned thatthe market value of Netscape Communications Co., Ltd. soared five times on theday of listing, reaching more than 2 billion U.S. dollars, and its founder,Mark Anderson (founder's surname is generally fierce), was one month youngerthan him, and he never did Can't sit still.

Princes and princes, do you want seeds?

It's not difficult, I can do it! This was Musk's strongest idea at thetime.

As a result, Musk withdrew from Stanford University less than 3 days afterreporting.

Then he officially came to Silicon Valley, where he had long beeneager. Musk is 24 years old.

Efficiency is everything. Musk's first startup, Zip2, was born the samemonth that Netscape went public.

Musk started his career for the first time, and his genius began toshow. His position at the company is to help traditional businesses dobusiness faster and better by displaying information on the Internet (is this abit familiar?) In short, the company is equivalent to Google Maps' originalversion of Alibaba's building complex public comment. I am afraid that thenumber of people who could come up with such a wonderful and universal idea in1995 can be calculated by firing fingers across the globe.

Dongfeng is ready. Only everything

is present. Musk is still his own army. First he needs to form ateam. Who are you looking for? Start with the people you knowbest. Musk's brother Kimbal is following his brother's path at this time. Hehas just graduated from Queen's University. As soon as his brother called,his brother would come to him immediately. It is indeed a deepbrotherhood. Musk also contacted Greg, another older friend. Muskcalled him a long distance call and talked for more than an hour withoutknowing what to say. The next day, Greg bought a ticket to Silicon Valley.

Then rent office space. Unlike many bosses who start their businesses inthe garage, Musk rents an office seriously. Office rent is actuallycheaper than garage rent. The biggest feature of this office is that itintegrates work and life functions. It works here during the day andsleeps here at night. However, there are no beds here and you can onlysleep on a mattress sofa. To solve the problem of bathing, you need to goto a nearby YMCA. He was bathed in the love of God.

Again, division of labor. My brother Musk is responsible for the strategicframework and writes all the underlying code for the software. My brotherKimball is responsible for product sales. Greg is more mature and he isthe company's CEO because he is good at mediating conflicts (young Musk and hisbrother Kimball are often emotional when they have different opinions andsometimes even fist each other).

The company started to run at full speed.