How Elon Musk Is Going To Single-Handedly Change The World We Live In Today
Elon Musk, for those of you who don't know, is one of the biggest game changers and innovators the world has been blessed with. Of course, you have the Steve Jobses of the world, the Richard Bransons and the Bill Gates, but who's next? There’s always someone ready to claim a spot amongst the greats, and one of the first names to come to mind is Mr. Musk. At the age of 28, he managed to start a little tech company that you may have heard of, it has something to do with payments done through the internet -- oh yeah, PayPal, a company that sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.
Elon is currently 42, young and ambitious, he’s an engineer and a serial entrepreneur who is looking to change the way we see the world today. He went on to start SpaceX, the company that managed to launch the first rocket into space. And now he’s focused on one of his most game-changing endeavors yet, he is the founder and CEO of Tesla motors, which produces electronic cars that can most likely smoke any super car you can think of.
Musk had the innovative spirit from very early on, even before he co-founded PayPal, which was known as X.com back then. In 1995, Elon made the bold move of dropping out of Stanford after just two days of classes to start his own company -- a move we commend him for. The company was known as Zip2 Corporation, which was one of the first ever online city guides.
In just a few short years, he had an exit, after his company was bought for $307 million dollars, in which he took home 22 million, after venture capital and dilution. Then he decided to tackle a global payment system, which is now used for the majority of online transactions around the world -- and the rest was history. Here is how Elon Musk plans on changing the world even more:
He wants everyone to be driving electronic cars
Think about how much this would help the world. And then think about how much this will help yourself – essentially, you’d never have to pay for gas again nor deal with fluctuating prices. Then also think about how much cleaner the world would be if we stopped polluting it with these toxic emissions, which are caused by cars discharging used gasoline. And now imagine how many corrupt countries that depend on America to support their oil trades will suffer and will potentially be forced to move away from corruption. The electronic car will change the world and Elon Musk is the one doing it.
In 2004, he co-founded the company Tesla whose main goal was to create an affordable, sexy electronic car. He got into the business because he said no one else wanted to do it and because it seemed like too crazy of a move for someone to take on the politics of the oil giants. Nevertheless, he did so anyways. After almost 10 years of not being able to turn a profit, this past March, the company finally turned all of this around, announcing its first profit ever of 11 million dollars of the quarter.
For the full year of 2013, it expects to deliver about 21,000 cars and this is all thanks to the widely popular and sexy Tesla Model S, which looks just as good as any other high priced Sedan on the street and can actually smoke a Porsche 9/11 from 0 to 60 -- and is all powered by electricity, something most of the car companies in Detroit deemed impossible.
If Elon keeps making headway with this and continues to find ways to make the electronic car more affordable, keeping it just as sexy, with more charging stations across the country, this could be the future of driving. Recently, it has been announced that there will be enough charging stations across the U.S. to allow someone to drive from NY to San Francisco.
We may soon be living on Mars because of Elon
Musk also co-founded a company known as SpaceX, which is leading the way with space travel for private clients. This company plans on building the first breakthrough reusable orbital rocket. This single invention that Elon has been working on for 11 years will allow humanity to expand to the stars and eventually be able to live on Mars, his ultimate goal.
In a recent interview, Elon said, "Either we spread Earth to other planets, or we risk going extinct," he said." An extinction event is inevitable and we’re increasingly doing ourselves in." Musk has been advocating to explore the universe more and even announced last year that he is building an 80,000-person colony on Mars. He plans on making this journey to Mars possible with flights back and forth from Earth, which would be affordable. The special thing about his reusable rocket that he is working on is that the cost of fuel is only about 0.2% of the cost of the rocket.
Musk said that he would ideally start with a crew of about 10 people, who would build the infrastructure necessary to support larger amounts of brave pioneers willing to brave its harsh atmosphere and high levels of radiation for science. And this would be a one-way trip according to Elon.
Traveling by Hyperloop tubes that can get you from New York To San Francisco in 45 minutes
Elon Musk has developed the concept for a high-speed tube transportation system that could take people from San Francisco to Los Angeles in a matter of minutes and to the East Coast from the West Coast in under an hour. The actual tube train itself will be called the Hyperloop. Speaking to Yahoo!, Musk described the system as a “cross between a Concorde, a rail gun, and an air hockey table.”
Each car would be the size of an automobile and contain six passengers. For longer journeys across the continent, the Hyperloop can reach speeds of up to 4,000 miles per hour. Many have said that this is an impossible feat to come by, but impossible hasn't stopped Elon before. He even announced yesterday that on August 12, he will be debuting the plans for the Hyperloop and how it would actually work.
If Elon can actually get this to work, it would take him more than $70 billion dollars to make it happen, as the cost for something of this nature would be out of this world. Just think about building a tube that would stretch from New York to San Francisco, two cities that are 3,200 miles apart from each other. The best part about it is that he plans for the Hyperloop to run on a hybrid technology. With an innovation of this nature, Musk could potentially destroy the railroad business and change the way we travel forever -- not having to depend on the high priced tickets these airlines are handing out.
Making our homes run on solar energy
Musk’s cousins run SolarCity, Musk invested some of his own money and is currently Chairman. The goal of SolarCity is “to make solar power as affordable and widespread as possible.”
Musk compares SolarCity to Dell. SolarCity, like Dell, buys the parts (they’re not a supplier) and then provides them to businesses. Dell doesn’t build the hard drive, CPU, motherboard, etc. SolarCity doesn’t build solar panels. It assembles and maintains them.
So how has SolarCity done in its 7-year existence? Pretty well. In 2011, Musk said:
“SolarCity is now the largest provider of solar powered systems in the country.”
He hopes to make the world run on more efficient energy and get people’s homes integrated with solar energy rather than having to depend on the expensive sources of energy we currently have now.
Creating a supersonic electronic jet
And last, but not least, we have the most ambitious plan of this innovator and game changer: the super sonic electronic jet. Musk also mentioned his electric plane idea in an interview at the Churchill Club earlier this year, which you can find below. To be able to pull something off of this nature would quite possibly be the biggest innovation our generation would be able to see.
It is quite evident that Elon Musk is a man with an innovative mind that respects no barriers and is never afraid to test the limits the world sets in front of him. These are the type of people that are remembered forever, as they are the ones that do change the world because when everyone says something is impossible, it seems like Elon rises to the occasion and proves them wrong.
Photos via Digital Journal
