Billionaire's mom Ilona Mask told how she helped her son get rich
'16.07.2017'
Source: Womo
Elon Musk is one of the most successful inventors and engineers of our time. He is the founder of companies PayPal, SpaceX, the main ideological inspirer Tesla. In the ranking of billionaires magazine Forbes in 2016, his fortune was estimated at $ 10,7 billion. His mother, the famous model and nutritionist May Musk, has largely influenced his career success. Womo.
Though she says that she never helped Ilona, that he achieved everything himself, she, of course, is cunning, since it was her upbringing that influenced the worldview of the future billionaire.
May Musk is 68 years old. She still appears in major brand advertising campaigns, leads an active social life, and also gives lectures on healthy eating around the world.
And yet she is the mother of three children and the grandmother of ten grandchildren. In addition to Ilona, she has a son Kimball, who owns a chain of restaurants The Kitchenand daughter Tosca is a Hollywood film director and producer. It seems that success is a matter of course for May and her children, but the road to it was thorny.
Five works overnight
Model began her career in 15 years, and since then she has not stopped working.
"I had to study well to prove that I was not stupid, because many people are so used to thinking about models."
May carried books with her everywhere and kept the habit of constantly reading - even on a bicycle during a workout.
In 1989, she moved from South Africa to Canada, Toronto with her children. In order to somehow make ends meet, Mei worked simultaneously on five jobs. She got a job at the University of Toronto, so that children study for free, led model courses and workshops on healthy eating, and also worked as a nutritionist. The children didn’t mess around either: Tosca worked after work in a shop after school, and Ilona’s mother helped to settle in Microsoftwhere the husband worked her colleagues.
“The first thing we did when I received a salary was to buy a carpet on the floor to sit on it. “We didn't have any furniture,” says May. - And from the next they bought Ilona a computer. So he was sitting at the computer right on the floor. ”
Secrets of parenting
“My children know me as a person who worked very hard. They themselves are workaholics, ”says Musk.
She never read notations to them, but by personal example she showed how difficult the path to success was. At the same time, May assures that their success is entirely their merit, but not hers.
“I never helped my children. I worked too hard and hard, they achieved everything themselves. ”
In 1995, Ilon and Kimball launched a software company. Zip2. May supported the sons' desire to become successful entrepreneurs. She tried to help them with the business, including helping to draw up a business plan, and once even made a presentation with them for investors until two in the morning.
“We were so tired that day that when we went to the best restaurant in Palo Alto, I said:“ This is the last time I pay for our dinner. ” Since then, I have never really paid for them. ”
Mother investor
In 1996, Musk invested all her savings - $ 10 000 - into a company of sons Zip2so that they can pay for office rent and other necessary things. In 1999, a software manufacturer bought the company Compaq for $ 307 million, Ilon earned $ 22 million. Mei jokes that this was her best investment.
The Musk children have achieved a lot. Kimball develops eight restaurants The Kitchenbesides, he is on the board of companies Tesla Motors, SpaceX and snack bars Chipotle Mexican Grill. He launched the Learning Gardens project. Learning gardens in the 200 poor schools in the US, where children can grow fruits and vegetables and take them home. Tosca shoots a film that will soon appear on the screens. Well, Ilon Musk is known as a successful engineer, entrepreneur, inventor and investor.
About his son, who is making a revolution in the world of technology, May says:
“I was a nerd, and Ilon was a super botanist. I told him once that in my class there was no one who knew math better than me. And he laughed because he knew mathematics even better than me. ”
Most of all, she wanted her children to learn to work hard, because the work, in her opinion, makes a person happy and does not allow her to grow old.
“The more you work, the more successful you become.”
When Mei was 50 years old, her children did not have money for expensive gifts, and not for expensive ones either. Instead, they gave her one promise:
"They gave me a small toy house and a small toy machine the size of a matchbox and said:" Someday we will buy you real ones. And, of course, they kept their promise.
On the question Huffington Post about what Ilon learned from his mother, she replied: "I hope that he adopted my views on life."
According to her, Ilon does not need yachts and expensive things, because he lived in difficult economic conditions.
“The goal of Ilona is to use the knowledge of physics to make this world a better place. People think that they are driven by a mercenary motive. But it is not. And it really upsets me when people talk about their son: “Oh, he just wants to earn more.” No, money was never important to him. He is simply obsessed with his idea. ”
