Elon Musk shares about his early days, ‘came to US with no money’
- As Time magazine awards him the “Person of the Year,” Elon Musk took to Twitter to share about his humble early days in the United States as a student.
Earlier this year as Musk surpassed Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest man, he recalled his humble beginnings in the US, Musk tweeted, “I came to the US with no money & graduated with over $100k in debt, despite scholarships & working 2 jobs while at school.”
Meanwhile the Financial Times wrote, “even if Tesla were somehow to collapse next year… Musk would have transformed one of the world’s most important industries in ways that could have profound implications for governments, investors – and for the climate.”
The title of person of the year is often reserved for world leaders but occasionally awarded to businesspeople. Previous winners of the FT’s award include Donald Trump, former German chancellor Angela Merkel and former Goldman Sachs Inc. boss Lloyd Blankfein.
In October, Tesla became one of just a few companies to hit the $1 trillion valuation mark. His other major company, Space X, has become a go-to launch provider for NASA, and inspired other startup rocket companies across the world.
The world’s richest person has been on a selling spree since he asked his Twitter followers on November 6 whether he should offload 10% of his Tesla stake, to which the majority answered “yes.” At the same time, he’s been exercising options, something he had said he was likely to do toward the end of the year and had set up a trading plan for.
Elon Musk has sold more than three-quarters of the Tesla Inc. shares he’d need to offload to make good on a pledge to cut 10% of his stake in the company.
In the second round of disposals this week, Musk got rid of 934,091 shares for more than $884 million, according to regulatory filings dated Thursday. The sales were to pay for taxes on the exercise of 2.2 million options.