S-P-A-C-E X: Elon + Musk = Moxie

https://medium.com/moxietalk-with-kirt-jacobs/musks-moxie-may-save-the-world-b9ff8c6b90ee

If you’ve seen Iron Man or any of the other recent Marvel action movies, you’ve seen the moxie of Elon Musk.

The big-thinking, slightly enigmatic, wildly successful serial entrepreneur inspired the screen interpretation of Tony Stark, the wealthy genius engineer who jets around saving the world encased in a fantastical suit that imbues him with all superpowers.

Moxie can sometimes save the world.

Like the character he inspired, Elon Musk wants to save the world. He made his fortune in the tech boom of the early 2000s, spinning up companies that got snatched up by other, more prominent companies. One of his earliest successes was creating the company that eventually became PayPal.

He’s plowing the fortune he made on those deals into his passion for changing where we can go and how we can get there. And for Musk, not even the sky is the limit.

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 “to enable humans to become a spacefaring civilization and a multi-planet species by building a self-sustaining city on Mars.” Why does he want to put people in space? He’s concerned that we’re rapidly destroying the planet and will eventually make it uninhabitable. Mars may be our only hope.

Elon Musk talks about his SPACE X endeavors.

If the space thing doesn’t work out, he’s got another angle. Musk is also the founder of Tesla, working to put electric cars within everyone’s reach. If he can’t contact us in space, maybe electric cars will at least slow the destruction of this planet.

When encountering exciting and successful people, I often wonder what they were like as children. How did this fascinating person get their start? Was it clear from the beginning that this person was unique or different?

Elon Musk touts one of his Tesla creations

In the case of Elon Musk, the answer is yes.

He was a dreamer then, and he still is.

As a child, he frequently disappeared into his world, staring into the distance and not communicating. His parents were concerned about the episodes until they realized he was imagining and creating in his head.

He was bullied as a kid.

Elon was a genius as a child and entered school early. As the youngest, smallest, and most innovative in his class, he was the odd man out and endured harsh bullying throughout his school career. In one ruthless episode, he was thrown down a flight of stairs and beaten so severely that he lost consciousness.

I wonder how those bullies are doing now? It is unlikely that they have achieved anything near the success of their victim.

This particular apple did not fall far from the tree. Musk comes from a long line of big thinkers, risk-takers, and overachievers. His great-grandmother was Canada’s first chiropractor. His father was a pilot, sailor, and engineer, and his mother was a nutritionist and model who, at the age of 69, became the face of Cover Girl cosmetics. Musk grew up steeped in a family culture that valued adventure exploration and challenge, giving him a head start in pursuing his own big ideas.

Some people are born with MOXIE!

Some people are molded with MOXIE!

In Elon’s case, both may be true.