埃隆·马斯克很像漫画里那个幻想成真的孩子。但不是以魔术师的身份。他是以工程师的身份做到的。

工程师是现实世界中最接近魔术师的存在。

马斯克的幻想，以及受这些幻想启发而创立的公司，正在改变我们的生活方式。

就像，这个人正在改变世界。

他在 23 岁时创办了自己的第一家公司，几年后以 3 亿美元将其出售。他通过 PayPal 帮助铺平了在线商业的道路。

他的目标是改变金融业。

他让太阳能变得负担得起，并推动电动汽车行业起步。

我们证明了，可以制造出真正吸引人、让人们确实想买的电动汽车。

而且他正在抢在 NASA 前面进军外太空。

埃隆·马斯克更进一步。有了 SpaceX，地球还不够大。他真的想去火星

而他仍然只有 40 岁。

他洞见未来并使其成为现实的方式令我敬畏。

他最大的资本，是能够把这个非常、非常宏大的梦想讲出来，并让其他人相信它是真的。

期间也有过挫折。

我们的银行账户里可能只剩大约够维持 1 周的现金，甚至更少。

他在公司最黑暗的时刻挽救了它。

没错，他也颇具争议。

这不过是电动汽车的宗教。而且就像琼斯镇一样，这个宗教终将走到尽头。

不过，尽管有这些批评者，马斯克从不羞于谈论自己的成就。

你知道，相比这辆车，Prius 简直是一头狂喝汽油的猪。

是的，他是媒体宠儿。

按 1 到 10 分来算，如果我买了这辆车，我会变得多性感？我的意思是，11 分。

这是他在电影《钢铁侠》中的镜头。他甚至还是影片主人公的原型。

对，电动喷气式飞机是个好主意。

你来做，然后我们会让它运转起来。

去把它弄来，鲍勃。

你可以消音。

我小时候真的很怕黑。

但后来我渐渐明白，好吧，黑暗其实只是意味着可见光波段中缺少光子，也就是 400 到 700 纳米。

埃隆的母亲，梅·马斯克。

然后埃隆说，黑暗只不过是光的缺失。

然后我想，嗯，害怕缺少光子实在很傻。从那以后，我就再也不怕黑了。

有一次，一个孩子对他说，看月亮。它在 10 亿英里之外。他说，嗯，不，实际上它离这里不到 250,000 英里。然后他们说，哦，埃隆，埃隆·马斯克

在南非长大，是 3 个孩子中的老大。他的父亲是工程师，母亲是模特和营养师。埃隆起步很早，提前 1 年开始上学。

他是最小的。他大约过了 2 天，而且是最矮的。然后他又是个聪明绝顶的男孩，所以人们不太喜欢他。

所以我就是个小书呆子，可能还有点自作聪明。所以这就是一场灾难的配方。

虽然他没有跟我多说，但他确实经常受欺负。

所以我就，像是，读很多书，在学校期间尽量避开别人。

所以他的社交生活比我另外 2 个孩子少得多。这就是典型的书呆子。

我读完了所有我买得起的漫画，或者书店在赶我走之前允许我看的漫画。从醒来到睡觉，我会阅读任何能拿到手的东西。有一阵子，我真的没书可读了，就开始读百科全书。

而且他有过目不忘的记忆力，所以他什么都能记住。每当我有问题时，我女儿托斯卡都会说，打电话给天才男孩。

他的弟弟，金巴尔·马斯克。

埃隆 10 岁时接受了 IBM 的测试，结果发现，他在计算机编程方面的天赋是他们见过的最高水平之一。

我试着上过一些计算机课程，但我远远领先于老师，所以并没有什么帮助。于是我开始编写一款名为 Blastar 的太空游戏。

马斯克那时已经像企业家一样思考，并想出了如何出售自己的游戏。

我觉得他们没有意识到。我当时 12 岁。

我们决定要在高中附近开一家游戏厅。我们非常痴迷电子游戏。我们认为它一定会大获成功。我们租下了一栋楼，让游戏机供应商送来了设备，到最后我们唯一需要做的，就是让市政府批准我们正在做的事。

但必须由成年人申请市政许可，而他们还没把自己在做什么告诉父母。

但当然，他们告诉我们，我们不能开游戏厅。

说真的，他童年时代最令人惊叹的事情，是他逃离南非。

我记得自己曾想过，也曾说过，与世界上任何其他国家相比，美国是更有可能成就伟大事业的地方。这话有点老套，但确实如此。美国是机会之地。

埃隆过来告诉我，他想去加拿大。他真正想去的是美国。由于我出生在加拿大，我可以恢复自己的公民身份，然后把它传给我的孩子。

马斯克想避免在南非军队服役，以及用他的话说，压迫黑人。

在实行种族隔离的南非长大，感觉相当超现实。我们不支持那个政府，也不认同它。所以，真正去服兵役这个想法完全不在考虑之列。

我告诉父母我要去加拿大，他们试图说服我不要离开。

然后他就飞走了。我心想，哇，他真独立。当然，他一落地就给我打电话，说，我现在该怎么办？

他抵达时身上没多少钱，也几乎没有任何前途可言。

所以我买了一张从蒙特利尔到温哥华的长途汽车票，这让我算是看了看加拿大，至少是从公路上看。

他在全国各地打零工，之后就读于多伦多的皇后学院。

事实上，我上大学时很少去上课。我只是读课本，然后到考试时露面。大学最吸引人的地方，是可以和与我同龄的女孩约会。实际上，我在那里遇到了我的第一任妻子。

贾斯汀·威尔逊是来自安大略省南部的英语专业学生。他们把结婚推迟了 10 年。马斯克依然梦想着抵达美国并改变世界。

我真的只想去那些真正激动人心的突破正在发生的地方。

他获得了宾夕法尼亚大学的工程和商科学位，以及前往斯坦福大学深造的奖学金。硅谷是非去不可的地方。

埃隆有这种能力，他审视世界，然后说，这是一个将在 20 年后真正出现的问题。

互联网、可持续能源，以及把生命延伸到地球以外，现在就是让生命成为多行星物种。其实我从没想过自己会有机会参与太空事业。所以，这并不是站在“这些就是我要做的事”的角度。而是从绝对意义上说，这些是我认为将对人类未来产生最大影响的事情。

马克斯·查夫金为《Inc.》杂志撰稿，并分别于 2007 年和 2010 年为马斯克撰写了人物专题。在与采访对象相处数周后，

他环顾四周，发现那些改变世界的事情并没有发生在斯坦福。

我甚至没有去上课。我给系主任打电话说，我想试着卖掉这家互联网公司。它很可能不会成功。所以等它失败时，我想确保自己仍然可以回来。

我的孩子们会做些有趣的事，而我从来不会太担心他们，因为，你知道，如果埃隆想从大学退学，他随时可以回去。

我的兄弟当时在加拿大，我说，听着，我觉得我们应该试着创办一家互联网公司。于是他南下加入了我。

他有 2,000 美元，没有朋友，钱勉强够租一套公寓。我记得他告诉我，他会去健身房洗澡，因为他住的地方没有一场演出。

我们在办公室里睡了 6 个月。

我们就弄来了一些。几吨东西，白天是沙发，晚上再变成床。

史蒂夫·尤尔根森是硅谷的一名风险投资家。

我第一次见到埃隆·N·金布尔·马斯克和他的弟弟，是在 90 年代中期，当时他们刚刚踏上加利福尼亚的土地。我想他们来这里大约 1 周了，当时正在推介一家名为 Zip2 的新公司。90 年代中期和 90 年代末期的硅谷是一场淘金热。人们蜂拥到这个地区寻找财富，想在互联网行业闯出名堂。

埃隆更像是商业策划高手。我更像是销售人员。

我仍然具备自己的核心编程技能，所以能够编写第一家公司所需的软件。

现在，要记住，埃隆创办 zip two 时，互联网才诞生几年。大多数本地商家都不在互联网上。而寻找本地商家的方式，就是翻开黄页。

1995 年，马斯克想出了一个让报纸进入数字时代的主意。埃隆拿来一张 CD rom、黄页和一些地图软件，写了少量代码，把它们整合在一起，创建了第一份在线城市名录。

当时的想法是，报纸之类的媒体公司将需要帮助，以便上线，并在网站中构建大量功能。

所以 Zip2 有点像我们现在所拥有的 Google 地图的早期版本。

真的有人把一本黄页扔向我们，并对我们说，你们觉得自己有朝一日能取代这个吗？我们觉得那个人疯了，因为我们不仅会取代它，而且事情不会到此为止。还会从那里继续发展下去。

没过多久，全国各地的媒体公司都纷纷签约。

于是，我们得以让纽约时报公司、赫斯特、奈特里特以及其他多家公司成为我们的投资者和客户。

1999 年，康柏旗下的 Alta Vista 部门以 3.07 亿美元现金和价值 3,400 万美元的股票期权收购了 Zip2。埃隆当时 28 岁。

我当时想，这太疯狂了。为什么会有人为我们这家小公司支付如此巨额的资金？实际上，显然，这后来为他们带来了非常可观的财务回报，所以他们对此的了解远比我多。

孩子们卖掉 2 的那天，是最令人兴奋的一天。我们简直不敢相信，因为在互联网世界里，你不知道自己会，你知道，赚到 100 万，还是明天就死掉。

1999 年，埃隆·马斯克在硅谷这个勇敢的新世界里卖掉了自己的第一家公司。他在 28 岁时成为了百万富翁。

软件被康柏以略高于 3 亿美元的价格收购。而我因此赚了，我想，大约 2,100 万或 2,200 万美元，对我来说这是一笔惊人的巨款。

这显然是一笔意外之财。出去买些很酷的玩具，特别有趣。

那是约翰，还有世界上最快的汽车。

他最先做的事情之一，就是出去买一辆大型跑车。他的家人非常喜欢赛车和车辆，他买下了当时金钱所能买到的最高性能汽车之一。那是一辆迈凯伦 F1，之后他就在湾区享受驾驶它的乐趣，可以说，他开车时经历了许多冒险，也犯下了错误动作。

虽然我相信，拥有这么多钱、得到人们对成功的认可，感觉一定很棒，但我认为他也感到沮丧，因为这家公司没有变得像他希望的那样伟大。它没有改变世界。它只是略微改变了报业历史的进程，我认为从他的角度来看，这算是一项微不足道的成就。

当时我当然可以选择退休，在某个地方买座岛，啜饮迈泰鸡尾酒，但我对此完全不感兴趣。

其实并不存在我们什么都不做这个选项。真正的问题只是我们接下来要做什么。尤其对埃隆来说，那其实只是一块垫脚石。

他非常富有。我的意思是，他拥有的钱比大多数人梦想的还多。而在那次出售与创办后来成为 PayPal 的公司之间，他几乎没有休息。

我创办第2家互联网公司的目标是。是创造一种能够产生深远影响的东西。在我看来，金融行业在互联网上并没有出现很多创新。而钱其实只是数据库中的一条记录。所以它所需的带宽很低。它似乎很适合进行创新。

马斯克的新公司创造了某种如今被我们视为理所当然的东西。它永远改变了全世界购买物品的方式，改变了资金从一个人转到另一个人的方式。

当时，交易非常缓慢。人们不得不相互邮寄支票。所以仅仅完成一笔交易就可能需要数周。

1999年3月，马斯克创办了 X.com，以实现电子现金转账。但他发现，一家竞争企业正在开发一种名为 Confinity 的类似技术。

他们当时确实在相互竞争。而归根结底，真正的敌人是 eBay。

为了有效对抗 eBay 的内置系统，我们合并了双方的力量。

他们将新公司命名为 PayPal。

当他看待 PayPal 时，他的目标并不是创建一个可供人们进行个人对个人付款的平台。他的目标是改造金融业。

我们得以成为世界领先的支付系统。然后 eBay 终于认输，收购了 PayPal。

2002年初，马斯克及其合伙人以15亿出售了 PayPal。当时仍只有30岁的马斯克从这笔交易中获得了约1.8亿美元。

我大概可以买下一连串岛屿，但还是那句话，显然我对此不感兴趣。

那么接下来呢？最后的疆域，太空。

他一直痴迷于此。就连他的电脑游戏 Blastor，讲的也是一艘宇宙飞船射击小行星和邪恶外星人。

如果我们能在那里探索群星，未来就会更加激动人心、鼓舞人心，而不是永远被困在地球上的那种未来。

他有一个看起来可能完全荒谬的想法，而他就是认定自己能够做到。

我当时在想，嗯，我们什么时候去火星，NASA 什么时候会去火星？然后我访问了 NASA 的网站，上面没有前往火星的计划，也没有真正达到、甚至迈出太空探索下一步的计划。

这是埃隆在说，他想要促成人类文明离开地球。这几乎是你所能想象到的最宏大的愿景。而这需要资金。他有足够的资金去做，所以他就要去做。

他有一个大胆得离谱的想法：一家私营企业实际上能够重新振兴太空旅行。2002年6月，他创办了太空探索技术公司，也就是 SpaceX。

公司创办后的最初几年，埃隆是唯一的出资人。这又是一次风险高得难以置信的举动：地球上没有人认为这个想法能够获得融资。我要自己为它提供全部资金，金额接近1亿美元，这在当时占据了他净资产的大部分，把钱投入到一个挑战军工复合体的梦想中。一名来自南非的移民来到美国拯救 NASA。就是你们用航天飞机做的那整套火箭事情。

我有一个更好的办法，让我们把这一切转向一种由我来制造的新设计。而且你知道，各个国家接二连三地失败，而这里却有一家初创公司试图在洛杉矶制造它们。

但洛杉矶并没有他需要的所有部件。

实际上，我曾3次前往俄罗斯，考察购买去掉核弹头的翻新洲际弹道导弹。去俄罗斯这件事很奇怪。你知道，就像一个不知哪儿冒出来的美籍南非人出现在莫斯科，想要购买翻新的洲际弹道导弹。我们去了莫斯科一些奇怪的地方，我不知道。我们去了一个看起来像是一个。反正我不知道他们在那里做什么。第3次行程结束后，我实际上已经对航天行业了解了更多。

而我得出的结论是，真正阻碍我们取得更大进展的是太空。其实是火箭从60年代起就没有进化过。

所以诀窍并不是弄清楚如何进入轨道，而是弄清楚如何以低廉的成本进入轨道。

所以，我必须想出成本更低的方法来生产发动机、主要结构和电子设备，开展发射操作，同时还要以极低的管理费用运营公司。而所有这些领域的发明加在一起，使我们的成本相比美国其他火箭实现了大约3至4倍的改善。

SpaceX 做得非常成功的一点，是采用基本上可以直接取用的技术，也就是 NASA 在50年前开发的东西，并对其进行精简。因此从这个意义上说，他有点像太空领域的亨利·福特，因为亨利·福特并没有发明汽车，他只是弄清楚了如何让汽车具备商业可行性。

但马斯克不只是一名企业家。

埃隆没有受过航空工程师的专业训练，然而他，他却有能力在那个特定领域取得巨大成功。

他深度参与产品架构、设计和工程，在 SpaceX 尤其如此，但他所有的公司都是这样。

如果你问埃隆他是怎样自学火箭科学的，他会非常严肃地看着你，然后非常轻声地说，我读了很多书。

32岁时，尽管仍然痴迷于火箭和跑车，马斯克却比以往任何时候都更致力于终结地球对化石燃料的依赖。他在家族每年参加火人节时萌生了下一个宏大构想。这场在沙漠中举行的反主流文化活动，是马斯克大家族钟爱的聚会地点，其中包括跟随埃隆兄弟俩从南非而来的2名表亲。他们还创办了几家自己的公司。

是我向我的表亲林登和彼得·赖特提出了进入太阳能领域的想法。

他有这么一个想法：我们要做太阳能电池板领域的戴尔电脑。我们要让任何人在自家屋顶安装太阳能电池板都变得非常、非常、非常容易。然后他基本上把这个想法交给表亲，说，如果你们想创办这家公司，我会给你们提供资金，它会是你们的公司，但我会担任董事长。他们答应了，而事情几乎完美地奏效了。

他们想明白的是，如果你在面向家庭业主的太阳能电池安装领域，把大约100件事情都改进10%，就能大幅整合这个目前由一大批夫妻店组成的行业。所以 SolarCities 的做法是，他们说，不如不用付首付吧，你想要太阳能电池，我们直接给你装上。

你一分钱都不用付。

对。

这就像租赁汽车，但甚至更划算。

公司仅在西部5个州开展业务，就成为了美国最大的太阳能服务提供商，每月安装500个新项目，并有可能让马斯克成为全美最大的绿色能源供应商。

太阳能电池会继续运行。租约结束后，这些设备归 SolarCity 所有。所以这是一种很吸引人的商业模式，长远来看，他们可能会凭借所有这些屋顶成为美国最大的能源生产商，可再生能源

只是第1阶段。聪明的第2阶段是 Tesla，首款切实可行的长距离全电动汽车。

他有这样一个想法，他想制造电动汽车，帮助人类摆脱化石燃料。

他发现，计算机工程师马丁·埃弗哈德和混合动力推进专家 JB·斯特劳贝尔也在各自独立地尝试制造电动汽车。

为了实现可持续能源的未来，我们必须同时实现能源生产和消费的可持续性。因此，SolarCity 关乎可持续能源的生产，而 Tesla 关乎可持续能源的消费。

2004年4月，马斯克用自己的630万美元帮助创办了Tesla。这是数十年来汽车行业的第一家初创公司，也是唯一一家诞生于硅谷的汽车初创公司。

而且其实很简单。就是，你知道，以较低产量生产一款高价汽车，因为那基本上是我们唯一负担得起的做法。然后第2步是以中等产量生产一款中等价位汽车，第3步是以较高产量生产一款低价汽车。

就像最早的手机或苹果电脑一样。Tesla决定先推出一款高端、高性能产品。然后，等所有人都想要一辆时，他们再让它变得人人都买得起。Tesla联合创始人兼首任首席执行官马丁·艾伯哈德。

我们希望能、能用这辆车改变人们对电动汽车的看法，并希望为我们销售其他电动汽车打开一个市场。但我们也知道，如果你一开始就说，让我们先改变人性，让每个人都去开糟糕的小车，那是行不通的。所以，我们反而要造一辆人们想开的车。让我们造一辆火辣、令人向往且漂亮的车，让人们相信，驾驶电动汽车并不是一种妥协。

真正着手把它装进一辆高端汽车，打破电动汽车过去那种、那种固有模式，这个想法令人兴奋。这不再会是一辆高尔夫球车。这会是一辆法拉利。

有警察在看吗？

没有。

我们第一次看到Tesla时，它很好地解释了他们如何在不必花费高得离谱的资金的情况下进入市场。他们将如何打造一个品牌，并在消费者心中创造一个渴望拥有的对象。这个故事的每一部分都衔接在了一起。

艾伦·昂斯曼是彭博新闻社的记者。

他谈到了硅谷的智慧。能够向底特律展示如何做到一件底特律认为不可能的事。

它的电池、驱动电子设备、电动机，这些都是硅谷具备而底特律不具备的技能。

Tesla的革命性技术始于用电脑电池作为汽车的动力来源。

第一次，行驶超过200英里成为可能，而且其性能可以与汽油车所能做到的直接相比、形成竞争。Tesla是第一家采用这些原理、将其付诸实践并进行尝试的公司。

电动汽车如果设计得当，关键全在于扭矩。这意味着，无论你以什么速度行驶，只要踩下去，动力就会立即到来。所以你可以踩下去，然后这车就猛冲出去。

州长侠本人出席了Tesla在2006年的亮相活动。

A试驾了这辆。

这很难。

他买了一辆。莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥和乔治·克鲁尼也买了。但马斯克能让普通消费者接受这个想法吗？电动汽车仍然存在形象问题。

当时，汽车行业在电动汽车方面几乎没有什么动静。我们正处于大型SUV的时代。所以，听说加利福尼亚州这家公司计划向市场推出一款高端纯电动跑车，多少有点不同寻常。

Tesla首席技术官J.B. 施特劳贝尔是电动动力总成的主要设计者。

我们非常热衷于努力确保这辆车会在技术能力方面直接发起挑战，并真正向全世界证明，电动汽车可以快得惊人，也可以拥有长得惊人的续航里程。这里面有一种冒险感，你知道，第一次做这些事情，而且用一种真正因陋就简的方式去做。在我们真正租得起一间像样的办公室之前，我们在我位于门洛帕克的车库里制作了最早的一批电池组。

对于Tesla而言，就像所有电动汽车一样，最大的问题一直是电池、它们的成本以及它们能用多久。埃里克·诺布尔是Car Lab的总裁，这是一家位于加利福尼亚州奥兰治、评估新型轿车和卡车的咨询公司。

美国消费者已经非常愿意接受纯电动汽车。不幸的是，纯电动汽车还没有准备好迎接美国消费者。

Tesla 最初的结果似乎印证了这一悲观预测。

Tesla，最初起步时，我们的想法很简单，现在回想起来，显然也相当幼稚，那就是利用莲花汽车的底盘，加上一些我们自行开发的技术，但我们会从 AC Propulsion 获得系统技术许可，把这些结合起来，打造一款有吸引力的电动跑车。那么看看，问题是从哪里开始的？

马斯克的团队告诉他，这款车可以用65,000美元造出来，但实际上仅原材料就要花费140,000美元。

当我们发现成本远高于预期时，那对我们来说是一段、一段非常令人沮丧的时期。

随着问题不断增多，马斯克在 Tesla 面临一个生死攸关的决定。他会任由公司垮掉，还是投入自己的积蓄，也就是他出售 PayPal 所赚得的1.6亿美元财富。这是一生中最大的一场豪赌。

到2007年，Tesla 的资金正迅速耗尽。没有人愿意站出来拯救这家未经验证的汽车初创公司。埃隆只能独自冒险一搏。

我们必须做出一些相当重大的改变，实质上是对公司进行资本重组，并投入大约相当于最初预期2倍的资金。我们真正预期的是上限。

埃隆看着这一切，说，梦想依然还在，但我的天啊，我现在面对的是什么？我必须控制住局面。

基本上，Tesla 到了这样一个地步：银行里的钱只够维持几个月，而且周围没有任何人愿意再投入更多资金。

我拿出全部储备资金投入 Tesla，这非常吓人，因为，你知道，如果我在 Zip2 和 PayPal 上的劳动成果最终化为乌有，显然会非常令人难过。但在我自己心里，我毫无疑问会这么做，因为 Tesla 太重要了。不能任其死去。我全天247都可以帮忙解决问题。星期天凌晨3点给我打电话。我不在乎。

我们不得不介入，并在人事变动方面做出一些非常艰难的决定。埃隆也确实必须把自己的时间投入公司。

我要点出名字。所以，如果某个人总是如坐针毡，而且始终是问题的根源，他们就不会是这个组织的一员。长期收入。不开心却还留在这家公司是不行的。如果有人无法开心起来，那就离婚。

马斯克及其董事会撤换了马丁·埃弗哈德，他是一直负责运营 Tesla 的联合创始人之一。

我认为，我们确实有些超出了埃弗哈特所能应付的程度。而这一点在2007年变得很明显。

我们要么必须关闭公司，要么埃隆·马斯克必须接任首席执行官。

实际上，这是一个既要打造公司、又要制造汽车的过程。你知道，很多在公司规模极小时非常适合公司的人，你知道，最后在公司规模扩大后，你知道，就没那么适合了。

埃伯哈德并未悄然离开。他以书面诽谤、口头诽谤和违约为由起诉了埃隆。

我认为，我被当成了替罪羊，来

为那些项目承担责任，而那些

运营得不好。

马斯克通过调解解决了争端，但他的公司陷入了严重的财务困境。2007年9月，马斯克飞往德国，计划通过与戴姆勒-梅赛德斯结盟来筹集额外资金。

戴姆勒是发明内燃机汽车的公司，也是梅赛德斯 Smart 的制造商。他们的认可分量极重。所以，那、那确实是一个非常重要的时刻。

他必须让这家公司相信，Tesla 能够为戴姆勒的汽车供应电池组。但他的 PowerPoint 演示彻底失败了。

实际上，与戴姆勒合作的关键是展示能够运行的硬件。

你知道，如果他们摸不到它，也开不了它。它就不算特别真实。

为了让德国人相信电动汽车的潜力，他要求团队为一辆戴姆勒 Smart 汽车改装 Tesla 的电动机。

将一辆 Smart 汽车改装成电动车的挑战难上加难，因为我们找不到 Smart 汽车。

Smart汽车不在美国销售。所以我们不得不派人去墨西哥买一辆Smart汽车，带、带一辆到美国，然后Smart汽车真的很小，所以我们不得不把电机、电力电子设备、充电器和所有东西都装进Smart汽车里。

这项挑战令人望而生畏。要用Tesla的传动系统和电池替换Smart汽车的汽油发动机，将其装入引擎盖下方的狭小空间，并且在不到4周内完成这一切。

我们根本没有多少时间。我们从一开始就知道这一点，于是有点像为战斗做准备，而且，你知道，在车间里设立了作战室。

他们夜以继日地工作，就在工厂地板上抽空打盹，一直干到最后期限。

戴姆勒的高管们来了，他们完全不相信与一家美国汽车公司合作有任何道理，更不用说是硅谷的一家小小的美国汽车公司了。

戴姆勒的高管去试驾了。他回来时，出现了突破。Tesla获得了一份价值7000万美元的合同，为Smart电动汽车制造电池。这让马斯克有信心开始制造一款价格具有竞争力的轿车。他称之为Model S。借鉴最初的Model T，他想要一辆既现代又性感的家用汽车。于是，他聘请了设计最新款阿斯顿·马丁的那个人；这款车正是詹姆斯·邦德在《皇家赌场》中的新座驾。

最初做Model S时，我们想，嗯，就让拥有一家设计工作室的亨里克·菲斯克来负责造型设计吧。说来也奇怪，我们为此付给了他一笔相当可观的钱。他所做的设计。他为我们做出来的那些设计糟透了。

而他没有告诉我们的是，他实际上正在筹办一家与我们竞争的汽车公司。

Tesla的官员声称，亨里克来这里或许是为了了解Tesla在做什么，而他一直都在计划成立自己的公司，制造自己的汽车。

我们对他相当恼火，因为他基本上拿走了当时Model S的原始规格，然后到处推销一份制造同一款汽车的商业计划。

Tesla起诉了他。他也起诉了Tesla，而且出现了各种各样的，你知道，内部争斗。

亨里克·菲斯克不愿接受彭博社的采访，但他告诉我们：“我相信，市场有足够的空间容纳数家秉持不同理念、追求新型电气化动力系统的新汽车公司。”2008年，法院裁定菲斯克胜诉。对马斯克来说，这是一次小挫折，却也是后来被证明为他人生中最艰难一年之开端。

无论在商业中找到合适的合作伙伴，还是在个人生活中找到合适的伴侣，都总是很困难，而且你并不总能作出正确的选择。

事实上，马斯克的个人生活也出了问题。他于2000年与贾丝廷结婚。他们有5个孩子，全都在2年内出生。后来这段婚姻破裂了。贾丝廷觉得马斯克总是把工作放在第一位。

我有一种被贬到次要位置、被冷落的感觉，而且，你知道，这有点像我所说的那种花瓶妻子的感觉。

贾丝廷在法庭上对马斯克提出的和解方案发起挑战，并将事情公之于众。

贾丝廷把她的故事讲给了《嘉人》杂志、英国《泰晤士报》，并写在了自己的博客上。

2011年3月29日，贾丝廷宣布，她接受了一项和解方案，金额比马斯克在她将他告上法庭之前提出的金额少1000万美元。

我离婚了。个人生活有些一团糟，除此之外还受到，你知道，媒体中一些人的攻击，我的前妻，各种你能想象到的坏事。

围绕这件事有各种疯狂的指控，你知道，还有从未得到证实的婚外情指控。

与此同时，马斯克的另一家公司SpaceX一直没能将火箭送入轨道。

他开始说，我的钱够尝试3次。他投入了自己的1亿美元，并且有点暗示说，3次之后，如果他没能成功，一切就结束了，SpaceX会死掉。

第一次发射没飞多远。升空了大约1分钟，然后发动机起火，就这样结束了。第2次飞行确实进入了太空，但没有进入轨道。然后第3次飞行，我们也没能完全进入轨道。

马斯克投入SpaceX的1亿美元已经全部烧光。现在他又要回到起点重新设计。

失败3天后，他首先宣布，他知道问题出在哪里。他宣布他们已经筹到资金来资助第4次发射。而第4次发射将在几个月内进行，这在火箭行业是一个疯狂的声明。

我们得以解决那些问题，而就在我们刚刚解决这些问题时，我们一头撞上了自大萧条以来最严重的经济衰退。

这是近期华尔街最黑暗的日子之一。股市创下自9 11以来最大跌幅。道琼斯指数下跌超过500点。

这就是金融末日的样子。满屏红色都在尖叫：卖出，卖出，卖出。

这是震撼了华尔街乃至全世界的一周。

道琼斯指数出现了有史以来最大的点数跌幅，下跌略多于777点。3个7。

以及意识到经济可能

仍将走向更深的衰退。

随着2008年接近尾声，马斯克面临着职业生涯中最严重的危机。他的3家公司似乎都在急速下坠。

最糟糕的时刻可能就是2008年圣诞节前的那个周末，我们遭遇了经济海啸，让情况雪上加霜。如果它不是必需的，我们就不得不把它关掉，然后，然后设法弄清楚，在这个股票时期，我们该如何挺过去而不破产？

在高盛因一项而将这家汽车制造商的评级下调至卖出后，通用汽车股价跌至20多年来的低点

随着销售前景恶化，马斯克被迫裁掉近三分之一的员工，并关闭Tesla在底特律的分部。

那很艰难。那是，那显然是一个见证了通用汽车和克莱斯勒破产的经济时期。而我们是一家年轻的公司，销售一种非常、非常可有可无的汽车。我的意思是，人们确实不需要100,000美元的跑车。

但事情还会变得更加艰难。他的能源公司SolarCity陷入困境。曾为他们的租赁业务提供支持的银行退出了这笔交易。

我当然没有预料到，我们会遭遇大萧条以来最恶劣的经济环境。萧条，而且这次对汽车行业格外不利。我的意思是，通用汽车破产了。我的意思是，通用，通用F和汽车。

你知道，马斯克当时正经历一生中最艰难的战斗。

我们银行里的现金可能只够维持大约1周，甚至更短。而那一年剩下的时间已经很少，几乎来不及解决这些、这些事情。我的意思是，那一年只剩下大概2或3个工作日。我从没想过自己可能会出现护士崩溃，但如果我可能在那里出现护士崩溃，那大概就是我最接近崩溃的一次。

他告诉我，他会在半夜醒来，枕头上满是泪水，那一定令人不安和恐惧。我认为那是一段黑暗的时期

当埃隆经历那段悲伤时期时。我非常难过。我感觉心里像破了一个洞，而你什么也做不了。你就是痛苦极了。而且我看不到他能从中走出来。他就是那么悲伤。然后紧接着，我接到这个电话，他说，妈，你不会相信的。我遇到了一位很棒的女性。

塔露拉·莱莉是一位英国女演员，她首次出演的电影是《傲慢与偏见》和《海盗电台》。

我觉得，埃隆当时过得糟透了。你的事业和个人生活都只是天赋。

那在那个时期，确实是一段非常艰难的时期。我和前妻刚刚申请离婚，而我碰巧在伦敦，我的朋友威尔硬把我拉去了一家俱乐部，然后塔露拉的一位朋友

在他们见面之前，也把她硬拉去了同一家俱乐部。她从未听说过Tesla、SpaceX或埃隆·马斯克。

我以为那是某个误闯伦敦俱乐部的倒霉工程师。而且他看起来非常凄凉。他就那样坐在角落里摆弄他的BlackBerry，看起来真的格格不入，而且很悲伤。我当时，你知道，努力对他表现得非常温柔，有点迁就他，说，哦，是的。当时他在说，这是我的火箭，还有，你知道，这是我的汽车。

那些全都是真的。她是在父亲用Google搜索埃隆·马斯克时得知这一点的。

我们一起在伦敦待了4天，算是四处闲逛，做些非常刺激的事。然后他回了美国。我去了西西里拍照片。之后他给我发短信说，来美国吧。所以我说，好吧，我会来的，你知道，忙完这个我会休息一下。我刚拍完一部电影。于是我去度了7天假。而他在那7天结束时向我求婚了。这是一种奇怪的恋爱开始方式，但我们彼此说过，我们见过对方最最糟糕的样子，你知道，可即便如此，我们的爱还是设法逐渐加深，并且每天都在继续加深。

马斯克的个人生活正在好转，但他的公司命运仍悬而未决。

当时我不得不作出选择：要么拿出我将PayPal卖给eBay后剩下的全部资金，投入Tesla，要么Tesla就会死掉。

公司确实正在失败的边缘摇摇欲坠。2008年末召开了一场董事会会议，会上他们讨论接下来会发生什么。埃隆直接说，好吧，我要筹集一轮4000万美元的融资，让公司继续运转。董事会成员都有些疑惑，好吧，他打算怎么做到？然后他说，我要自己把钱全投进去。

而他确实这么做了。马斯克亲自承诺再提供4000万美元，以避免公司倒闭。他对Tesla的总投资将达到7500万美元。

而那种令人难以置信、近乎自吹自擂的自信，促使人们的看法发生了变化。我们以及桌边的其他所有人都在想，我的天啊，我们想参与其中。我们想尽可能多地投入这项投资。他以一种难以形容的英勇行为，在公司最黑暗的时刻拯救了它。没有什么能与把自己仅剩的最后1美元花在你所相信的一个项目上相提并论。

谢天谢地，那是不错的一周，但从精神压力的角度来看，它无疑造成了损耗。而精神上的间隙就这样烧坏了几条电路。

就在马斯克把自己最后的4000万投入Tesla时，他意识到还需要另外2000万美元来拯救他的火箭公司SpaceX。尽管他的前3次发射都失败了，马斯克仍然相信自己的技术。SpaceX的命运将取决于他的下一枚火箭Falcon 9。

3，2，1，第1级，升空。

在全世界的注视下，他们首次尝试从卡纳维拉尔角发射Falcon 9。第1次尝试就取得了彻底的成功。

Falcon 9已经越过发射塔。

SpaceX的第1次成功发射是一个令人无比激动的时刻。SpaceX的团队为完成这件不可能的事努力了6年，而他们成功了，引擎关闭。

Falcon 9、第2级和龙飞船太空舱现在正处于环绕地球的轨道上。

所以SpaceX是第1个从零开始、完全由商业开发并进入轨道的项目。

其他公司需要20到30年才能完成的事，我们用6年就做到了。

鉴于马斯克在成本和效率方面取得的突破，NASA向SpaceX授予了一份价值16亿美元的空间站服务合同。

所以，SpaceX开发的、将取代航天飞机的系统由2个部分组成。一部分是我们的Falcon 9，也就是火箭；另一部分是我们的龙飞船，它会被送入轨道，然后机动前往空间站，投下几滴货物，再返回地球。

马斯克最初投入了自己的1亿美元，而自与NASA达成协议以来，SpaceX已经筹集了超过8亿美元的外部资本。SpaceX的发射清单上有40次发射任务。自从去俄罗斯寻找火箭的实地考察以来，马斯克已经走了很远。

在2009年。凭借SpaceX取得的巨大成功，马斯克召集他的核心投资者，让Tesla继续运营。为了不重蹈覆辙，他专注于让自己的家用汽车成为现实。

所以我说，听着，我们确实需要有自己的设计工作室。就在那时，我聘请了弗朗茨·冯·霍尔茨豪森来设计Model S。他的

绿色议程对冯·霍尔茨豪森有着无法抗拒的吸引力，2008年7月，他把冯·霍尔茨豪森从马自达挖了过来。他是汽车设计界的传奇人物，此前已经彻底革新了大众、通用汽车和马自达的外观。

他满怀热情，真的想让世界摆脱这种对化石燃料的成瘾，作为。而那是他从第一句话、从我们的第一次谈话起就谈到的事情。

随着新团队就位，马斯克彻底改造了这款车型的外观

S，轿车不必像块砖。它不必是一辆又大又方正的汽车。我们希望把这种激情和感受带回这个市场。Model S的架构其实很像一块滑板。车辆的底板就是电池组，电机位于后轮之间，而其上方的一切都是可利用的空间。

2009年3月，马斯克发布了Model S的原型车，它可容纳7名乘客，载运行李的能力与旅行车相当。但他知道，要制造它，自己至少需要获得美国政府新设立的250亿美元贷款计划中的一部分，该计划旨在支持替代能源汽车。

为了让Model S真正取得成功。你知道，这笔贷款获批很重要。

政府资助突然引发了争议。当《纽约时报》撰稿人兰迪·施特劳斯称该计划是向投资Tesla的极高、极高净值人士提供纾困的法案时，马斯克进行了反击。

兰迪的推力是个超级混蛋和白痴。

好吧，这不是纾困，而是一笔贷款。美国政府同意向Tesla贷款4.65亿美元，用于量产Model S轿车，此举令业内许多人震惊。

对Tesla的投资几乎不可能偿还给纳税人。电动汽车确实无法以对大多数消费者有效的方式实现。不过，这只不过是对电动汽车的宗教信仰，而像琼斯镇一样，那种宗教终将走向末日。

肯定有人希望看到Tesla失败，因为它是对主流汽车行业的攻击。

当然，Tesla 将产生的最大影响，并不是我们自己、它们自己制造的汽车，而是我们证明了，你可以制造出真正让人心动、让人们确实想买的电动汽车。

通用汽车前董事长鲍勃·卢茨迎接了这一挑战。

如果一家硅谷小型初创公司相信他们能造出一款具备商业可行性的电动汽车，难道我们通用汽车要坐在这里说，嗯，加利福尼亚的一个家伙能做到，但我们做不到吗？

较量开始了。卢茨将亲自督导 Volt 的上市，这是一款全新的雪佛兰电动家庭轿车，旨在与 Tesla 的 Model S 竞争。马斯克的成功在 2010 年延续，他推动 Tesla 上市，并于 6 月宣布首次公开募股。但这一举动也让质疑 Tesla 的人大批涌现。

事情真的变得很难看。我的意思是，他们翻出了离婚的事，翻出了 Tesla 过去的问题，还翻出了，你知道，埃隆的背景。

Tesla 股票被华尔街评为最不可能成功的股票。

你不会想持有这只股票，也不会想租赁它。

见鬼，你甚至都不会。

你甚至都不该租那该死的东西。我们在每一个转折点都让批评者大跌眼镜。所以到了一定时候，人们总该厌倦一错再错。

自亨利·福特以来，美国还没有一家汽车公司进行过首次公开募股，而这引起了人们的注意。

你能从他的脸上看到那种，就是那种欣喜若狂，还有一种感觉，仿佛所有这些苦难都是值得的。

而且它是。

而且我们。

而且它现在是真的了。

此次 IPO 大获成功，使 Tesla 的市值升至近20亿美元。通用汽车再次效仿，也进行了自己的 IPO，这是美国历史上规模最大的一次。

无论 Tesla 最终是否取得巨大成功，我都会永远感激他，因为他算是打破了坚冰。

大约在同一时期，戴姆勒向 Tesla 投资了5000万美元，启动了一项合资项目，以生产电动梅赛德斯和 smart 汽车。

像戴姆勒这样一家梅赛德斯-奔驰的制造商，突然把这份合同授予他们，这是一种认可。

丰田也投资了5000万美元，让 Tesla 制造新版 RAV4 电动分支车型。

对于 Tesla 这样的初创公司而言，这在现阶段意义相当重大。Tesla 已经获得了全球最大豪华汽车制造商和全球最大汽车制造商的投资。

但Tesla仍然存在盈利问题。该公司2010年第四季度亏损5140万美元，是前一年亏损额的2倍多。这并没有阻止埃隆去承担他有史以来最大的风险之一：收购旧金山附近的一座大型汽车制造工厂，这座工厂在前一年被丰田弃用。

Tesla梦想中的工厂地点一直是new ME工厂，那是一座丰田占50%、通用汽车占50%的工厂。它是世界上最大的汽车工厂之一。它的位置非常好，靠近Tesla总部。

现实是，只花了很少的钱，丰田。丰田从账面上甩掉了一个沉重负担。从行业角度看，丰田显得极其精明，而Tesla则显得极其天真。汽车工厂是大笔的沉没资本。改造一座工厂需要巨额的增量投资。

马斯克直面了电动汽车的批评者。2008年，BBC播出了《Top Gear》的杰里米·克拉克森对Roadster所作的评测看法。

这辆车当时确实逐渐展现出非凡之处。但随后，尽管Tesla说它能行驶200英里，我们算出它在我们的赛道上仅行驶55英里就会耗尽电量。而且如果电量真的耗尽，再次给它充满电并不是一件很快的事。

Tesla指控该事件是伪造的，并表示他们有证据证明Roadster并未耗尽电量。2011年春季，Tesla以诽谤和恶意虚假陈述为由起诉BBC，以阻止该节目的重播。此案目前正在法院审理。

但在他的所有公司中，或许最成功的会是那家致力于满足全球能源需求的公司。SolarCity持续发展，目前服务着从加利福尼亚州到纽约州的超过10,000名客户。它是美国最大的太阳能服务提供商，已完成或正在进行的项目超过10,000个。

SolarCity一直非常、非常令人印象深刻。我的意思是，有，你知道，数千人的屋顶上装有太阳能板，还有许多大型办公室。我相信eBay装有SolarCity的太阳能板。所以它正在对世界产生非常巨大、非常显眼的影响。

他真的想改变世界。而在埃隆·马斯克对未来的构想中，清洁、可再生的能源将输入电网，我们所有的车辆都将依靠这些能源运行。这确实是未来。这是你会想要讲述的故事。

你知道，他想做太多事情了。我的意思是，他有一个电动喷气式飞机的构想，他想研究核聚变。你知道，他想重建洛杉矶的高速公路。

2010年10月，马斯克与塔露拉·莱莉结婚。

他们在巴黎度蜜月期间，我们采访了他们。

显然出于许许多多的原因，能和埃隆在一起，我感到无比幸运。

我也是。同样。

谢谢。因为我也是个有远见的人。过去2年真是一段跌宕起伏的历程，你知道，有些决定，他当时做的那些事让我吓得双腿发抖。我觉得自己很荣幸，能够如此近距离地看到这些事，见证这一切。

2010年12月8日，SpaceX执行了迄今最伟大的任务。

NASA刚刚发射了SpaceX的猎鹰9号火箭。这艘货运飞行器被看好在航天飞机明年退役后取而代之。

历史上首次，一家商业公司的航天器得以从环绕地球的轨道返回，并在安全着陆后被回收。

埃隆·马斯克还要更进一步。对SpaceX来说，地球还不够大。他确实想前往火星，在月球、火星上建立私人殖民地，并把太空探索的前沿推进到政府甚至超级大国能力所不及之处。这是前所未有的。

埃隆有一种简直是。令人叹为观止的自信。而当你想到他所自信的那些事情时，就尤其令人叹为观止。他认为人类将抵达火星，不只是人类将抵达火星，而是他本人，埃隆·马斯克会在有生之年抵达火星。

马斯克和SpaceX让“人的所以太空飞行”这一梦想继续存在。2011年4月，该公司宣布其猎鹰重型火箭将于2013年准备好发射。2011年4月19日，NASA向其拨款7500万美元，用于开发一种革命性的发射逃逸系统，以此确认了其对SpaceX的信心；该系统有朝一日将使龙飞船能够把宇航员安全送往月球和火星。

他能找到一种通过务实步骤从这里走到那里的办法。这不只是让我们埋头苦干20年，最终带着梦想和愿景从另一端出来。而是，这里有一条循序渐进的发展路径，这就是我们如何从这里走到那里。

只是，它真的重要吗？问题是，我正在做的事情，真的会有影响吗，或者它们是否有潜力真正产生影响？

我们无法确定埃隆·马斯克是否会用他的电动汽车彻底改变汽车世界。我们不知道马斯克是否有朝一日会抵达火星，也不知道他是否真的会让美国转向太阳能。我们知道的是，埃隆·马斯克会继续尝试，一路上还会出现更多创新构想。

萨姆。

Elon Musk is a lot like the kid in the comic book whose fantasies turn into reality. But not as a magician. He did it as an engineer.

An engineer is the closest thing to a magician that exists in the real world.

Musk's fantasies and the companies they've inspired are transforming the way we live.

Like this guy is changing the world.

He founded his first company at age 23 and sold it a few years later for $300 million. He helped pave the way for online commerce with PayPal.

His goal was to transform the financial industry.

He made solar energy affordable and jump started the electric car industry.

We show that you can make compelling electric cars that people really want to buy.

And he's beating NASA to outer space.

Elon Musk goes a step further. Earth, not big enough with SpaceX. He literally wants to go to Mars

and he's still only 40.

I look to him with awe at the way in which he can see the future and make it manifest.

His greatest asset is his ability to take this big, big dream and make other people believe that it's true.

There have been setbacks.

We have maybe about a week's worth of cash in the bank or less.

He saved the company in its darkest hour.

And yes, he's controversial.

This is just the religion of electric vehicles. And like Jonestown, that religion will come to an end.

Still, despite his critics, Musk has never been bashful about his own achievements.

You know, Prius is a gas guzzling hog by comparison with this car.

Yes, he's a media darling.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how sexy am I going to be if I buy this car? I mean 11.

Here he is in the movie Iron Man. He was even the model for the movie's hero.

Yeah, good idea for an electric jet.

You do, then we'll make it work.

Go get it, Bob.

You can bleep.

When I was a little kid, I was really scared of the dark.

But then I sort of came to understand, okay, well, dark just means really the absence of photons in the visible wavelength, 400 to 700 nanometers.

Elon's mother, May Musk.

And Elon said, darkness is merely the absence of light.

Then I thought, well, it's really silly to be afraid of a lack of photons. Then I wasn't afraid of the dark anymore after that.

Once one of the kids said to him, look at the moon. It's a billion miles away. And he said, well, no, it's actually under 250,000 miles away. And they said, oh, Elon, Elon Musk

grew up in South Africa, the eldest of three children. His father was an engineer, his mother a model and nutritionist. Elon got off to a fast start and began school a year early.

He was the youngest. He made about two days and the shortest. And then he was this brilliant boy, and so people didn't really like him.

So I was this little bookwormy kid and probably a bit of a smart aleck. So this is a recipe for disaster.

Not that he told me much about it, but he was picked on quite a bit.

So I just, like, read a lot of books and tried to stay out of people's way during school.

And so his social life was much less than my other two kids. And that's a typical nerd.

I read all the comics I could buy or that they'd let me read at the bookstore before chasing me away. I read everything I could get my hands on from when I woke up to when I went to sleep. At one point, I really ran out of books and started reading the encyclopedia.

And he has a photographic memory, so he could remember everything. Anytime I had a question, my daughter Tosca would say, call genius boy.

His brother, Kimball Musk.

When Elon was 10 years old, he got tested by IBM and he was found to have one of the highest aptitudes they'd ever seen for computer programming.

I tried taking some computer classes, but I was way ahead of the teacher, so it didn't really help. So I started programming the space game called Blastar.

Musk, already thinking like an entrepreneur, figured out how to sell his game.

I don't think they realized. I was 12.

We decided we were going to open an arcade out near our high school. We were big into video games. We figured that it was going to be a huge hit. We got a lease on a building. We got the arcade provider to deliver the equipment, and the only thing we needed to do by the end of it was get the city to approve what we were doing.

But an adult had to apply for a city permit, and they hadn't told their parents what they were up to.

But of course, they told us we were not going to be opening up an arcade.

Really, the most amazing thing about his childhood is his escape from South Africa.

I remember thinking and saying that America is where great things are possible, more than any other country in the world. It's a little cliche, but it's true. America is the land of opportunity.

Elon came and told me that he wants to go to Canada. He really wanted to go to the United States. As A Canadian born, I could get my citizenship back and then I could pass it on to my children.

Musk wanted to avoid serving in South Africa's army and as he put it, suppressing black people.

Growing up in apartheid South Africa was pretty surreal. We didn't support that government, we didn't believe in it. And so the idea of actually going to the military service was really out of the question.

I told my parents I was going to Canada and they tried to convince me not to leave.

And off he flew. And I thought, wow, he's so independent. Of course, as soon as he lands, he calls me and he says, what do I do now?

He arrived with little money and almost no prospects.

So I bought a bus ticket from Montreal to Vancouver and that allowed me to kind of see Canada, at least from the highway.

He worked at odd jobs across the country before settling at Queens College in Toronto.

In fact, when I went to college, I rarely went to class. I just read the textbook and then show up for exams. The big appeal at university was being able to date girls my own age. Actually met my first wife there.

Justine Wilson was an English major from Southern Ontario. They put off marriage for 10 years. Musk still dreamed of reaching America and changing the world.

I really wanted to just kind of go where the really exciting breakthroughs were occurring.

He got an engineering and business degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a scholarship to go to Stanford University. Silicon Valley was the place to be.

Elon had this ability to look at the world, go, this is a real problem that's going to happen in 20 years.

The Internet, sustainable energy and extending life beyond Earth, making life multi planetary now. I didn't actually expect to ever have the opportunity to be involved in space. So this is not from the standpoint of these are the things I'm going to do. It's from the standpoint of in the absolute. These are the things that I think will most affect the future of humanity.

Max Chavkin writes for Inc. Magazine and profiled Musk in 2007 and again in 2010. After spending several weeks with his subject,

he looked around and he saw that the world changing stuff was not happening at Stanford.

I didn't even go to class. I called the chair of the department and said, I'd like to try selling this Internet company. It probably won't succeed. And so when it fails, I want to make sure that I can still come back.

My kids do funny things and I'm never too concerned about them because, you know, if Elon wanted to drop out of college, he could always go back.

My brother was in Canada at the time, and I said, look, I think we should try to create an Internet company. So he came down and joined me.

He had $2,000, no friends, barely enough money for an apartment. I think he told me he was showering at the gym because they didn't have a show where he was living.

And we spent six months sleeping in the office.

We just got some. A few tons that there were couches during the day and then turned into beds at night.

Steve Jurgensen is a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.

I first met Elon N. Kimble Musk, his brother, back in the mid-90s when they first set foot in California. I think they'd been here for about a week, and they were pitching a new company called Zip2. Silicon Valley in the mid-90s and late-90s was a gold rush. People were flocking to the region to find riches to make it in the Internet business.

Elon was more the business mastermind. I was more the sales guy.

I still had my core programming skills, so I was able to write the software needed for the first company.

Now, when Elon was starting zip two, keep in mind, the Internet was just a couple of years old. Most local businesses were not on the Internet. And the way you found a local business was you opened up the yellow pages.

It was 1995 when Musk came up with an idea to bring newspapers into the digital age. Elon took a CD rom, yellow pages, some mapping software, wrote a little code, and put it all together to create the first online city listings.

The thought was that media companies, like the newspapers, are going to need help coming online and building lots of functionality into their websites.

So Zip2 was sort of like an early version of what we have with Google Maps.

We had someone literally throw a yellow pages book at us and tell us, do you think you'll ever replace this? And we thought the guy was crazy because not only were we going to replace this, but that's not where it ended. It would keep going from there.

It wasn't long before media companies across the country were signing up.

And so we were able to get as investors and customers, the New York Times company, Hearst, knightritter, and a number of other companies.

In 1999, the Alta Vista division of Compaq bought Zip2 for $307 million in cash and 34 million in stock options. Elon was 28 years old.

I thought, that's crazy. Why would somebody pay such a huge amount of money for this little company that we have? It actually, obviously Turned out very well for them financially, so they knew a lot more about it than I did.

When the kids sold two, it was the most exciting day. We couldn't believe it, because you don't know in the Internet world if you're going to, you know, make a million or die tomorrow.

In 1999, Elon Musk sold his first company in the brave new world of silicon valley. He was a millionaire at the age of 28.

Software was acquired by Compaq for a little over $300 million. And I made, I think, about 21 or $22 million as a result of that, which was a phenomenal amount of money for me.

It was obviously a financial windfall. It was super fun to go out and buy some cool toys.

There is John, and the fastest car in the world.

One of his first things to do is go out and get a big sports car. He comes from a family that really enjoys racing and vehicles, and he got one of the highest performance cars money could buy at the time. It was a McLaren F1, and proceeded to enjoy that around the bay area, let's say the number of adventures and mistake he moves with his driving.

While I'm sure it felt wonderful to have all this money and to have people recognizing success, I think he was also frustrated that this company hadn't become as great as he wanted it to be. It hadn't changed the world. It had just slightly altered the course of newspaper history, which I think, from his point of view, is kind of a piddling accomplishment.

I certainly had the choice at that point of retiring and buying an island somewhere and sipping mai tais, but that was not of interest to me at all.

There really wasn't a choice of we weren't going to do anything. It was just really what we were going to do next. In Elon's case in particular, it was really just a stepping stone.

He was very rich. I mean, just more money than most people could dream. And he took almost no time in between that sale and starting the company that became paypal.

The goal in doing my second Internet company was to. To create something that would have a profound effect. And it seems to me that the financial sector have not seen a lot of innovation on the Internet. And money is really just an entry in a database. And so it's low bandwidth. It seems like something that should lend itself to innovation.

Musk's new company created something we take for granted today. It changed forever the way the world buys things, the way money goes from one person to another.

At the time, transactions were Very slow. People would have to mail checks to each other. So it could take weeks just to complete a single transaction.

In March 1999, Musk founded X.com to make electronic cash transfers possible. But he discovered a rival business was developing a similar technology called Confinity.

And they were really competing against each other. And the real enemy at the end of the day was ebay.

We combined our efforts in order to compete effectively against ebay's built in system.

They called the new company PayPal.

When he looked at PayPal, his goal was not to create a place you could do person to person payments. His goal was to transform the financial industry.

We're able to become the leading payment system in the world. And then eBay finally threw in the towel and acquired PayPal.

In early 2002, Musk and his partners sold PayPal for 1.5 billion. Musk, still only 30, walked away from the deal with roughly $180 million.

I could have bought probably a chain of islands, but again, that was obviously not of interest to me.

So what next? The final frontier, Space.

He's always been obsessed with it. Even his computer game Blastor was about a spaceship shooting asteroids and evil aliens.

It's just a much more exciting, inspiring future if we're out there exploring the stars as opposed to a future where we are forever confined to Earth.

He had what might seem a completely absurd notion that he just assumed he could pull off.

I was thinking, well, I wonder when we're going to Mars, when is NASA going to go to Mars? And I went to the NASA website and there was no plan to go to Mars and no plan to reach really even take the next step in space exploration.

This is Elon saying he wants to go and enable human civilization to leave the planet Earth. It's about as big a vision as you could possibly imagine. And that's going to require funds. And he has enough funds to go do it, so he's going to go do it.

He had the outrageous idea that a private enterprise could actually re energize space travel. In June 2002, he founded Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX.

Elon was the only funder of the company for its early years. Another incredibly risky move to say nobody on the planet thinks this idea is financeable. I'm going to fund all of it myself to the tune of almost $100 million, which was the majority of his net worth at the time, into a dream to take on the military industrial complex. Here's an immigrant from South Africa coming to America to save NASA. That Whole rocket thing you do with the space shuttle.

I've got a better way, let's move it all to a new design that I'll build. And you know, you've got countries failing left and right, and here's a startup trying to build them in Los Angeles.

But Los Angeles didn't have all the parts he needed.

I actually traveled to Russia three times to look at buying a refurbished ICBM without the nuke. It was odd going to Russia. You know, it's like random American, South African guy shows up in Moscow wanting to buy refurbished ICBMs. We visited some weird places in Moscow, I don't know. We went to one place that looked like a. I don't know what they did there. After the third trip, I actually had learned a lot more about the space business.

And I came to the conclusion that the thing that was really holding us back from making much more progress is space. It was really that rockets had not evolved since the 60s.

So the trick isn't figuring out how to get to orbit, it's figuring out how to get to orbit cheaply.

So I had to come up with lower cost ways to produce engines, the primary structure of the electronics to launch operation, as well as run the company with very little overhead. And the sum of inventions in all those areas is what has led us to roughly three to four fold improvements over the cost of other rockets in the United States.

What SpaceX has been very successful at is taking basically off the shelf technology stuff that was developed by NASA 50 years ago and streamlining it. So in that way, he's kind of the Henry Ford of space, because Henry Ford didn't invent the automobile, he just figured out how to make the automobile commercially viable.

But Musk was more than just an entrepreneur.

Elon wasn't trained as an aeronautical engineer, and yet he, he's had the ability to be very successful in that particular space.

He's deeply involved with product architecture, design and engineering, More so with SpaceX, but with all of his companies.

If you ask Elon how he managed to teach himself rocket science, he'll just look at you very seriously and just say very quietly, I read a lot of books.

At age 32, though still fascinated by rockets and fast cars, Musk was more dedicated than ever to ending the Earth's addiction to fossil fuels. He had his next big idea at his family's annual visit to Burning Man. The counterculture desert happening is a favorite rendezvous for the extended Musk family, including two cousins who had followed Elon and his brother from South Africa. And who had started a few companies of their own.

I was one that suggested the idea of going into the solar power arena to Lyndon and Peter Wright, my cousins.

He's got this idea that we're going to make Dell Computer, but for solar panels. We're going to make it really, really, really easy for anybody to install solar panels on their roofs. And basically hands this idea to his cousins and says, if you want to start this, I will fund you and it'll be your company, but I'll be the chairman. And they say okay, and it works almost perfectly.

What they figured out is that if you sort of do 100 things 10% better in the area of solar cell installation for homeowners, you can dramatically consolidate an industry that's currently a bunch of mom and pop shops. So what SolarCities did was they said, how about no money down, you want solar cells, we'll just put them in.

You don't pay a cent.

Right.

It's like leasing a car, but even better.

Working in just five western states, the company became the largest solar service provider in the US installing 500 new projects per month, with the potential to make Musk the top supplier of green energy in the country.

The solar cells keep going. SolarCity then owns those at the end of the lease. So it's a fascinating business model where in the long term they may become the largest energy generator in America. Off all of these rooftops, renewable energy

is just phase one. Smart stage two Tesla, the first viable long distance, fully electric car.

He had this idea that he wanted to make electric cars help humanity get off fossil fuels.

He discovered that computer engineer Martin Everhard and hybrid propulsion expert JB Straubel were working independently also trying to build an electric car.

To get to a sustainable energy future, we must have both sustainable energy creation and consumption. And so SolarCity is about sustainable energy creation, whereas Tesla is about sustainable energy consumption.

In April 2004, Musk helped launch Tesla with $6.3 million of his own money. It's the first auto industry startup in decades and the only one born in Silicon Valley.

And it's really pretty simple. It's, you know, make a high priced car at low volume because that's essentially the only thing we could afford to do. And then step two is a medium priced car at medium volumes, and step three is a low price car at high volumes.

Like the first mobile phones or Apple computers. Tesla decided to introduce a high end, high performance product first. Then when everyone wanted one, they'd make it affordable. Tesla's co founder and First CEO Martin Eberhard.

We expect to to change the way people think about electric cars with this car and that we hope to open a market for us to sell other electric cars. But we also know that if you start off by saying let's first change human nature and make everybody drive crummy little cars, that doesn't work. So instead let's build a car that people want to drive. Let's build a car that's hot and desirable and beautiful and convince people that driving an electric car is not a compromise.

This idea of actually going in and putting it in a high end car and breaking the mold of what, what an electric car was, was exciting. This is no longer going to be a golf cart. This is going to be a Ferrari.

Any cops watching?

No.

When we first saw Tesla, it had a good explanation for how they get to market without having to spend exorbitant amount of money. How they would create a brand and a object of desire in consumers. And each part of the story clicked together.

Alan Onsman is a reporter for Bloomberg News.

He talked about Silicon Valley smarts. Being able to show Detroit how to do something that Detroit didn't think was possible.

Its batteries, its drive electronics, its electric motors, those are skills that are present in Silicon Valley and not present in Detroit.

Tesla's revolutionary technology started with a computer battery as the power source for an automobile.

For the first time, it was possible to drive over 200 miles and have performance that was directly comparable, competitive with what a gasoline car could do. And Tesla was the first company to take those principles and put that into practice and try it.

An electric car, if designed right, is all about torque. It means that at any speed you're driving, if you step on it, it's there instantly. So you can step on it and this hauls ass.

The Governator himself showed up for Tesla's 2006 coming out party.

A test drove this one.

It's hard.

He bought one. So did Leo DiCaprio and George Clooney. But could Musk sell regular consumers on the idea? The electric car still had an image problem.

At that time, there was very little activity in the auto industry in electric vehicles. We were in the age of the large suv. So it was a little unusual to hear about this company in California that was planning to come to market with a high end all electric sports car.

J.B. straubel, Tesla's chief technology officer, was the main designer of the electric powertrain.

We were very passionate about trying to make sure that this car was going to just throw down the gauntlet on what the technology could do and really prove to the world that electric vehicles could be incredibly fast and could have incredibly long range. There was kind of a sense of adventure, you know, doing these things for the first time and doing it in a really scrappy way. We did some of the very first battery packs in my garage in Menlo park before we actually were able to rent a real office.

The big issue for Tesla, as with all electric cars, has been the batteries, their cost, and how long they last. Eric Noble is president of Car Lab, an Orange, California consulting firm that evaluates new cars and trucks.

American consumers are very ready for battery electric vehicles. Unfortunately, battery electric vehicles aren't ready for American consumers.

The first results at Tesla seemed to support this gloomy forecast.

Tesla, when we first started out, the thought was simple and really, obviously in retrospect, quite naive, which was to make use of a Lotus chassis, some technology that we develop ourselves, but we system technology that would license from AC propulsion, put that together and create an electric sports car that would be compelling. So let's see, where did that fall apart?

The car that Musk's team told him could be made for $65,000 would actually cost 140,000 just for raw materials.

When we found out that the costs were a lot higher than expected, it was a, a very frustrating time for us.

As the problems mounted, Musk faced a do or die decision at Tesla. Would he let the company collapse or invest his nest egg, the 160 million dollar fortune he'd made from the sale of PayPal. The bet of a lifetime.

By 2007, Tesla was running out of money fast. No one wanted to step up to save the unproven automobile startup. Elon had to take the leap alone.

We have to make some pretty dramatic changes, essentially recapitalize the business and invest about twice what we'd originally expected. What we really expected is the outer limit.

And Elon was looking at this and saying, the dream is still there, but oh my gosh, what have I got? I've got to get this under control.

Basically, Tesla got to this point where they only had enough money in the bank for a couple of months and there's nobody around who are willing to put more money in.

I take all of my reserve capital and invest it into Tesla, which was very scary because, you know, it would obviously be quite sad to have the fruits of my labor with Zip2 and PayPal not amount to anything. But there was no question that I would do that in my own mind because Tesla was too important. To let die. I'm available 247 to help solve issues. Call me 3am on a Sunday morning. I don't care.

We had to go in and make some really hard decisions on personnel changes. And Elon really had to dedicate his time to the company.

I want names named. So if someone's always on the hot seat and is always the root cause for problems, they will not be part of this organization. Long term income. It's not okay to be unhappy and part of this company. If somebody can't get happy, get divorced.

Musk and his board replaced Martin Everhard, one of their co founders who had been running Tesla.

And I think we kind of really exceeded the level that Everhart could handle. And that became apparent in 2007.

We either were going to have to shut the company down or Elon Musk have to take over as CEO.

It was actually a process of building a company as well as building a car. You know, a lot of people that fit in very well with the company when it was extremely small, you know, didn't end up, you know, fitting in as well when it was larger.

Eberhard didn't go quietly. He sued Elon for libel, slander and breach of contract.

I believe that I was scapegoated to

take the blame for the programs that

were not run well.

Musk resolved the dispute through mediation, but his company was in serious financial trouble. In September 2007, Musk flew to Germany with a scheme to raise extra cash by forging an alliance with Daimler Mercedes.

Daimler is the company that invented the internal combustion engine car, the maker of Mercedes Smart. And their endorsement carries a great deal of weight. So that, that was just a very important moment.

He had to convince the company that Tesla could supply battery packs for Daimler's cars. But his PowerPoint demo failed miserably.

Really, the key thing with Daimler was to demonstrate hardware that worked.

You know, if they can't touch it, they can't drive it. It's not particularly real.

To convince the Germans of the potential of the electric car, he asked his team to retrofit a Daimler Smart Car with Tesla's electric motor.

The challenge of converting a Smart Car to electric was doubly difficult because we couldn't find a Smart car.

The Smart Car is not for sale in the United States. So we had to send somebody down to Mexico to buy a Smart car, bring, bring one to the US and then the Smart Car is really tiny, so we had to fit a motor and power electronics and charger and everything in The Smart Car.

The challenge was daunting. To replace the Smart Car's gas engine with a Tesla drivetrain and battery, fit it in a tiny space under the hood, and do it all in less than four weeks.

We didn't have much time at all. We knew that from the beginning, and we kind of prepared for almost battle and, you know, set up war room in the shop.

They worked around the clock, stealing naps on the factory floor right up to the deadline.

The Daimler executives arrived and not at all convinced that it made any sense to work with an American car company, let alone a little tiny American car company in Silicon Valley.

The Daimler executive went for a test drive. When he came back, a breakthrough. A $70 million contract for Tesla to make electric Smart car batteries. This gave Musk the confidence to start building a competitively priced sedan. He called it the Model S. Taking his cue from the original Model T, he wanted a family car that was modern and sexy. So he hired the man who had designed the latest Aston Martin, James Bond's new ride in Casino Royale.

Originally with Model S, we thought, well, let's have Henrik Fisker, who had a design studio do the styling. We paid him a pretty good sum of money to do that, curiously enough. The designs that he. He worked on, that he came up with for us were terrible.

And what he didn't tell us was that he was actually working on a competing car company.

Tesla officials claimed that perhaps Henrik had come in to learn what Tesla was doing, while all along he was planning to form his own company, do his own vehicle.

We were pretty upset with him for basically taking what were, at the time, the original specifications for the Model S, and then going and shopping a business plan to create that same car.

Tesla sued him. He sued Tesla, and there was all kinds of, you know, infighting.

Henrik Fisker wouldn't grant Bloomberg an interview, but he told us that I believe there is enough space in the market for several new car companies that pursue a new type of electrified powertrain with different philosophies. In 2008, the court ruled in Fisker's favor. It was a minor setback for Musk, but the beginning of what would turn out to be the hardest year of his life.

It's always difficult to find the right partner in business or in one's personal life, and you don't always make the right choices.

In fact, Musk's personal life wasn't working out either. He had married Justine in 2000. They have five kids, all born within two years. Then the marriage fell apart. Justine felt that Musk's work always came first.

I had the sense of being relegated and sidelined and, you know, that is kind of what I refer to as a trophy wife feeling.

Justine challenged a settlement offered by Musk in court and went public.

Justine takes her story to Marie Claire magazine, the Times of London newspaper and her own blog.

On March 29, 2011, Justine announced that she was accepting a settlement for $10 million less than what Musk had offered before she took him to court.

I got divorced. Personal life in somewhat of a shambles and in addition getting, you know, attacked by some in the media, my ex wife, every bad thing you could imagine.

There were all kinds of crazy allegations around that, you know, allegations of affairs which have never been substantiated.

Meanwhile, SpaceX, Musk's other company, hadn't been able to get a rocket into orbit.

He started saying, I've got enough money for three cracks at it. He put $100 million of his own money and he sort of hinted at the idea that after three, if he didn't make would be over, SpaceX would die.

The first launch didn't get very far. Got about a minute up and then there was an engine fire and that was it. The second flight actually did make it to space, but not to orbit. And then also Flight three, we didn't get all the way to orbit.

Musk had already burned through the $100 million he'd sunk into SpaceX. Now he was on his way back to the drawing board.

Three days after the failure, he announced like first that he knew what was wrong. He announced that they'd raised money to finance a fourth launch. And the fourth launch was going to happen in a matter of months, which in the rocket industry was a crazy announcement.

We were able to solve the problems and then just as we'd solved those problems, we ran smack into the worst economic recession since the Great Depression.

It's been one of the darkest days on Wall street in recent memory. Stock markets falling the most since 9 11. The Dow off more than 500 points.

This is what financial Armageddon looks like. Red screens that scream sell, sell, sell.

It was a week that shook Wall street and indeed the world.

The Dow had its biggest point drop ever, falling a little more than 777 points. Triple seven.

And a realization that the economy may

still head into a deeper downturn.

As 2008 drew to a close, Musk faced the worst crisis of his career. All three of his companies appeared to be in free fall.

The worst point was probably just the weekend before Christmas in 2008, we had the economic tsunami take place and made things even worse. If it wasn't needed, we had had to shut it down and, and just figure out what's, how do we get through this, the stock period, and not go bankrupt?

General Motors shares falling to more than a 20 year low after Goldman cut the automakers rating to sell on a

worsening sales outlook, Musk was forced to lay off almost a third of his staff and close Tesla's branch in Detroit.

That was tough. It was, it was obviously an economic period that saw the bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler. And there we were a young company selling a very, very optional car. I mean it was really a people don't need $100,000 sports car.

But things would get even tougher. His energy company SolarCity foundered. The bank that had backed their leases pulled out of the deal.

I certainly did not anticipate that we would have the worst economic climate since the Great Depression. Depression and one which was disproportionately bad for cars. I mean General Motors went bankrupt. I mean General, General F and Motors.

You know, Musk was in the fight of his life.

We had maybe about a week's worth of cash in the bank or less. And there was just very little time left in the year to resolve these, these things. I mean there were like two or three business days left in the year. I never thought it was possible for me to have a nurse breakdown, but if it was possible for me to have a nurse breakdown there, that was about as close as I was going to come.

He told me that he was waking up in the middle of the night and there would be tears on his pillow and that must have been disturbing and scary. I think it was a dark time

when Elon was going through his sad period. I was so sad. I felt like I had a hole in my heart and there's nothing you can do. You just hurt so much. And I just didn't see him getting out of it. He was just so sad. And then the next thing I get this call saying, ma, you can't believe it. I've met a wonderful woman.

Tallulah Riley is a British actress who debuted in the films Pride and Prejudice and Pirate Radio.

Elon, I think, was just having a horrific time. Your business and personal life is just talent.

That at that period, it was definitely a very difficult period. My ex wife and I just filed for divorce and I happened to be in London and my friend Will had dragged me out to a club and then Tallulah had A friend of hers

had dragged her to the same club before they met. She had never heard of Tesla, SpaceX or Elon Musk.

I thought it was some sort of hapless engineer that had wandered into a London club. And he just looked so forlorn. He was sort of just sat in the corner on his BlackBerry and he just looked really out of place and sad. I was, you know, trying to be very sweet to him and sort of humoring and going, oh, yes. When he was going, this is my rocket and you know, this is my car.

They were all real. She learned when her father Googled Elon Musk.

We spent four days in London together, just sort of hanging out and doing really exciting things. Then he went back to America. I went to Sicily to do a photo shoot. And then after he was texting me saying, come to America. So I said, fine, I'll come, you know, I'll have a break after this. I just finished a film. So I went for a seven day holiday. And he proposed at the end of that seven days. It's a strange way to begin a relationship, but we've said to each other, we've seen each other at our very, very worst, you know, and yet through that our love has managed to sort of grow and continues to grow every day.

Musk's personal life was looking up, but the fate of his companies still hung in the balance.

I had to make a choice then that either took all of the capital that I had left from the sale of PayPal to eBay and invest that in Tesla, or Tesla would die.

The company is really teetering on the brink of failure. And there's this board meeting late in 2008 where they're discussing what's going to happen. And Elon just says, well, I'm going to raise a $40 million round to keep the company going. And the board members are kind of wondering, well, how's he going to do that? And he says, I'm going to put it all in myself.

And he did. Musk personally guaranteed $40 million more to avert the company's collapse. His total investment in Tesla would be $75 million.

And that incredible braggadocio confidence catalyzed a change in people's opinion. And we and everyone else around the table was like, my gosh, we want to be part of this. We want to get as much of this investment as we can. He saved the company in its darkest hour with an act of heroism that is hard to describe. There's nothing quite like spending your last remaining dollar on A project you believe in.

It was thankfully a good week, but definitely it took its toll from mental strain standpoint. And the gap mentally just burned out a few circuits.

Just as Musk put his last 40 million into Tesla, he realized he needed another $20 million to save his rocket company, Space X. Even though his first three launches had failed, Musk believed in his technology. The fate of SpaceX would be riding on his next rocket, the Falcon 9.

3, 2, 1, Stage 1, lift off

on their very first attempt to Launch the Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in front of the world's eyes. The very first attempt was a complete success.

Falcon 9 has cleared the towers.

The first successful launch at SpaceX was an incredibly emotional time. The team at SpaceX had worked for six years to do the impossible and they had succeeded and engine shut down.

Falcon 9, Stage 2 and the Dragon capsule are now in orbit around the Earth.

So SpaceX was the first purely commercial ground up development to reach orbit.

What other companies would do in 20 to 30 years, we were able to do in six years.

Recognizing Musk's breakthroughs in cost and efficiency, NASA awarded SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract to service the space station.

So the system that will replace the space shuttle that SpaceX has developed consists of two parts. There's our Falcon 9, which is the rocket, and then there's our Dragon spacecraft, which is what gets delivered to orbit and then maneuvers over to the space station, drops of cargo and returns to Earth.

Musk initially invested $100 million of his own money and SpaceX has raised outside capital of over $800 million since the NASA deal. SpaceX has 40 launches on its manifest. Musk had come a long way since his field trip to look for rockets in Russia.

In 2009. Coming off his enormous success with SpaceX, Musk rallied his core investors to keep Tesla going. Determined not to repeat his mistakes, he focused on bringing his family car to life.

So I said, look, we really need to have our own design studio. And that's when I hired Franz von Holzhausen to design the Model S. His

green agenda was irresistible to von Holzhausen, whom he lured away from Mazda in July 2008. He was a legendary figure in car design who had already revolutionized the looks of vw, GM and Mazda.

He's completely passionate to really rid the world of this addiction to fossil fuel as. And that was something that he talked about from the very first sentence, first conversation that we had.

With a new team in place, Musk completely revamped the look of The Model

S, a sedan doesn't have to be a brick. It doesn't have to be a big, blocky car. We wanted to bring this kind of passion and feeling back to this marketplace. The architecture of Model S is really similar to a skateboard. The floor of the vehicle is the battery pack and the motors between the rear wheels and everything above that is the opportunity space.

In March 2009, Musk unveiled the prototype for the Model S, which could hold seven passengers and as much luggage as a station wagon. But to build it, he knew he would need at least a piece of the US government's new $25 billion loan program to support alternative energy vehicles.

In order for Model S to truly be successful. You know, it was important that the loan come through.

Government funding suddenly became controversial. When New York Times writer Randy Strauss called the program the bailout of very, very high net worth individuals who invested in Tesla Motors act, Musk fought back.

Randy's thrust is a huge douchebag and an idiot.

Okay, it wasn't a bailout, but a loan. The US government agreed to lend Tesla $465 million to mass produce the Model S sedan, a move that astounded many in the industry.

It's very unlikely that the Tesla investment is ever repaid to the taxpayers. Electric vehicles are really not possible in ways that would be effective for most consumers. Still, this is just the religion of electric vehicles, and like Jonestown, that religion will come to an end.

There are most certainly people who want to see Tesla fail because it is an attack on the mainstream car industry.

Of course, the biggest impact that Tesla will have is not the cars that we make ourselves, themselves, but the fact that we show that you can make compelling electric cars that people really want to buy.

Former General Motors chairman Bob Lutz rose to the challenge.

If a small Silicon Valley startup believes that they can do a commercially viable electric car, are we going to sit here as General Motors and say, well, a guy in California can do it, but we can't?

Game on. Lutz himself would supervise the launch of the Volt, a new electric Chevrolet family sedan to compete with Tesla's Model S. Musk's Success continued in 2010 as he took Tesla public, announcing the IPO in June. But it was a move that brought the Tesla doubters out in droves.

Things really got ugly. I mean, they brought up the divorce, they brought up past problems at Tesla, they brought up, you know, Elon's background.

Tesla stock voted by Wall street as the least likely to succeed.

You don't want to own this stock, you don't want to lease it.

Heck, you don't even.

You shouldn't even rent the darn thing. We've confounded the critics at every turn. So at a certain point, people have to get tired of being wrong.

There hasn't been an IPO of a car company in America since Henry Ford, and that caught people's attention.

You just saw on his face this sort of just elation and this feeling like all of this suffering is worth it.

And it's.

And we're.

And it's real now.

The IPO was such a success that Tesla's net worth rose to almost $2 billion. And GM copied them again with an IPO of their own, the biggest in US history.

Whether Tesla is ever hugely successful or not, I'll always owe him a debt of gratitude for having kind of broken the ice.

Around the same time, Daimler invested $50 million in Tesla, embarking on a joint venture to build electric Mercedes and smart cars.

For a company like Daimler, the maker of Mercedes Benz, to suddenly award this contract to them, it was a validation.

Toyota also invested $50 million to have Tesla build a new electric branch version of the RAV4.

For a startup like Tesla, it's quite significant at this point. Tesla has received investment from the world's largest maker of luxury vehicles and the world's largest automaker.

But Tesla still had an earnings problem. The company's loss for the fourth quarter of 2010 was $51.4 million, more than double the losses of the year before. That didn't stop Elon from taking one of his biggest risks ever, acquiring a huge car making plant near San Francisco, abandoned the previous year by Toyota.

The dream factory location for Tesla was always the new ME factory, which was a 50% Toyota, 50% General Motors factory. It's one of the biggest car plants in the world. It's a great location, close to Tesla headquarters.

The reality is, for very little money, Toyota. Toyota got an albatross off its books. From an industry perspective, it looked incredibly savvy on Toyota's part and incredibly naive on Tesla's part. Car factories are big pieces of sunk capital. To retool a factory takes a tremendous incremental investment.

Musk took on critics of the electric car. In 2008, the BBC broadcast a review View of the Roadster by Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson.

This car then really was shaping up to be something wonderful. But then, although Tesla say it'll do 200 miles, we worked out that on our track, it would run out after just 55 miles. And if it does run out, it's not a quick job to charge it up again.

Tesla charged that the incident was faked and said they had proof that the Roadster hadn't run out of power. In the spring of 2011, Tesla sued the BBC for libel and malicious falsehood to block reruns of the show. The case is now in court.

But of all his companies, perhaps the greatest success could be the one addressing the world's energy needs. SolarCity continues to grow, now serving more than 10,000 customers from California to New York. It's the largest solar service provider in the US with more than 10,000 projects completed or underway.

SolarCity has been very, very impressive. I mean, there are, you know, thousands of people with panels on their roofs and lots of big offices. I believe eBay has SolarCity panels. So it's having a very big, very visible impact on the world.

He really wants to change the world. And in Elon Musk's vision of the future, you'll have clean and renewable sources of energy feeding the grid and all of our vehicles will run off that. This is really the future. It's something you want to tell stories about.

You know, he wants to do so many things. I mean, he has an idea for an electric jet, he wants to work on nuclear fusion. You know, he wants to remake the highways in Los Angeles.

And in October 2010, Musk married Tallulah Riley.

We spoke to them during their honeymoon in Paris.

I feel incredibly blessed to be with the Elon for obviously so many reasons.

As am I. Likewise.

Thank you. Because I'm a visionary too. The past two years have been quite a ride, you know, and there's been some decisions that at the time I've been quaking in my boots over the things he's been doing. I feel privileged to be able to see them sort of so up close and witness it all.

On December 8, 2010, SpaceX had its greatest mission yet.

NASA just launched the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The cargo vehicle is favored to replace the space shuttle when it retires next year.

For the first time in history, a commercial company's spacecraft was able to return from its orbit of the Earth and was recovered after a safe landing.

Elon Musk goes a step further. Earth's not big enough with SpaceX. He literally wants to go to Mars and set up private colonies on moon Mars and push the vanguard of space exploration beyond that which governments are capable of doing, even superpowers. That is unprecedented.

Elon has a self confidence that is just. It's breathtaking. And it's especially breathtaking when you think about the things he's confident about. The idea that humanity is going to get to Mars, that not just humanity is going to get to Mars, but that he, in his lifetime, Elon Musk will get to Mars.

Musk and SpaceX are keeping the dream of man so space flight alive. In April 2011, the company announced that its Falcon Heavy rocket will be ready to launch in 2013. And on April 19, 2011, NASA confirmed its confidence in SpaceX by awarding them $75 million to develop a revolutionary launch escape system that one day would enable the Dragon spacecraft to carry astronauts safely to the moon and Mars.

He finds a way to get from here to there with pragmatic steps. It's not just let's hunker down for 20 years, come up the other end with a dream and a vision. It's here's the incremental path of progress, here's how we can get from here to there.

Just is it significant, really? The question is, are things I'm working on, are they really going to matter or do they have the potential for really mattering?

We don't know for sure if Elon Musk will revolutionize the world of automobiles with his electric car. We don't know if Musk will ever get to Mars or if he will really convert America to solar energy. We do know that Elon Musk will keep trying and there will be more innovative ideas along the way.

Sam.