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35 Reasons Elon Musk Is The Most Badass CEO In America
Tesla Motors is riding high right now.
Its Model S sedan is among the safest cars on the road. Its Supercharger network is rapidly expanding across the country.
In 2013, it was the most searched automaker on Google.
At the helm is CEO Elon Musk, the South African-born self-made billionaire who is also the CEO of private space venture SpaceX, the chairman of sustainable energy company SolarCity, and the father of five young boys.
Musk is the inspiration for the Tony Stark character of the "Iron Man" movies. He knows how to have a good time when he's on top, and doesn't hold back when he's criticized.
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Elon Musk is America's most badass CEO, and these photos prove it.
Elon Musk is only 41, and he's worth $6.7 billion, according to Forbes.
[Source: Forbes]
Elon Musk is the American dream. Born in South Africa, Musk moved to Canada and then the United States.
Musk's first big success was PayPal, which he helped create. eBay bought the company for $1.5 billion in 2002.
[Source: CNET]
After making a fortune selling PayPal, he didn't just quit to take things easy, he launched A PRIVATE SPACE COMPANY.
And if that wasn't enough, he bet his future on electric cars.
Oh, and because cars and space aren't enough, Musk is also involved with SolarCity, a solar energy company.
This summer, Musk revealed the Hyperloop, his idea for a transportation system that could send people from San Francisco to Los Angeles in half an hour, using pressurized tubes. Then he said he'd build a prototype himself if no one else does.
He spent $1 million to buy the Lotus submarine car used in the 1977 James Bond film "The Spy Who Loved Me." And no one was shocked when he explained, "What I'm going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real.”
Elon Musk has an adorable set of young boys with his first wife.
Elon Musk's second wife was gorgeous British actress Talulah Riley.
He hangs out with his younger brother Kimbal (right), a co-founder of nutritious food non-profit The Kitchen Community.
Even auto industry big-wigs like Bob Lutz hang out with Elon Musk.
Senators want to be photographed with him, too. Here he is with California's Dianne Feinstein.
And did we mention he toured Cape Canaveral with Barack Obama?
He shared a laugh with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda at a press conference announcing Toyota would take a $50 million stake in Tesla.
Look at the grin on the Toyota CEO's face when he's sitting in a Tesla Roadster given to him by Musk.
Elon Musk stares down robots.
Elon Musk rings opening bells.
On June 14, 2012, Musk celebrated the first successful mission by a private space company to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.
The next day, he spoke at the commencement ceremony at the California Institute of Technology. Students probably actually listened.
As CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, Musk splits his time between the Tesla office in Palo Alto and the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
He works between 80 and 100 hours per week. And he writes into his monitor.
[Source: Vator News]
He has his own 12-seat Dassault 900 private jet, like this one, to get around.
[Source: FlightAware.com]
Though Musk says he's naturally shy, he's become a master showman, making his innovations all the more appealing.
When he got annoyed with terrible traffic on California's I-405, he contributed $50,000 to an advocacy group working to improve the freeway.
In November, Motor Trend named the Model S its car of the year.
He took the opportunity to mock former presidential contender Mitt Romney, who called Tesla a loser during the campaign. Romney "was right about the object of that statement," Musk said, "but not the subject."
He goes to war against the media: When the New York Times ran a bad review of the Model S in February, Musk produced data from the test drive and said the article was 'fake.'
People are always interested in what he has to say. He spoke at South by Southwest in Austin this year.
He was among TIME's 100 most influential people in the world in 2013.
[Source: TIME]
He knows how to celebrate a victory — here he is at the Tesla factory when it started delivering the Model S.
He laughs off the competition. When asked in August by a Morgan Stanley analyst for his thoughts on BMW's electric i3, he giggled for a good ten seconds before saying, "I really do encourage other manufacturers to bring electric cars to market."
In October, The Atlantic hailed Musk as possibly the greatest inventor alive.
At the end of 2008, he fought through a near nervous breakdown to keep both Tesla and SpaceX alive when both nearly went bankrupt simultaneously. Rather than save one and let one die, he split all his remaining money between them, taking a risk and saving both.
All in all, it's easy to see why Musk is likened to playboy-inventor-superhero Tony Stark of the "Iron Man" films.
[Source: Time]
Musk wants to improve transportation as we know it.
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