Whom here have ever heard of Paypal..?
What is the name of the
company that now ferries toilet paper and canned peas to the
International Space Station, since NASA took a nosedive like the loser
in the 'Fight Club' movie..?
Whose life was celebrated in the movie "Iron Man"...?
Who dusted off the work of late Mr Tesla and now produce an very good looking, very sexy hybrid
motor car (that's a car that runs on batteries, like the Duracell
bunny) and it does 0 - 60 mph in just 4.4 seconds...? and
running on the battery for 300 miles?
Who's designing commercial
missions to Mars, that will make Richard Branson's tours to the moon
look like a horse and buggy ride in Central Park and also working on
commercial aircraft that will rise vertically, in other words they won't
need a runway and they might fly faster than the Concorde did?
Suffice
it to say this guy is outrageously successful; he's worth 2 billion,
having started from zero; apparently not the nicest guy to work for and
yes, Bertha, he's already married... this genius was born and lived in
South Africa and that made me proud, a rare moment of being proud
about... oh, let's not go there... Reality is that he now lives in the
US, spends mega bucks in the US and the major beneficiary of his brain
power... the US... I spilled my beer and afterwards cried in my pillow
when this hit me..!!
His name is Elon Musk and yes, he....
... was the co-founder of Paypal ...
... his space express delivery company is called SpaceX ...
... the car is built by the Tesla factory and yes, you could buy one as we speak...
... we're still awaiting more details of the Mars flights and the new airline jets ...
This
guy, with the cologne surname, came from a broken home, so what's new,
you may say... he was still a youngster when he's mother left for
Canada, her birth country, to which he followed her, leaving South
Africa as a 15 year old and started showing up to work at the farms of
relatives and friends and yes, this was real work... work like
shovelling grain, tending vegetable patches and cleaning out boilers at a
lumber mill... oh yes, he read a lot, a helluva lot! He also obtained
two university degrees and funded much of his study fees by throwing
wild parties and wrote business plans. He started his first company,
called Zip3 which Compaq Computer later on bought for $300+ million. He
now had the money to go bigger and co-founded Paypal, which Ebay later
on bought, letting him walk away with $180 million...
Should that stubborn-acting teenager perhaps be encouraged to think big, dream wild
dreams and if assisted to exploit their crazy wishes, could they turn out to
be sheer genius, especially if they might be prepared to work hard and
read a lot, could they be like this dude, a one-in-a-million, gem of a
man? And no, I haven't yet had lunch with him, but I'd
definitely pay if I could!! I swear, his breath is probably inspiring
and remember, we both hail from South Africa, where the president
recently (so I heard) made a speech about the problem of clever women...
and he's now suggested that programs be put in place to stop women from
becoming too clever...!! duuhhh??
I admire Elon Musk, not for
being a South African, but because he's showing the world there's still
so much to achieve. Nobody knows the potential and
capabilities of those we meet and interact with, in other words people
who may be hanging out right here!! I decided to treat everyone I deal
with as if you might be the next genius the world still needs to
discover and to the geniuses out there, please share with this community
what you have. I respect you and imagine if we could work together,
like pushing the wagon up a hill before the fun going down starts, we'll
have more fun than the painters at the next World Body Painting
competition!!