Elon Musk

ELON Musk, the richest man on planet Earth, is doing everything he possibly can to leave planet Earth.

His journey from Pretoria boy to billionaire entrepreneur appears destined to end, as he describes it, ‘out there among the stars’. Space does indeed seem to be the final frontier for Musk, and even its vastness appears not enough to contain one of the greatest geniuses of our age, one who is determined to make human beings an interplanetary species.

This is the future towards which Musk has been moving ever since the age of five, when he first realised that not everybody has a million new ideas exploding in their brains all the time, and that people thought he was strange, and that he might be locked away because of it.

The boy who grew up reading science-fiction novels and comics became the man who brought much of what he read to life. He built electric cars and space rockets. ‘Science fiction should not be science fiction forever,’ he has said.

From South Africa has emerged one of the greatest minds of our time, and a man shifting the entire focus of humanity with his vision. A man who has made it his life’s mission to turn human beings into a multiplanetary species in the interests of conserving that rarest and most precious thing that appears not to exist anywhere else in the universe – consciousness.

The greatest challenge in writing a biography of Elon Musk is that he does not sit still. He is a moving target. A rabbit warren of ideas, theories, arguments and counterarguments. His life is a wild journey, much like the rockets he sends soaring into space. Trying to condense Elon Musk into one book feels a bit like trying to capture the expanse of the Drakensberg on your camera phone.

So I have tried to provide the story of Musk’s life, and the golden threads that run through it, as a starting point for readers who want to know more about one of the most significant people of our time.

Although it is not a requirement for an unauthorised biography of this nature, I did reach out to Musk for his thoughts. He did not respond. I also reached out to his mother, Maye, who politely declined to provide input. I first reached out to his father, Errol, in May 2021. I finally received a response in February 2022. His response was as puzzling as the popular portrayal of him: ‘Good day. It is not clear to me how someone who does not know Elon can write a biography on him. Elon spent his entire childhood and youth with me. I am aware of all his affairs from day one to present. Jonathan Ball Publishers were not interested in a series of articles I wrote called “Raising Elon”. The matter is very confusing to

In 1855, Pretoria officially became the new capital of the South African

moved his entire family from Canada to Pretoria.

strange child’ is how Musk has referred to himself

what’s the meaning of life

how did we come to be here

thought I was insane because it was clear that not everybody’s mind was exploding with ideas all of the time,’

There were ideas. A constant stream of exploding ideas. And questions. And it scared him, to the point that he thought ‘different’

five, Elon Musk already knew he was different.

the South African Broadcasting Corporation officially opened its television service nationwide to those who could afford this new technology.