now yes I know it's not Android related
but it is really cool
and I wanted to tackle a pretty big
question about this guy well no not that
guy this guy but some people say that
this guy is based on this guy and the
question is is this guy the greatest
living entrepreneur or is he just
flipping crazy now you may think you
know who Elan musk is but it turns out
he had some pretty humble if not
ambitious beginnings
he sold his first video game at the age
of 12 for $500 although it was hardly
groundbreaking how many 12 year olds
create their own video game and then
sell it for cash it was an auspicious
start five years later must moved on to
live with his relatives here in Ontario
and studied physics and economics at
Queen's University he later transferred
to the University of Pennsylvania and
sharpened his entrepreneurial chops
staging alcohol-soaked parties for his
fellow students even though he didn't
drink now one thing that clearly defines
Elon Musk is his fierce determination
sleeping in the office and showering at
the local YMCA he built zip2 which is
essentially a city guide software for
newspapers with his brother and then
sold it to compact for more than 300
million in February of 1999 now most
people would have taken that money and
run become professional vacationers but
not Elon Musk he took most of his
newfound wealth and made a big bet on a
company you may have heard something
about he ploughed almost all that money
into an 11.7 stake in PayPal which
translated into a hundred and six
million dollar fortune when the payments
company sold to eBay for 1.5 billion and
he's also not above going after the
press when they say something he doesn't
like when Top Gear publicly roasted
Tesla's car range Tesla sued the iconic
program for defamation and blamed it for
lost sales musk later claimed a New York
Times writer similarly faked range
issues with the Tesla Model S but
something Elon Musk does do very well is
garner loyalty when
became painfully clear that Musk's 160
million dollars wasn't nearly enough for
the Tesla startup a bunch of Tesla
employees wrote checks to keep the
company going anywhere from $25 to
$50,000 even though some of them didn't
expect to see it again that community
spirit in the company and a 465 million
dollar government loan together with
serious incentives that slashed the
price of admission for the customer save
Tesla from becoming a footnote in
automotive history now here's the rub
we're talking about an entrepreneur
that's not only trying to revolutionize
the automotive industry an industry
that's entrenched in tradition by
creating an electric car that's not only
affordable for more people but is
actually sexy but he's trying to create
a Hyperloop that's gonna speed people
like a bullet from New York to Los
Angeles in a fraction of the time but
he's trying to create his own space
program he's trying to revolutionize the
alternative power industry and oh yeah
he's trying to colonize bloody Mars now
I grant you great entrepreneurs have to
be visionaries they have to be often
thought of as crazy in the early years
of their endeavor but there are some
sort of boundaries to this I think what
what is he gonna do trying I don't know
you know bring about world peace next
year I mean it's just crazy this guy is
ambitious to a fault there has to be
some boundaries some sort of focus and I
got to think that the man is just trying
too much all at the same time what do
you guys think let me know in the
comments below
wait a minute I do have another thought
what do you think of this one
even if Elon Musk's current companies
fail and never find sustainable
profitability he will have achieved some
amazing things one he's forced Detroit
automakers to be innovative to act
before they would have otherwise been
comfortable acting they had to catch up
to Tesla and they're really trying to do
that now
and that's a fantastic thing the second
thing he's been able to do which is
really awesome is that he's been able to
take things that have been considered
kind of hipster and extreme
environmentalist like alternative energy
you know that kind of stuff and made it
sexy and really given it fantastic press
and PR in the past two or three years
that just hasn't been done that is
fantastic he has really pushed the
alternative power industry forward leaps
and bounds the press is talking about it
constantly we just started a whole new
website just on that subject
it's called charged i/o you should check
it out meet Jeremy shoemaker otherwise
known as shoe money and he became famous
for this photo where he showed off a
cheque that he made from Google Adsense
and he's become so good at making online
businesses that he made an announcement
that he does not start a new business
unless he can secure the businesses name
in a dot-com now why is that exactly
well no domain name extension tells your
story with the same degree of trust as a
dot-com or dotnet domain name.com and
dotnet domain name extensions and jet
credibility and your online presence and
who doesn't want to be credible and
don't forget you get 15% off when you
use our coupon code Android when you
think domain names think domain.com
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