Tech billionaire Elon Musk has clarified on several reports that have claimed over time that he was born rich. While responding to a Twitter user who pointed out that people from well-off families may not always succeed, Musk said he had humble beginnings, a crushing student debt and an unusual way to pay rent.
“If being born to a well-off family is why Elon Musk succeeded extravagantly in life then explain to me why all these rich kids go to art school, never get a job, and waste away,” the user tweeted.
“Yeah, kids starting with lots of money usually have much less motivation than those who have nothing. When we started our first company (Zip2) in 95, I had over $100k of student debt, a computer I built myself and a few thousand dollars,” the SpaceX CEO, 50, replied.
Then came a response from Musk’s “Twitter friend” from India Pranay Pathole.
“And here people spread lies about you already belonging to a wealthy family and that your dad owned an emerald mine. While starting Zip2 you guys didn't have a place to stay and had to shower at YMCA. Also while in college didn't u guys turn your room in a nightclub to afford rent?” he tweeted.
The Tesla boss agreed. “Yeah, we paid for rent by turning the house into a nightclub and charging $5”.
While there was ample criticism in comments from users who said that there was no need to bring art school in the matter, many pointed out that coming from money is indeed not a reason why people can succeed.
Elon Musk co-founded the web software company Zip2 with his brother Kimbal. The startup was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in 1999. Musk then co-founded online bank X.com, which merged with Confinity in 2000 to form PayPal which was bought by eBay in 2002 for a whopping $1.5 billion.
Musk studied at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a bachelor's degree in Economics and Physics. He moved to California in 1995 to attend Stanford University but decided to pursue a business career instead and founded Zip2.
He founded SpaceX in 2002 and joined Tesla in 2004. Recently, he bought Twitter for a $44 billion deal and has claimed he will “unlock” Twitter’s “great potential”.
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