Billionaire Elon Musk is the founder of several revolutionary companies, including SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and The Boring Company, and is widely recognized as one of the most influential people in the world. However, despite his incredible achievements, there have been persistent rumours that his success was due to his family's wealth, particularly his father Errol Musk's alleged ownership of an emerald mine in South Africa. Musk recently took to Twitter to refute these claims and shed light on his humble beginnings.
Musk's tweets revealed that he did not have a happy childhood and that his family was not wealthy. He grew up in a lower-middle-class family that was transitioning to upper-middle-class, but his father's business fell on hard times, and he had been bankrupt for about 25 years. Musk also made it clear that he had not inherited anything from anyone and had not received any large financial gifts. He further revealed that his father had not supported him financially after high school in any meaningful way.
“I grew up in a lower, transitioning to upper, middle income situation, but did not have a happy childhood. Haven’t inherited anything ever from anyone, nor has anyone given me a large financial gift. My father created a small electrical/mechanical engineering company that was successful for 20 to 30 years, but it fell on hard times. He has been essentially bankrupt for about 25 years, requiring financial support from my brother and me,” he tweeted.
Regarding his father's alleged ownership of an emerald mine, Musk denied its existence, stating that there was no objective evidence to support the claim. He said that his father had told him that he owned a share in a mine in Zambia, but nobody had ever seen the mine, and there were no records of its existence. “If this mine was real, he would not require financial support from my brother and me,” he tweeted.
Musk even offered a reward of a million Dogecoins for proof of the mine's existence: ““I will pay a million Dogecoin for proof of this mine’s existence!”
He also tweeted: “I’d just to see a picture of this mine. Like, where is it exactly!?”
His mother Maye Musk tweeted: “Me too! And why did we sleep in one-bedroom apartments and on the floor?”
This is not the first time that Musk has addressed rumours about his father. In a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, he had said about his father: "He was such a terrible human being. You have no idea. My dad will have a carefully thought-out plan of evil. He will plan evil."
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His father did not wish him well when he moved to Canada at 17, Musk recalled in the interview. “He said rather contentiously that I’d be back in three months, that I’m never going to make it, that I’m never going to make anything of myself. He called me an idiot all the time. That’s the tip of the iceberg, by the way.”
Despite Musk's denials, there are still those who believe that his success is due to his family's wealth. Some have pointed to his father's history of entrepreneurship and his family's connections in South Africa as evidence of their wealth. However, Musk's own words and actions suggest otherwise. He has repeatedly spoken about the importance of hard work, perseverance, and innovation in achieving success. He has also been open about his own struggles and failures, including the near-collapse of SpaceX and his battles with depression.
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