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1999. ELON MUSK GETS HIS FIRST MILLIONS AND A $1M SUPERCAR... BUT HIS BIGGEST FEAR THAT DAY WASN'T LOSING THE MONEY
7am. a truck stops outside a small apartment and a 27-year-old Musk watches a McLaren F1 roll off the back
"there are 62 McLarens in the world and i will own one of them"
"it's a million dollars for a car. it's decadent"
he'd just sold Zip2 to Compaq for ~$307M. his cut: ~$22M
then he says the line that tells you who he is:
"just 3 years ago i was showering at the Y and sleeping on the office floor"
his fiancée Justine is standing right next to him. a new millionaire with a new supercar. and this is what he's worried about:
"my fear is that we become spoiled brats. that we lose a sense of appreciation and perspective"
he knew exactly what the money could buy:
"i could go and buy one of the islands in the bahamas and turn it into my personal fiefdom"
"i'm much more interested in trying to build and create a new company"
and he meant it. he put "the great majority" of his net worth into x.com, an online bank almost nobody believed in
his own words:
"it's sort of like a series of poker games"
"i haven't gone and taken my winnings... i've just put almost all of it back into the new game"
x.com became paypal. paypal turned into ~$180M. the $180M went into spacex and tesla. you know the rest
and the car? a year later, Peter Thiel in the passenger seat, on the way to pitch Sequoia. Musk floors it. the F1 spins and goes airborne. no insurance. both walk away
napkin math:
the toy: $1M in 1999. F1s now sell for $20M+. ~20x
the chips he pushed back on the table: ~$22M. today: hundreds of billions. four more zeros
the island: still just an island
the only time he ever cashed out, he bought a car. everything else went back into the game
26 years later the richest man alive sleeps in an airstream. the 27-year-old who was scared of becoming a spoiled brat never let it happen
tickmind retweeted
A CRAZY STORY ABOUT ELON MUSK AND HIS FATHER ERROL... AT ERROL'S 70TH BIRTHDAY, WORLD-FAMOUS STARS ASKED HIM "YOU SUPPORT TRUMP?" HE SAID YES. ELON TOLD HIM SUPPORTING TRUMP IS EVIL... "BUT NOW HE SUPPORTS TRUMP HIMSELF," ERROL RECALLS
2016. cape town. Errol Musk turns 70
Elon and Kimbal fly in and bring about 20 guests from america. Errol says they were all Hollywood. he names Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Lawrence, Jon Favreau. plus one of the people behind Google
the lunch goes on for hours
then Favreau leans over with a big laugh:
"we believe you support Trump"
"yes. I support Trump"
the whole table laughs. "that's stupid." "he's a terrible person"
Errol: "no he's not"
after the lunch Kimbal is furious. "I've never seen Kimbal so angry." his father embarrassed them in front of their friends
and Elon says it straight:
"it's evil to support Trump"
now fast forward to 2024. Elon endorses Trump, puts a fortune behind the campaign, and jumps on stage at his rallies
Errol's take, said with zero modesty:
"he had been brainwashed by these Democrats. because now Elon supports Trump"
the interviewer asks the obvious question: so did you two not speak for 7 years?
not exactly. "we were on bad terms." happy birthday. happy christmas. that's it
"he was never very happy. but now he's very happy"
"so did he come to you and say: dad, I was wrong, you were right?"
this is the part that got me:
"no. I'm a dad. I don't want to put my kids through that, where they have to say sorry to me... obviously from what he's doing he should be saying something like that. but I would never put him through that"
and then the ending
december, after a big rocket launch in florida. a SpaceX party, about 250 people
Elon stops the whole room, puts his arm around his father:
"everybody. this is my dad. he taught me everything I know about engineering"
from "it's evil" to "he taught me everything" in front of 250 SpaceX engineers
fair warning: this is Errol's version. Elon has said very harsh things about his father over the years, and the family's history with Errol is far darker than one party story
but notice what actually changed Elon's mind
it wasn't an argument at a birthday lunch. it wasn't his father
it was Trump himself
in 2016 a table of Hollywood stars laughed at the idea of supporting him. 8 years later he'd won the white house twice and turned one of his loudest skeptics, the richest man on earth, into his biggest backer
whatever you think of him, very few people have ever changed what the world thinks of them that hard, with their own actions
in 2016 saying "I support Trump" got you laughed at in Cape Town
in 2024 Elon was jumping on stage next to him
the old man at the end of the table just saw it 8 years early
in markets that's the whole game. being early feels exactly like being laughed at
so who was really right at that lunch: the stars, or the guy they were laughing at?
A CRAZY STORY ABOUT ELON MUSK AND HIS FATHER ERROL... AT ERROL'S 70TH BIRTHDAY, WORLD-FAMOUS STARS ASKED HIM "YOU SUPPORT TRUMP?" HE SAID YES. ELON TOLD HIM SUPPORTING TRUMP IS EVIL... "BUT NOW HE SUPPORTS TRUMP HIMSELF," ERROL RECALLS
2016. cape town. Errol Musk turns 70
Elon and Kimbal fly in and bring about 20 guests from america. Errol says they were all Hollywood. he names Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Lawrence, Jon Favreau. plus one of the people behind Google
the lunch goes on for hours
then Favreau leans over with a big laugh:
"we believe you support Trump"
"yes. I support Trump"
the whole table laughs. "that's stupid." "he's a terrible person"
Errol: "no he's not"
after the lunch Kimbal is furious. "I've never seen Kimbal so angry." his father embarrassed them in front of their friends
and Elon says it straight:
"it's evil to support Trump"
now fast forward to 2024. Elon endorses Trump, puts a fortune behind the campaign, and jumps on stage at his rallies
Errol's take, said with zero modesty:
"he had been brainwashed by these Democrats. because now Elon supports Trump"
the interviewer asks the obvious question: so did you two not speak for 7 years?
not exactly. "we were on bad terms." happy birthday. happy christmas. that's it
"he was never very happy. but now he's very happy"
"so did he come to you and say: dad, I was wrong, you were right?"
this is the part that got me:
"no. I'm a dad. I don't want to put my kids through that, where they have to say sorry to me... obviously from what he's doing he should be saying something like that. but I would never put him through that"
and then the ending
december, after a big rocket launch in florida. a SpaceX party, about 250 people
Elon stops the whole room, puts his arm around his father:
"everybody. this is my dad. he taught me everything I know about engineering"
from "it's evil" to "he taught me everything" in front of 250 SpaceX engineers
fair warning: this is Errol's version. Elon has said very harsh things about his father over the years, and the family's history with Errol is far darker than one party story
but notice what actually changed Elon's mind
it wasn't an argument at a birthday lunch. it wasn't his father
it was Trump himself
in 2016 a table of Hollywood stars laughed at the idea of supporting him. 8 years later he'd won the white house twice and turned one of his loudest skeptics, the richest man on earth, into his biggest backer
whatever you think of him, very few people have ever changed what the world thinks of them that hard, with their own actions
in 2016 saying "I support Trump" got you laughed at in Cape Town
in 2024 Elon was jumping on stage next to him
the old man at the end of the table just saw it 8 years early
in markets that's the whole game. being early feels exactly like being laughed at
so who was really right at that lunch: the stars, or the guy they were laughing at?
tickmind retweeted
Phil Mickelson owed money to his Las Vegas gambling buddy, Billy Walters. Billy gave him a secret stock tip, Phil made $931,000 in a week and paid him back. Billy went to prison for 5 years. Phil was never charged.
When Billy got out, he wrote a book about Phil.
More than $1 billion in bets, by Billy's count.
In the video below, Billy tells ESPN what would have kept him out of prison.
Billy spent decades as one of the biggest sports bettors in America. Phil was his golf partner, his friend and a man who owed him money.
July 2012. Phil owes Billy gambling money. Billy calls him and tells him to buy Dean Foods.
Billy's information came from a Dean Foods board member. He owed Billy money too.
A week later, the stock jumped 40%. Phil sold with more than $931,000 in profit. In September, he paid Billy back, partly with that money.
The money went in a circle. Only one man went to prison.
In 2016, the SEC named Phil a "relief defendant." That means he wasn't accused of anything, but he was holding money that wasn't his to keep. He paid back $1,037,029 and never admitted or denied a thing.
In 2017, Billy was convicted and got 5 years. Phil never testified.
"All Phil had to do was publicly say it. He refused," Billy wrote.
While Billy was inside, his daughter died. He wrote that he still believes he could have saved her if he'd been on the outside.
In 2023, his book came out. At least $1 billion wagered. At least $100 million lost. More than 1,115 bets over $100,000. Phil denied one claim: "I never bet on the Ryder Cup."
$931,000: what Phil made on the tip.
5 years: what Billy got.
$1 billion: what Billy says Phil bet.
Phil kept his silence, his career and a reported $200 million LIV deal.
Billy kept the receipts.
ELON MUSK WAS BEATEN WITH SCHOOL BAGS AFTER CLASS AND HIS FATHER ERROL SAW NOTHING WRONG WITH IT... A CRAZY STORY. ELON SPENT 2 WEEKS IN THE HOSPITAL
the interviewer says it straight: "Elon has always talked about being badly bullied at school"
Errol doesn't even pause
"no he wasn't. he wasn't bullied at school"
"so he's lying when he says that?"
and then Errol explains his idea of normal
"if you do well, you get beat. they wait for you after school, they hit you with their satchels. that's standard. I don't call that bullying"
bullying, in his words, is only when a big kid picks on a small kid who can't defend himself
then he tells the story himself
a boy in Elon's grade had just lost his father. suicide. the boy was the one who found him
Elon, in grade 8, said to that boy: "your father was stupid"
Errol's comment on it is the line I can't stop thinking about:
"Elon had a tendency to say that. he still does"
the boy was much smaller than Elon. he pushed him down two flights of stairs, from the second floor to the ground floor. then ran down after him, found a piece of wood and kept hitting him
2 weeks in the hospital
Errol says he went to the police. the police came to the school, the headmaster explained what Elon had said, and they refused to open a case
"what Elon said was sufficient cause"
that's the father's version, told calmly, decades later
Elon's version is different. in his biography the beating is worse, and when he came home his father took the other boy's side and made him stand there while he was called an idiot. Kimbal has said Elon was beaten so badly he was unrecognizable
so we have two stories about the same staircase
in one, a kid nearly gets killed and nobody protects him
in the other, a kid says something cruel and gets what was coming
and here's the uncomfortable part: Errol might be right about one thing
"he still does"
look at grown-up Elon. "go f*** yourself" to advertisers live on stage. calling people idiots on X in front of 200M+ followers. he never lost the habit of saying the one thing you're not supposed to say
the difference is that at 14 it cost him two weeks in a hospital bed
at 55 it costs him almost nothing. sometimes it even moves the stock
the boy who got thrown down the stairs for his mouth grew up and bought the biggest megaphone on earth
tickmind retweeted
Jordan Belfort, ordered to repay his victims $110,400,000, says he chose an FBI wire over 30 years in prison. When it was time to record a close friend, he warned him with a note: "I'm wired." The friend betrayed him and handed the note to the FBI.
In the video below, he explains what that note cost him.
The movie showed the money he made. It skipped the money people lost.
Stratton Oakmont had over 1,000 brokers cold-calling ordinary people. They pushed cheap stocks Stratton secretly controlled, the price went up, and insiders sold at the top. The clients were left holding shares that soon were worth almost nothing.
1,513 people lost an estimated $200,000,000. By 2013, they had gotten back about $11,000,000, most of it from selling property the government seized.
Belfort wasn't the only one talking. His partner Danny Porush, the man Jonah Hill's character is loosely based on, was cooperating too. The prosecutor said the government needed both of them, "but to do so separately without each other's knowledge."
After that note, Belfort says, he stopped protecting anyone. One of the men he helped prosecutors build a case against was Steve Madden, the man behind one of America's best-known shoe brands.
Stratton took Madden's company public in 1993. The SEC said Belfort secretly kept a big stake in it through a fake sale of his shares to a company Madden owned.
Madden also helped Stratton rig 22 IPOs. He got shares before the public, sold them back to Stratton at a set profit, and Stratton's brokers resold the same shares to clients at higher prices.
He had to give back $5,183,450 and pay a $1,000,000 fine.
Madden had been Porush's best friend since childhood. He was sentenced to 41 months and served about 31. Belfort served 22.
Madden later said Belfort "ratted me out to save himself."
Last year, the company with his name on it brought in $2,534,000,000.
Belfort tried to save one friend and got sold out. He didn't try to save his partner's best friend, and that man's name is still on shoe boxes across America.
tickmind retweeted
ELON MUSK ON HIS OWN FATHER: "MY FATHER IS A TERRIBLE HUMAN BEING. HE WILL HAVE A CAREFULLY THOUGHT-OUT PLAN OF EVIL. ALMOST EVERY CRIME YOU CAN POSSIBLY THINK OF, HE HAS DONE"... AND HERE'S WHAT ERROL MUSK (ELON'S DAD) THINKS ABOUT IT
2017. Rolling Stone. the richest man on the planet sits down for an interview and ends up crying about his dad
"he's good at making life miserable, that's for sure"
"I don't know how someone becomes like he is"
and one detail most people missed: Elon and his first wife Justine promised each other their kids would never be introduced to him
years later Errol sits across from an interviewer who reads every one of those lines back to him
he doesn't get angry. he doesn't cry. he folds his arms and says:
"they must have caught him on a bad day"
"I've never actually planned anything evil that I can think of"
"I've met all these kids. when they were small"
and about Justine:
"the less said the better"
then he gives his explanation, and this is the part that stuck with me
"it depends how your kids see you"
"I didn't suffer fools. if something serious was going to be destroyed by the action of a fool, I would not let it happen"
"they were very aware that I was somebody who acted very quickly in the event of things going rotten"
read that again and tell me who it sounds like
because that's almost word for word how people describe working for Elon
the all-nighters. the instant firings. the "demon mode" his own biographer wrote about. 80% of Twitter's staff gone in a few months
the son calls it evil when the father does it
the world calls it genius when the son does it
to be clear: Errol's version is Errol's version. Elon, Kimbal and other family members have described a very different childhood, and the accusations against him are serious
but there's an uncomfortable question in this clip that has nothing to do with family drama
how much of the most valuable founder on earth was built by the person he says he hates most?
some kids spend their whole life running from their father
some build a $400B+ fortune using his playbook and still call it evil
maybe both are the same kid
ELON MUSK ON HIS OWN FATHER: "MY FATHER IS A TERRIBLE HUMAN BEING. HE WILL HAVE A CAREFULLY THOUGHT-OUT PLAN OF EVIL. ALMOST EVERY CRIME YOU CAN POSSIBLY THINK OF, HE HAS DONE"... AND HERE'S WHAT ERROL MUSK (ELON'S DAD) THINKS ABOUT IT
2017. Rolling Stone. the richest man on the planet sits down for an interview and ends up crying about his dad
"he's good at making life miserable, that's for sure"
"I don't know how someone becomes like he is"
and one detail most people missed: Elon and his first wife Justine promised each other their kids would never be introduced to him
years later Errol sits across from an interviewer who reads every one of those lines back to him
he doesn't get angry. he doesn't cry. he folds his arms and says:
"they must have caught him on a bad day"
"I've never actually planned anything evil that I can think of"
"I've met all these kids. when they were small"
and about Justine:
"the less said the better"
then he gives his explanation, and this is the part that stuck with me
"it depends how your kids see you"
"I didn't suffer fools. if something serious was going to be destroyed by the action of a fool, I would not let it happen"
"they were very aware that I was somebody who acted very quickly in the event of things going rotten"
read that again and tell me who it sounds like
because that's almost word for word how people describe working for Elon
the all-nighters. the instant firings. the "demon mode" his own biographer wrote about. 80% of Twitter's staff gone in a few months
the son calls it evil when the father does it
the world calls it genius when the son does it
to be clear: Errol's version is Errol's version. Elon, Kimbal and other family members have described a very different childhood, and the accusations against him are serious
but there's an uncomfortable question in this clip that has nothing to do with family drama
how much of the most valuable founder on earth was built by the person he says he hates most?
some kids spend their whole life running from their father
some build a $400B+ fortune using his playbook and still call it evil
maybe both are the same kid
tickmind retweeted
ELON MUSK AND HIS BROTHER KIMBAL USED TO FIGHT RIGHT ON THE OFFICE FLOOR OVER COMPANY STRATEGY... AND KIMBAL TELLS THE STORY WITH NOTHING BUT LOVE FOR ELON
mid-90s. Zip2, their first startup. two brothers, one tiny office, no money
they slept there. showered at the YMCA. and when they disagreed on strategy, they didn't book a meeting
"I'm a very strong-willed person. my brother's a very strong-willed person... well of course we should fight it out"
one fight went further than the others
Elon raised his fist to punch Kimbal in the face
Kimbal had no way to defend himself
so he grabbed the fist and tore a piece of skin off it
Elon had to go get a tetanus shot
that's funny for about five seconds. then the interviewer asks about Asperger's, and Kimbal gets honest
the upside:
"he's the greatest engineer in the world. I don't think anyone comes close, frankly"
the downside:
"he doesn't really have an empathy gene"
you have a life? a marriage?
"how is that relevant? we have work to do"
and then the line that hit me hardest:
"even with him and I, I have to speak out loud: this is how I am feeling. then he can process it. but I can't expect him to feel it"
his own brother has to translate his emotions into words, like reporting data, just so Elon can understand them
and he still ends with:
"I've grown up with him and we love each other, and it works"
no bitterness. no "he was a monster". just a guy who knows exactly who his brother is and decided to stay
here's why this matters beyond family drama
in 1999 Compaq bought Zip2 for ~$307M. the brothers who fought on the floor walked away millionaires, and that money became the seed for everything Elon did next
Kimbal later sat on the Tesla board for years
most co-founder fights end with a lawyer and a buyout. theirs ended with a tetanus shot and 30 years of working together
the lesson isn't "fight your co-founder"
it's that the same trait that makes someone impossible to work with can be the one that builds the company. and the people who last next to that kind of person are the ones who stop expecting them to feel, and start telling them what they feel
ELON MUSK AND HIS BROTHER KIMBAL USED TO FIGHT RIGHT ON THE OFFICE FLOOR OVER COMPANY STRATEGY... AND KIMBAL TELLS THE STORY WITH NOTHING BUT LOVE FOR ELON
mid-90s. Zip2, their first startup. two brothers, one tiny office, no money
they slept there. showered at the YMCA. and when they disagreed on strategy, they didn't book a meeting
"I'm a very strong-willed person. my brother's a very strong-willed person... well of course we should fight it out"
one fight went further than the others
Elon raised his fist to punch Kimbal in the face
Kimbal had no way to defend himself
so he grabbed the fist and tore a piece of skin off it
Elon had to go get a tetanus shot
that's funny for about five seconds. then the interviewer asks about Asperger's, and Kimbal gets honest
the upside:
"he's the greatest engineer in the world. I don't think anyone comes close, frankly"
the downside:
"he doesn't really have an empathy gene"
you have a life? a marriage?
"how is that relevant? we have work to do"
and then the line that hit me hardest:
"even with him and I, I have to speak out loud: this is how I am feeling. then he can process it. but I can't expect him to feel it"
his own brother has to translate his emotions into words, like reporting data, just so Elon can understand them
and he still ends with:
"I've grown up with him and we love each other, and it works"
no bitterness. no "he was a monster". just a guy who knows exactly who his brother is and decided to stay
here's why this matters beyond family drama
in 1999 Compaq bought Zip2 for ~$307M. the brothers who fought on the floor walked away millionaires, and that money became the seed for everything Elon did next
Kimbal later sat on the Tesla board for years
most co-founder fights end with a lawyer and a buyout. theirs ended with a tetanus shot and 30 years of working together
the lesson isn't "fight your co-founder"
it's that the same trait that makes someone impossible to work with can be the one that builds the company. and the people who last next to that kind of person are the ones who stop expecting them to feel, and start telling them what they feel
tickmind retweeted
ELON MUSK: "IF THE FOURTH LAUNCH HADN'T WORKED, I THINK DEATH WOULD HAVE BEEN INEVITABLE"... "FOR ME TO GIVE UP, I'D HAVE TO BE DEAD OR COMPLETELY INCAPACITATED"
he's not talking about himself. he's talking about spacex
60 minutes, 2012. scott pelley takes him back to the worst stretch of his life
falcon 1, spacex's first rocket:
launch 1, 2006: fails
launch 2, 2007: fails
launch 3, august 2008: fails
pelley asks the obvious question. after the third failure in a row, did you think about packing it in?
"never"
"why not?"
"i don't ever give up. i mean, i'd have to be dead or completely incapacitated"
the third failure came down to a timing glitch measured in seconds. so 8 weeks later he bets the whole company on one more rocket
and here's the part people skip. he didn't have a fifth one
"if that fourth launch hadn't worked, that would have been it. we did not have the resources for a fifth launch"
"death would have been, i think, inevitable"
september 28, 2008. launch 4 reaches orbit. the first privately built liquid-fuel rocket ever to do it
now the napkin math:
his own money in spacex back then: ~$100M
rockets it paid for: 4
rockets that worked: 1
spacex market cap today: ~$2T
the most valuable rocket company on earth sits on top of one launch that could have gone the other way
and at the end pelley says it's a tricky business. elon just nods:
"i wish it wasn't so hard"
everyone talks about the $2T. nobody talks about the version of 2008 where rocket #4 blows up and spacex is a footnote
the gap between those two worlds was one launch
ELON MUSK: "IF THE FOURTH LAUNCH HADN'T WORKED, I THINK DEATH WOULD HAVE BEEN INEVITABLE"... "FOR ME TO GIVE UP, I'D HAVE TO BE DEAD OR COMPLETELY INCAPACITATED"
he's not talking about himself. he's talking about spacex
60 minutes, 2012. scott pelley takes him back to the worst stretch of his life
falcon 1, spacex's first rocket:
launch 1, 2006: fails
launch 2, 2007: fails
launch 3, august 2008: fails
pelley asks the obvious question. after the third failure in a row, did you think about packing it in?
"never"
"why not?"
"i don't ever give up. i mean, i'd have to be dead or completely incapacitated"
the third failure came down to a timing glitch measured in seconds. so 8 weeks later he bets the whole company on one more rocket
and here's the part people skip. he didn't have a fifth one
"if that fourth launch hadn't worked, that would have been it. we did not have the resources for a fifth launch"
"death would have been, i think, inevitable"
september 28, 2008. launch 4 reaches orbit. the first privately built liquid-fuel rocket ever to do it
now the napkin math:
his own money in spacex back then: ~$100M
rockets it paid for: 4
rockets that worked: 1
spacex market cap today: ~$2T
the most valuable rocket company on earth sits on top of one launch that could have gone the other way
and at the end pelley says it's a tricky business. elon just nods:
"i wish it wasn't so hard"
everyone talks about the $2T. nobody talks about the version of 2008 where rocket #4 blows up and spacex is a footnote
the gap between those two worlds was one launch
tickmind retweeted
ELON MUSK'S CHILDHOOD WAS PSYCHOLOGICALLY BRUTAL, BUT HE RODE IN ROLLS-ROYCES AND PRIVATE PLANES... AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHY HE COULD BET EVERYTHING
you probably know the dark half of the story
bullied at school. beaten so badly he ended up in hospital. a father Elon himself has called "a terrible human being"
now here's the half his father tells
an interviewer asks Errol Musk: did Elon just never care about money?
"yes, yes, yes"
then he describes what Elon grew up with:
a big house in one of pretoria's best suburbs
by age 7, 8, 9, Errol had moved on from Mercedes to Rolls-Royce. "so they only rode in Rolls-Royce cars"
want to go somewhere? you get in a twin-engine plane that belongs to you, land on your own airstrip, walk to your lodge
learned to ski in europe before they were 10
and then he compares it to his own childhood
no bed until he was 10. he slept on a couch. the family lived in two rooms of a boarding house
his conclusion is the whole post:
"when you start like i did, you get money and you think: i should keep this and spend it as slowly as possible"
"but when you grow up like Elon... what the hell, you can make it again. you're never ever gonna go down"
and the line that stings:
"to them, hardship was when they ran out of fillet steak"
now look at 2002
eBay buys PayPal. Elon walks away with ~$180M before tax
a guy who grew up poor buys bonds and a house and never works again
Elon puts ~$100M into SpaceX and ~$70M into Tesla. by the end of 2008, by his own account, he's borrowing from friends to pay rent
that's not courage the way we usually mean it. it's a different relationship with zero
your risk tolerance isn't just math. it's memory
the people who've been poor feel the floor. the people who haven't don't believe it exists
fair warning: this is Errol's version. Elon has publicly pushed back on the "rich kid" story and says he arrived in north america with almost nothing
so which one is it: did he bet everything because he was brave, or because he never believed he could actually lose?
ELON MUSK'S CHILDHOOD WAS PSYCHOLOGICALLY BRUTAL, BUT HE RODE IN ROLLS-ROYCES AND PRIVATE PLANES... AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHY HE COULD BET EVERYTHING
you probably know the dark half of the story
bullied at school. beaten so badly he ended up in hospital. a father Elon himself has called "a terrible human being"
now here's the half his father tells
an interviewer asks Errol Musk: did Elon just never care about money?
"yes, yes, yes"
then he describes what Elon grew up with:
a big house in one of pretoria's best suburbs
by age 7, 8, 9, Errol had moved on from Mercedes to Rolls-Royce. "so they only rode in Rolls-Royce cars"
want to go somewhere? you get in a twin-engine plane that belongs to you, land on your own airstrip, walk to your lodge
learned to ski in europe before they were 10
and then he compares it to his own childhood
no bed until he was 10. he slept on a couch. the family lived in two rooms of a boarding house
his conclusion is the whole post:
"when you start like i did, you get money and you think: i should keep this and spend it as slowly as possible"
"but when you grow up like Elon... what the hell, you can make it again. you're never ever gonna go down"
and the line that stings:
"to them, hardship was when they ran out of fillet steak"
now look at 2002
eBay buys PayPal. Elon walks away with ~$180M before tax
a guy who grew up poor buys bonds and a house and never works again
Elon puts ~$100M into SpaceX and ~$70M into Tesla. by the end of 2008, by his own account, he's borrowing from friends to pay rent
that's not courage the way we usually mean it. it's a different relationship with zero
your risk tolerance isn't just math. it's memory
the people who've been poor feel the floor. the people who haven't don't believe it exists
fair warning: this is Errol's version. Elon has publicly pushed back on the "rich kid" story and says he arrived in north america with almost nothing
so which one is it: did he bet everything because he was brave, or because he never believed he could actually lose?
tickmind retweeted
Jordan Belfort was ordered to pay his victims $110,400,000. He scammed a 60-year-old retiree out of $250,000, forcing him to work for the rest of his life to pay off his debts. The man got back just $8,000.
Watch what he does when 60 Minutes asks if he's hiding his income.
Belfort is the stockbroker Leonardo DiCaprio played in The Wolf of Wall Street. He served 22 months for fraud.
His firm, Stratton Oakmont, cold-called ordinary people, pushed them into worthless stocks, then dumped its own shares on them.
In 2003, the court gave him a simple rule: half of his gross income goes to the 1,513 investors he defrauded.
Here's how that went, according to prosecutors:
Paid back, mostly from property he forfeited: $12,800,000
Made on speeches from 2013 to 2015: at least $9,000,000
Still owed in 2018: $97,000,000
Prosecutors say he kept all of the speech money. Belfort says the 50% rule ended with his probation in 2009, and he disputes the government's numbers.
A federal judge looked at his finances and said, "It seems like he has some spare change lying around."
The pitch never changed. A confident voice promises you a shortcut to money. His victims heard it on the phone in the '90s. Today it comes with a ticket price.
Anyone who owes his victims $97,000,000 shouldn't get to sell you the pitch that made them victims.
tickmind retweeted
HARD TO BELIEVE, BUT ELON MUSK'S SCHOOL THOUGHT HE WAS "RETARDED," SAYS HIS FATHER ERROL MUSK... YEARS LATER EVERYONE REALIZED IT WAS GENIUS
pretoria, south africa, around 1979. Elon is 7 or 8, in grade two
the headmaster calls his father and says they need to talk
Errol drives over sure he knows what it is. Elon had a habit: adults would see him with some huge book and ask if he was just looking at the pictures. Elon would tell them "no, of course not, stupid"
so Errol expects to hear his son insulted a teacher
instead he walks into the office and finds the headmaster and an older teacher wringing her hands
the headmaster says it straight:
"we think your son is retarded"
the evidence?
everyone in class is taking notes. Elon sits and stares out the window
the teacher has to walk up and push him on the shoulder before he even notices her
she asks what he's doing
he says the trees are getting their leaves
Errol: "well, that's reasonable. i don't see anything wrong with that"
the school: something is wrong with him
their fix was a hearing test. his hearing was fine. Errol moved him to a private school and, in his words, "we never had any more problems"
now look at what that "problem" actually was
a kid who goes so deep into one thing that the rest of the room disappears
his father says it never went away. even today, he says, you can be rude to Elon and it doesn't land. it just bounces off
the same trait the school flagged as a defect is the one that later
taught him to code by himself and sell his first video game at 12
had him reading the encyclopedia when he ran out of books
built a rocket company out of nothing but obsession
the school wasn't wrong about the data. he really wasn't paying attention to them
they were wrong about the price
markets do this all the time. the thing that looks broken is just optimized for something you're not measuring
the school graded attention. the world ended up paying for focus
HARD TO BELIEVE, BUT ELON MUSK'S SCHOOL THOUGHT HE WAS "RETARDED," SAYS HIS FATHER ERROL MUSK... YEARS LATER EVERYONE REALIZED IT WAS GENIUS
pretoria, south africa, around 1979. Elon is 7 or 8, in grade two
the headmaster calls his father and says they need to talk
Errol drives over sure he knows what it is. Elon had a habit: adults would see him with some huge book and ask if he was just looking at the pictures. Elon would tell them "no, of course not, stupid"
so Errol expects to hear his son insulted a teacher
instead he walks into the office and finds the headmaster and an older teacher wringing her hands
the headmaster says it straight:
"we think your son is retarded"
the evidence?
everyone in class is taking notes. Elon sits and stares out the window
the teacher has to walk up and push him on the shoulder before he even notices her
she asks what he's doing
he says the trees are getting their leaves
Errol: "well, that's reasonable. i don't see anything wrong with that"
the school: something is wrong with him
their fix was a hearing test. his hearing was fine. Errol moved him to a private school and, in his words, "we never had any more problems"
now look at what that "problem" actually was
a kid who goes so deep into one thing that the rest of the room disappears
his father says it never went away. even today, he says, you can be rude to Elon and it doesn't land. it just bounces off
the same trait the school flagged as a defect is the one that later
taught him to code by himself and sell his first video game at 12
had him reading the encyclopedia when he ran out of books
built a rocket company out of nothing but obsession
the school wasn't wrong about the data. he really wasn't paying attention to them
they were wrong about the price
markets do this all the time. the thing that looks broken is just optimized for something you're not measuring
the school graded attention. the world ended up paying for focus
tickmind retweeted
THE PAIN IN ELON MUSK'S VOICE WHEN HE TALKS ABOUT THIS... THE COMPANY HAD 4 MONTHS LEFT TO LIVE
april 2023. Twitter HQ, San Francisco. a BBC reporter sits across from Elon and asks about his first days as owner
he doesn't start with the bots or free speech. he starts with the money
"definitely spending money like it's going out of fashion"
then he lays out what he walked into:
Twitter was tracking to lose over $3 billion a year
and it had about $1 billion in the bank
"so that's four months to death. so this is your starting position. how would you feel?"
the reporter: "pretty intense"
here's where the hole came from, in his own rough numbers:
before the deal: ~$4.5B revenue, ~$4.5B costs. basically break even
after the deal: revenue drops to ~$3B as advertisers pull out
costs jump to ~$6B, because the takeover loaded ~$1.5B a year of debt interest onto the company
napkin math:
$3B burn a year = ~$250M a month
$1B in cash / $250M = 4 months
4 months = ~120 days
and then the line he says almost quietly:
"unless drastic action was taken immediately, this company is going to die"
you know what the drastic action was. thousands of people lost their jobs within weeks. by the time of this interview he said it was down to about 1,500 people
the part nobody talks about: a big chunk of that $3B hole wasn't Twitter's fault. it was the debt he used to buy it
he paid $44 billion for a company, and the purchase itself cut its life to 4 months
he didn't buy a company. he bought a countdown
THE PAIN IN ELON MUSK'S VOICE WHEN HE TALKS ABOUT THIS... THE COMPANY HAD 4 MONTHS LEFT TO LIVE
april 2023. Twitter HQ, San Francisco. a BBC reporter sits across from Elon and asks about his first days as owner
he doesn't start with the bots or free speech. he starts with the money
"definitely spending money like it's going out of fashion"
then he lays out what he walked into:
Twitter was tracking to lose over $3 billion a year
and it had about $1 billion in the bank
"so that's four months to death. so this is your starting position. how would you feel?"
the reporter: "pretty intense"
here's where the hole came from, in his own rough numbers:
before the deal: ~$4.5B revenue, ~$4.5B costs. basically break even
after the deal: revenue drops to ~$3B as advertisers pull out
costs jump to ~$6B, because the takeover loaded ~$1.5B a year of debt interest onto the company
napkin math:
$3B burn a year = ~$250M a month
$1B in cash / $250M = 4 months
4 months = ~120 days
and then the line he says almost quietly:
"unless drastic action was taken immediately, this company is going to die"
you know what the drastic action was. thousands of people lost their jobs within weeks. by the time of this interview he said it was down to about 1,500 people
the part nobody talks about: a big chunk of that $3B hole wasn't Twitter's fault. it was the debt he used to buy it
he paid $44 billion for a company, and the purchase itself cut its life to 4 months
he didn't buy a company. he bought a countdown
tickmind retweeted
Bernie Madoff confessed a $50 billion Ponzi scheme to his wife and sons. By 7 a.m. the next morning, his own sons had turned him in to the FBI.
In the video below, his wife and son explain what happened the night he confessed.
Madoff wasn't a basement con man. He was a former chairman of Nasdaq, and for decades his fund paid the same steady returns, year after year.
It never invested a penny. New investors' money paid the old ones. On paper, $65 billion. By the end, a few hundred million was left.
His sons Mark and Andrew worked for him for 20 years, two floors above the fund. The 17th floor was off-limits. Every time they asked, he told them: "You guys have your business to worry about."
The night he confessed, Ruth asked one question: "What's a Ponzi scheme?"
The sons went to the authorities. Ruth stayed. A day later she asked Andrew to co-sign his father's $10 million bail bond. He refused.
Turning him in didn't save them. The bankruptcy trustee sued Andrew for $60 million, nearly everything his father had ever paid, lent or given him. Ruth gave up $80 million and kept $2.5 million.
Bernie got 150 years. Mark died two years to the day after the arrest. He was 46.
The sons did the right thing, and it destroyed them. The wife stood by him, and she walked away with $2.5 million.
tickmind retweeted
THIS IS INSANE...HOW CLOSE ELON MUSK CAME TO GOING BANKRUPT IN 2008
september 2008. Elon is on stage at the Inc. 5000 conference. brown jacket, legs crossed, totally calm
what's going on behind him:
SpaceX: 3 Falcon 1 launches, 3 failures
Tesla: burning cash, barely any cars delivered
Wall Street: the same month Lehman Brothers collapses
and rocket #4 is already standing on an island in the middle of the Pacific. it launches that week
the host asks him straight:
you said every launch is like Russian roulette. so how do you know you're dead? when do you stop?
Elon doesn't even pause:
"i think if we run out of money"
then he adds:
"i know this sounds crazy, but we were profitable last year. we're going to be profitable this year"
"we have enough funding... to last through the end of next year"
now look at what actually happened
september 28: rocket #4 reaches orbit. the first privately built liquid-fuel rocket ever to do it
it doesn't save him
by december he's out of cash. by his own account, he's borrowing money from friends to pay rent
"enough funding through the end of next year" lasted about 3 months
december 23: NASA calls. a ~$1.6B cargo contract
december 24: Tesla closes the round that keeps it alive
napkin math:
his PayPal money: ~$180M
into SpaceX: ~$100M
into Tesla: ~$70M
runway he announced on stage: ~15 months
runway he actually had: ~3 months
he wasn't lying on that stage. he was telling you the plan, and the plan assumed nothing would break
in 2008 everything broke
"if we run out of money" wasn't bravado. it was the only stop rule he had. and he came within days of hitting it
the richest man in the world was one phone call away from being a cautionary tale