Elon Musk: The Real Life Iron Man

This is a difficult thing that we're doing.

It's a hard thing, it's a new thing,

and you know, I'd hope that you would cheer us on.

Three, two, one, and lift off!

I think this is a really good milestone

for the future of space flight.

You know, I think it's another step towards the stars.

Elon Musk is not your average tech billionaire.

He's one of the most intriguing entrepreneurs

in business today.

The man behind PayPal is taking on the giants

of the aerospace and motor industries,

along with the oil corporations,

the energy utility companies, and winning.

Elon Musk is a visionary,

someone who comes along perhaps once a century,

who is actually changing the way we function

and the way we look at the world.

Back then,

people were still afraid to buy books online,

so putting together a financial services suite

on the internet was a rather revolutionary idea,

and that company turned out to be PayPal,

the online payment service.

It's one thing to run a company

that's worth a billion dollars.

Elon Musk has four.

My personal ideology is kind of split right now

between trying to be helpful on Earth related stuff,

which is sustainable energy,

and then trying to advance space technology,

so we can establish a self-sustaining city on Mars.

From AI, to disrupting the car industry,

to SolarCity.

I mean how many other people can say,

I have my own rocket company?

Not many.

- In terms of space, Elon has completely changed

how we think about everything.

When you look at what SpaceX has done

with their reusable rockets,

we are seeing science fiction of the 1950s coming to life.

Rockets land as they always were meant to do.

It's really trying to land on a postage stamp there.

Astonishingly difficult.

So, Mars does beckon.

I am very convinced

that this is gonna happen in my lifetime.

- If you look at Tesla alone,

has changed the way that automobiles

will be forever in the future.

He has truly broken down the wall

that was impossible to break,

and now we're in a situation where

all of the big car companies

are switching massively to electric cars,

and that is a revolution done by one man.

He's almost like a real life Iron Man

in what he's doing.

There's a lot more that will happen

before his story is over.

So, I think we just get to watch, and be excited,

and see what comes next.

A lot of people think that successful entrepreneurs

are just happened to be in the right place at the right time

with the right product or right service.

That's untrue.

Why are they not content with $25 million

when they sell their first company,

then go on to a second company for another $50 million,

or a third company when they fail and go into another one.

Serial entrepreneurs are driven.

They're psychologically driven,

and it's usually to do with something in their childhood.

Elon Reeve Musk was born in Pretoria in 1971,

the son of a Canadian mother and South African father.

Elon grew up in South Africa,

and he had a very unfettered upbringing.

He has said that he was raised basically by books

and occasionally nannies.

His mother and father have two other kids.

They're, he has a younger brother and sister,

Kimball and Tuska, but it seemed like Elon didn't have

a lot of adult supervision.

He said that he was basically out there building explosives,

and learning about conduction with very little supervision.

He had a passion for engineering,

and obviously physics and the sciences as well.

Musk attended Waterkloof Primary School,

and after his parents divorced,

nine year old Elon went to live with his father.

Elon at one stage in his childhood,

after his parents divorced,

says that he felt sorry for his dad living by himself,

so he opted to go and live with his dad.

That, he later called a huge mistake.

He's been on record saying,

he didn't have a great relationship with his father.

He's notably said some really,

really hard things about his dad.

It sounds like it was a really awful situation.

His father was an engineer,

and Elon says that a lot of his engineering nous

came from his father,

and his father had some issues according to Elon,

but what he did have was a very incisive

engineering background.

As disturbing as Elon's relationship

with his dad seemed to be,

Elon's relationship with his mother appears to be very good

and went from strength to strength.

I think his mother is probably the ultimate optimist.

She's lovely.

She's really something.

Open the New York Times, there's Maye, it's great.

I've been modeling for 50 years, ha!

So, you just have to just keep on going, and be nice,

and available, and be surprised

when you suddenly become mother of the bride,

and then grandmother.

Elon's Mom has been very supportive of him

over the years.

She's constantly outspoken on Twitter

telling us the wonders of Elon,

and she's clearly very proud of him.

Maye Musk is an incredible woman.

At something like 69,

she's called an "It Girl" by Vanity Fair.

She's an in-demand model who's doing campaigns

for big major brands all over the world.

She's one of the most glamorous older women

you will ever see.

Despite the fact that Elon says he tried repeatedly,

again and again and again

to try and repair his relationship with his father,

at this stage he's just given up,

because he doesn't believe his dad is capable of change.

He's talked openly about how as a child

he spent a lot of time alone.

He says he can still remember

the sound of an empty house,

footsteps far off in the distance,

and he never ever wanted that again.

My own view is the really stellar entrepreneurs,

their life experiences particularly in childhood

are the determinant of their success later on.

If you look at their early childhood experiences,

you will find a number of adverse events.

Substantial adverse events like school bullying,

or being rejected.

These events drive you, you now need to prove something.

You wanna gain control of a world again,

you didn't have control of when you were younger,

and moving toward a top job,

being an entrepreneur, being a CEO, gives you power,

gives you strength, gives you control,

the thing they never had when they were younger,

so I think that's a driving force in many entrepreneurs.

Elon Musk attended

Bryanston High School in Pretoria,

where he thrived academically.

He had quite a tough upbringing.

There are some reports of bullying as well.

You know, any child that shows that sort of intellect,

and interest might come under the glare of the bullies.

He was even hospitalized after one particular fight.

He was a nerd.

He was bullied at school.

There was one point he was even knocked unconscious.

You know, it wasn't obvious

that he was a marketing genius at that point.

Elon took on wrestling classes,

and a bit of judo in an attempt to compensate

with a bit of added physicality,

and then he grew up a little bit,

got a growth spurt, got a bit taller,

and really took the bullies head on.

After spending three years at Bryanston High,

Elon attended Pretoria High School for boys.

Elon attended Boys High from 1986 until 1988,

which is the year he matriculated.

He excelled in science,

and he also excelled in computer studies.

He, in fact, got a distinction for both science

and computer studies in 1988.

As I do recall his grades,

'cause I have them in my mark book,

and he was definitely top of the science class.

I've taught many boys over the years,

and Elon did stick in my mind.

You know, I can't tell you where every boy sat,

but I can remember Elon

sitting at the back of the classroom

getting on with his work.

He wasn't one of the boys

that wanted attention all the time.

We always take a lot of pride in all of the boys,

but from a personal point of view

having taught Elon science,

I'd like to think that I made a small input