SimplyAbuDhabi XXXVII

“I don’t know where to stay tonight. Can I come over? Climate change is big with Musk. His libertarian Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel is close friends with Donald Trump and persuaded Musk to join the president’s industry advisory panel. Musk resigned in protest at the US pulling out of the Paris Agreement. There are many who complain that his dream of “a back-up planet” would make us less likely to keep Earth clean. And other controversies are looming, including gender discrimination suits against Tesla in Silicon Valley. There was outrage when he downloaded a software patch that extended the battery lifespan in Tesla cars during Hurricane Irma, proving that you may pay a lot of money for a Tesla, but Musk can do whatever he wants to the thing; he’s always the guy who owns it. A lot of his critics, however, misunderstand his motives. As he sat by himself in Pretoria waiting for someone to come and be with him, Musk consoled himself with physics books, superhero comics, bottle rockets and toy sports cars. He waited and moved and waited and moved and no matter where he went or what he’s done no one has come to stay with him. “He’s kind of homeless, which I think is sort of funny,” the Google co-founder and Musk’s friend Larry Page said recently. “He’ll email and say, ‘I don’t know where to stay tonight. Can I come over?’ I haven’t given him a key or anything yet.” So on Musk goes, firing rockets and sports cars up to Mars in a bid to save the world, always striving, always alone, always searching, finding new ways to travel as fast as possible and leave no trace behind. ” 072 | SIMPLY INFLUENTIAL Musk by numbers $43 billion as of February 2020 6ft 2in 48 6 3 8 companies $70 million worth of residential property in the Bel-Air neighbourhood of Los Angeles 5 homes 20,248 square feet 2 gasoline cars (a Ford Model T and a Jaguar Series 1 1967 E-type roadster) $989,000 for the Lotus Esprit submarine car used in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me The entire Encyclopaedia Britannica at age nine $500 when he was 12 after he sold his code for a video game called Blastar Off a dollar a day for a month when he was 17, buying oranges and hot dogs in bulk Of graduate school at Stanford University in 1995 after just 2 days Twice a week 85 to 100 hours a week About 6 to 61⁄2 hours a night Net worth: Height: Age: Children: Marriages: Founded/co-founded: Bought: Owns: Size of main residence: Drives: Paid: Read: Earned: Lived: Dropped out: Exercises: Works: Sleeps: SIMPLY INFLUENTIAL | 073