Elon R. Musk

A hero is somebody who is selfless, who is generous in spirit, who just tries to give back as much as possible and help people" (Debi Mazar). Some heroes put their life, wealth, and time on the line to benefit others. These are just a few examples of the thousands of heroic personalities. Elon Musk puts his money and time on the line to help others. Elon Musk, born June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa to parents Errol and Maye Musk has had an interest in computers from a young age. When he was nine he started teaching himself how to program and by age 12 published a game that he sold to a magazine for $500. By 16 Musk gained a Canadian passport to study at Queen's University in Kingston. While there he landed internships at a Canadian bank, Microsoft's Canadian division of marketing, and the Bank of Nova Scotia. Not long after moving to Canada he received a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania and transferred there. He earned an undergraduate degree in economics in 1995 and stayed a little longer to earn a bachelor's degree in physics. From there he transferred to Stanford to enter a PhD program for physics, Musk wasn't there for long. Two days after joining the program, he left to become a part of the new internet boom. One of the reasons Elon Musk is a hero because he is a humanitarian; A humanitarian is someone who devotes their time and money to make the world a better place. Elon hasn't just devoted some of his time to make the world a better place, almost everything that he does is devoted to making the world a better place. Elon also is a hero for being a visionary. A visionary is someone who possess the ability to see what people will want in the future before even they know they want it. It's a great trait to have, especially when one becomes successful. It inspires others to believe in their own ideas even though some may doubt and contradict them. Elon Musk is a visionary and a humanitarian and, therefore, an inspiration to me and others.

Elon Musk has spent the last decade dedicated to his humanitarian works, making the world a better place. A couple examples of his humanitarian work include such companies as Paypal, which is bringing how we use money into the 21st century, SpaceX which has been working on making rockets cheaper and more reusable, and Tesla which has been popularizing the electric car industry. And, finally, SolarCity which is bringing solar energy in the mainstream marketplace. Musk is "...the guy behind PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, SolarCity and a few other innovative attempts at making impact on a global scale" (An, Srikanth). Elon musk is a part of so many amazing companies that have as their main goal the plan to change the planet for the better. Tesla is changing the electric car industry, popularizing the electric car, which will in the future bring down carbon emissions. The Solar company he is a part of has become the biggest solar provider in the country with the goal of reducing the price of solar energy, providing a cleaner source of energy and helping the earth recover from a coal reliant society. His Space exploration company, SpaceX has the goal of making rockets reusable and cheaper. This will make space exploration more attainable, leading to more discoveries that will change the world as we know it.    Out of the four companies mentioned, Elon founded only Paypal and SpaceX. He joined Tesla and SolarCity because he saw the impact that they could have on the world and wanted to help keep them going. Tesla started as an idea from Silicon Valley engineers and Elon saw how it could innovate on previous electric car company's failures and bring electric cars into the limelight, so he joined in. SolarCity is a solar company that Elon bought into as a chairman so he could be a part of a company that would bring solar energy into the mainstream market. Elon's goals are merged into his companies. For instance, one of Musk's goals is to provide clean energy to Americans, so he got involved in the biggest solar provider in the nation. He wanted a way for people to get around while not killing the earth, so he got involved with Tesla Motors, an electric car company. He wanted to make rockets reusable and cheaper, so he founded SpaceX. "'Our goal is to reduce the cost of solar so that everyone can adopt clean power.' ... Musk announced via the Tesla Web site that he was releasing all of Tesla's patents to the public to promote the advancement of electric vehicle technology...The fundamental issue was reliable, low-cost access to space. Musk hoped that by severely cutting the cost of space travel, his business model--quite different than most space agencies and companies to date--would succeed" ("Elon Musk.").    All of Elon's companies are focused on changing the world. SolarCity is making clean energy more affordable for a cleaner environment. Tesla recently released all their electric car patents to further other car industries electrical divisions diversifying the electric market which will lead to a bright future for the world. And SpaceX, SpaceX is revolutionizing space travel as we know it. When the company's goal is met, society as a whole will benefit from cheap and reusable rockets, space exploration will never be the same. Elon didn't just invest in these companies to be seen as a humanitarian, he actively works with these companies to improve their business models so that they are more effective and useful to humanity. He didn't just buy into the humanitarian title, he works for it. Musk doesn't just donate his money, he dedicates his time and money for humanitarian causes even though many don't see it that way.

Elon Musk is a visionary amongst the likes of Steve Jobs, Sir Richard Branson, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page. Elon's Visionary companies started in the mid 90s with Zip2, an online yellow book for businesses. After selling off Zip2, Elon decided to change how we interact with money and introduced X.com which eventually became Paypal. People have doubted Elon along the way, but it seems to usually work out. "'Whatever skeptics have said can't be done, Elon has gone out and made real. Remember in the 1990s, when we would call strangers and give them our credit-card numbers? Elon dreamed up a little thing called PayPal. His Tesla Motors and SolarCity companies are making a clean, renewable-energy future a reality...his SpaceX's reopening space for exploration...it's a paradox that Elon is working to improve our planet at the same time he's building spacecraft to help us leave it'"(An, Srikanth). Elon Musk has the same ability that made Steve Jobs famous. He sees something and knows people would want it before even they know they want it. That is what makes a true visionary, and true visionaries are the ones who change the world. Look at what his companies have done. He helped make electric cars more sexy, effectively making the electric car industry grow. He bought into the biggest solar production company to make clean energy a household need. He founded a company to make space travel more affordable. Visionaries also don't just introduce an amazing product to change lives forever, visionaries come in and change the culture that surrounds the product. Elon is a visionary because the companies that he is a part of do exactly that, they change our culture.. Paypal and Tesla are great examples of this. Paypal changed how we buy and sell things by making it safe to spend money from the comfort of your desk. Tesla revived the electric car industry by making electric cars desirable and by not keeping their patents to themselves. One of Musk's biggest visionary gambles was SpaceX, a company he founded in 2002 to make rockets cheaper and reusable. A safer but still risky decision was Tesla Motors. "Never one to rest on his laurels, Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, in 2002 with the intention of building spacecraft for commercial space travel. By 2008, SpaceX was well established, and NASA awarded the company the contract to handle cargo transport for the International Space Station... Another Musk venture is Tesla Motors, a company dedicated to producing affordable, mass-market electric cars. Five years after its formation, the company in 2008 unveiled the Roadster" ("Elon Musk."). SpaceX was founded back in 2002 by Musk himself when he looked at the space industry as a whole and wondered why space exploration came to a screeching halt. When he dived deeper into the question, he figured out that rockets were too expensive and not reusable, so going into space didn't happen unless it was necessary. So, he set out on a goal to make a new generation of rockets that are cheaper and more reusable. With that goal in mind, he founded SpaceX and since then has been steadily hitting those goals. Other people looked at Musk and doubted that he would hit his goals and thought that his vision was just too out there to be obtainable. Musk proved them wrong and keeps doing so time and time again. Tesla was the egg project of some Silicon Valley Engineers that started gaining steam in the early 2000s. When they crossed paths with Musk, Musk saw its potential and joined in on the ground floor in 2004. From that point Tesla went into overdrive trying to create a working prototype. After several years and a few failed launch dates, the company launched their first car in 2008. The Tesla Roadster, an electric car that could go 0-60 in 5.7 seconds and had a 220-240 mile range on a single charge. It was revolutionary at the time. No one had ever done it before. No one had ever made a sporty electric car. This visionary car changed the electric car stigma for the better. Elon Musk, time and time again uses his visionary powers to change our culture for the better.

"When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor" (Elon Musk). Musk is an inspiration to me and others for his visionary ideas and his humanitarian work. Elon Musk is a humanitarian and a visionary because the companies that he is a part of are moonshots and are changing the world for the better. One of Elon's best qualities that everyone can learn from is that there aren't many things that are impossible. In a world where people are shot down and called stupid for their ideas Elon is the perfect inspiration to show that nothing is impossible. "A hero is somebody who is selfless, who is generous in spirit, who just tries to give back as much as possible and help people" (Debi Mazar).

Work Cited

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