Rather than give up on working in tech, Elon teamed up with his brother to start Zip2, an Internet company that helped businesses get online.
Four years later, they sold that business for $307 million, and Musk’s career as a serial entrepreneur was underway. What followed was a string of bold ventures: founding X.com (which became PayPal which he sold for a pretty penny), investing in Tesla, and eventually launching SpaceX.
Musk turned his $180 million PayPal earnings into a $100 million bet on space travel, $70 million on electric cars, and $10 million on solar energy. While not every gamble paid off, Elon’s vision and determination have cemented his status as a global icon and has drawn him into the circle of the world’s most powerful people.
Today, he tops the Forbes Billionaires List, with a record setting net worth of over $430 billion, proving that setbacks can ultimately be stepping stones.