Elon Musk turns 51: A look at interesting facts about Tesla CEO, his top quotes & tweets

Elon Musk, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tesla and SpaceX, turned 51 on Tuesday. The billionaire is often regarded as the most successful tech investor and entrepreneur in the world. Born on 28 June 1971, Musk is quite active on social media and often makes headlines for the updates he provides on his businesses, including SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Co. He has established a lot of successful businesses so far, right from the online business directory Zip 2 to the space exploration company SpaceX. Besides, he also serves as an inspiration to a whole generation of aspiring entrepreneurs.

As the world's richest person turns 51, let's have a look at some interesting facts about him, some top quotes as well as some of his tweets that stormed the internet. 

A look at some interesting Elon Musk facts 

He developed a video game at the age of 12

At the age of merely 12, Musk developed a video game named BLASTER. At the time, he received $500 (approx Rs 39,000) for selling this game to PC & Office Technology Company. According to reports, he developed the video game using a commodore VIC 20 computer and its online version is still accessible online. 

Musk started a software company in 1995

Musk along with his brother Kimbal Musk founded 'Zip2' in 1995. It was a software company which worked like Google Maps. Later in 1999, Musk sold Zip2 to the COMPAQ company for $307 million. He then went on to buy his first car McLaren F1, in 1999 but had to sell it later as he could not afford to pay the insurance of the car. 

Musk spends 12 hours per day reading books

According to reports, the billionaire still spends more than 12 hours each day reading books. He used to buy hot dogs and oranges in bulk and spend less than $1 on meals per day when he was a college student. He also once rented a friend's house and converted it into a nightclub for his college mates every weekend. Back then, he also charged $5 as the entry fee of that nightclub. 

'Making the impossible possible': Musk

Musk is revered as a hero in the technology industry for his creative thinking and his unrivalled social media presence. He frequently uses the phrase "making the impossible possible," so if you happen to stroll into a startup office or run across someone who is a "techie" at heart, you will probably hear references to him. Here are some of his quotes that can really inspire and boost someone's confidence who is trying to start up a venture. 

“If you are a co-founder or CEO, you have to do all kinds of tasks you might not want to do… If you don’t do your chores, the company won’t succeed… No task is too menial."

“Being an entrepreneur is like eating glass and staring into the abyss of death."

"When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favour."

"Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up."

"The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur."

Musk holds citizenship of three countries

The Tesla CEO also holds citizenship of three countries - South Africa, Canada, and the United States of America. At present, he resides in Los Angeles, California. Musk is a frequent user of Twitter and recently surpassed the milestone of having 100 million followers. Some of his tweets have also gone insanely viral and made headlines for different reasons.

A look at some viral tweets by Musk

Once Musk tweeted, "The Earth is not flat, it’s a hollow globe & Donkey King lives there! [sic]." To this, one of the users asked, if he was an alien and Musk responded casually, "Obv." 

Take a look a some more of his tweets below:

(Image: AP)