Humanity has experienced loads of history since Elon Musk has started building magic through his products and companies. Throughout times there has been several, even many, extraordinary men and women that have turned the world into a much better place with their work and transformative ideas. It is a privilege being alive during the timeline of one such man of today. To say that he is a genius or a superman is a under-grade of the human kind that is transparent through his actions.
The trustworthiness can be seen with each and every of the companies he has built and the naturality with which he leads them. To say that Tesla is what makes him unique, would leave Zip2, PayPal, SpaceX, SolarCity, X, Gigafactory, Neuralink behind. Making a winning order is really not possible. A wise men will say that the combination of those is a sign of a versatile personality and deep dive into knowledges. People start to look at him from his engineering geniuses as much as from his will to humanise the world and space.
Starting from where he was born, South Africa, which probably explains his empathetic side, to his way to moving to America after Canada and started working on the first company and products to unleash consciousness for humanity and accelerate the sustainability of Earth made possible, a greatly important thing that we can learn is that many of the accomplishment is primarily due to his successful interaction and relationship with people.
The story of Zip2
Zip2 or initially called Global Link was the first company co-founded by Elon. He got the idea during an internship in 1994 and founded the company a year later together with his brother Kimbal Musk and Greg Kouri in California.
Global Link provided newspapers with online city guides. In 1996 the company received an investment of around US$3 million and changed its name to Zip2. Zip2 had deals with The New York Times, Knight Ridder and Hearst Corporation and partnered with more than 160 newspapers to develop guides to cities.
The story of PayPal
The company was originally established by Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Luke Nosek in 1998. In March 2000, Paypal or back then called Confinity merged with X.com, an online financial adviser services founded in March 1999 by Elon Musk and partners. Eventually the company focused only on online payments. Later Elon was replaced by Peter Thiel as CEO and the company went public in 2002.
Shortly after eBay acquired Paypal for over $1.5 billion in eBay stock.
The story of Tesla
Tesla and Tesla Energy known as the company that manufactures and sells electric vehicles, solar panels, stationary battery energy storage devices, was founded in 2003 by Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard. In 2004 Elon Musk joined as largest shareholder and was later named the CEO of the Tesla. In 2008 Tesla began production of its first car - the sport Roadster, followed by Model S in 2012, Model X, SUV, and Model 3, as well as the model Y in 2020 which became the best selling vehicle, of any kind, globally.
Tesla is one of the most valuable companies worldwide and in 2021 became a trillion- dollar company and is a leading the electric -vehicle market with around 20% MS. Together with its core mission - Accelerating world's transition to sustainable energy, Elon Musk predicts the future of Tesla to be robotics and the recently developed humanoid robot Optimus.
The story of SpaceX
As brave as your tools and purpose can reach, Space X is currently the most ambitious and increasingly important out of all companies. SpaceX was founded 22 years ago with the goal to make life multiplanetary, extend consciousness on Mars and bring it to the stars. SpaceX started as one of the first commercial companies that enabled decrease of costs for spaceflights and is aiming to reach full reusability of all of the manufactured rockets - Falcon 9 which now reaches 75% reusability, Falcon Heavy and Starship which is 100% reusable and ready to refill and flight within an hour after landing.
The history from the founding to todays missions is as inspiring as each launch. SpaceX has made possible 350 flights of its Falcon 9 rockets so far but the story of how it started is not as expected. When Musk was firstly boosted by the idea of growing life on Mars, his attempts to get rockets from then space exciting Russia was unsuccessful. Eventually, founding his own company and rocket manufacturer in California in 2002 has led to what is known the greatest success of a private company in space exploration.
Very early in its history, SpaceX headquarter was a warehouse in El Segundo, California and all early employees, including the chief rocket engineer, business director and VP of operations were personally interviewed by Elon. In three years the company had 160 employees and developed its first orbital launch vehicle - Falcon 1. In 2005 SpaceX announced its plans to bring commercial space flights to real life and began the initiation of the later called Dragon spacecraft. The first Falcon attempts although unsuccessful, were followed by years of rapid growth and later first contract with NASA and first commercial launches.
SpaceX is the first company that has achieved a vertical propulsive landing of a rocket booster and the first to reuse such a booster. It is the first private company to start developing spaceflights that has reached orbit. It has sent humans and refuel to the international Space Station and is selected to deorbit the ISS by the end of its life in 2030.
In 2019 the company has apparently announced laying off 10-15% of its staff, to support the Starlink and Starship projects. Another great product of SpaceX is Starlink. Currently the Starlink satellites and antennas are used to connect the world, providing internet access to all areas, including rural and hard-to-reach regions of the world. Currently there are more than 6,280 Starlink satellites in orbit.
Starship is the largest and most sophisticated and superior rocket created to bring humans to Moon, Mars and the stars. The next 5th flight test is set to happen within the month of September this year,
Space exploration has connected the world, opened the doors for deeper scientific research and created a huge bubble of Space economy which is expected to reach $2 trillion by 2030. Beyond that it gives reason for inspirstion and accelerated humanities aims both on and beyond Earth.
The story of Neuralink and the Telepathy
Yet another dream company and a large milestone in the field of Neurotechnology - brain-computer-interface (BCI) . Neuralink has helped a second paralized person restore control by just using their brain. Targeting the region of the brain connected to movement, the company is aiming to restore functions and help people who are disrupted or have injuries operate computers, giving them access to the world, to work, meet their current needs and even further unlock potential.
Neuralink future prospective also plans to target restoring sight for blind people and in the future to ultimately make the connection between humans and robots more empathetic and efficient.
Looking at the future, now more than ever the times are changing the way we perceive information, the way we think and what is more the things we like to create. Perhaps Neuralink is the best example for that. Though many individuals and families has benefited from the field of Neuromodulation, Neuralink mission and approach is a breakthrough both in Medicine, as well as in the technological advancement of humans.
If we decide to go deeper into an alien philanthropist, we surely need to mention a conversation that is indeed live online on 𝕏, restoring freedom of speech and expression of mind, as one of the first amendments.
The story of evolution
It seems like evolution is pressing at us and as much as we like the traditionalist comfort in bringing what is best known for people, the innovator intelligent creativity and purpose is moving through geographies, now even beyond our planet.
To always ask questions and know what questions to ask is as unknown as the answer that is the universe. It is probably a universe within a universe, as well as we all who are pushed to dream outside our own boundaries and explore the vastness.
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