Screengrab from a 2008 video of Elon Musk.
Elon Musk may be one of the richest men on Earth today, but things were different 13 years ago. There was a time when he was broke and had to live off loans from friends. In 2008, Mr Musk invested all his money into his companies — Tesla and SpaceX. It was the same year when the global economy crashed and Tesla had a hard time, almost running out of cash. Mr Musk has previously said 2008 was the "worst year" of his life - Tesla was losing money. A new video of Mr Musk has surfaced from those days. A Twitter page named Tesla Silicon Valley Club posted the video where Mr Musk explains the situation in an interview.
The tweet was captioned, “Elon Musk discussing electric vehicles in 2008 as Tesla was nearly out of cash.”
In the video, we see Mr Musk explaining the working of his company in an interview. “The important point here is that when you have new technology, it takes time to optimise that technology,” he said while talking about Tesla's high-end Roadster and other luxury sports cars.
Mr Musk also said how the company did not benefit from dividends and “every penny” went into the development of other technologies in the company. The video also shows Mr Musk claiming that he received only a “minimum wage” and worked as a “volunteer basically”. "The critical point is you can't get to the low-cost cars unless you start with the expensive ones," he said.
The video had received 2.6 million views so far. It caught Mr Musk's attention, and he replied, “Wow, 13 years ago.”
Shibetoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Dogecoin, commented on Mr Musk's tweet. Nakamoto wrote, “13 years ago I was doing pretty decent damage as a shadow priest in WoW but I think you accomplished more back then.” Mr Musk has time and again supported Dogecoin, a popular altcoin in the world of cryptocurrency.
A user named Mr Whale commented, “So much accomplished in such short time, I can't wait to see what the next decade looks like.”
Likewise, other users praised Mr Musk's journey with Tesla. One user commented, “What a life you've lived so far! Imagine where you'll be in 13 years.”
Another user praised his "vision" and "clarity".
More praise filled the comments section. One other user wrote, “Saluting you for your unwavering dedication and contributions to this planet, and beyond.”
So, what do you think of Mr Musk's journey? Tell us in the comments below.
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