From broke, broken to first Trillion man
By David AFOLABI
The next time you feel like giving up, remember Elon Musk.
He was crushed after his third rocket exploded in 2025. He was broke and broken.
He had just lost $100 million of his own money. SpaceX was weeks away from bankruptcy. Tesla was struggling and he was sleeping on friends’ couches.
The media called him reckless. Investors pulled back. Everyone told him to quit.
Instead, he bet everything on one final launch, if it failed, SpaceX was done. The launch succeeded — and changed history.
Today, SpaceX is worth over $1 trillion and dominates the private space industry.
Most people quit right before their breakthrough. Elon kept going when everything was against him. That’s the difference between success and almost success. Today, Musk is the first Trillionaire in human history
Things you need to know about Elon Musk:
– Born in South Africa
– Bullied relentlessly as a kid
– Immigrated to North America
– Arrived with a backpack and a dream
– Built Zip2 with his brother
– Sold it 4 years later for $300 million
– Co-founded PayPal with the profits
– Revolutionised digital payments
– Sold PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion
– Bet everything on Tesla and SpaceX
– Got mocked for electric cars
– Got laughed at for reusable rockets
– Nearly went bankrupt in 2008
– Kept building anyway
– Turned Tesla into the world’s most valuable automaker
– Made EVs mainstream and transformed the automotive industry
– Made reusable rockets a reality
– Reduced the cost of reaching space by 95%
– Sparked the modern commercial space race
– Built Starlink and connected millions around the world to high-speed internet
– Turned SpaceX into the most valuable private company in history
– Bought Twitter for $44 billion
– The world said he overpaid
– He was called reckless, stupid & crazy
– Advertisers fled, media declared it dead
– Critics called it the worst acquisition in tech history
– Renamed it x
– Rebuilt the platform anyway
– Turned it into one of the most influential platforms on Earth
– Launched xAI and accelerated the global AI race
– Sent astronauts to space
– Is trying to get humans to mars
– Created millions of jobs
– Generated hundreds of billions in value
– Inspired an entire generation of builders
Before:
– Failed repeatedly
– Worked insane hours
– Slept in factories and offices
– Got bullied, laughed at and mocked
– Constantly told “it’s impossible”
– Kept building anyway
– Made it possible
Today:
– Richest person on Earth
– First trillionaire in human history
– Largest IPO in history $1.77 trillion
