Elon Musk, the world's richest person with a total net worth of $210 billion at the time of writing, had a tumultuous relationship with his father, Errol Musk. The tech mogul had to embark on a journey to the U.S. without his father's blessings.
What Happened: Earlier this month, a fan account shared a snippet from the Tesla CEO’s life which the billionaire later confirmed, saying Elon attempted to persuade his parents to move to the U.S. with him and his siblings.
However, his parents didn't show much interest. Undeterred, Elon took matters into his own hands and visited the Canadian consulate. He procured application forms for passports and filled them out for himself, his mother, and his siblings, excluding his father.
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He initially attempted to obtain U.S. citizenship on the grounds that his maternal grandfather’s birthplace was in Minnesota. However, this effort failed because his mother, born in Canada, had never claimed U.S. citizenship. The tech mogul then decided that moving to Canada might be an easier first step, according to Musk’s biography.
As per the fan account, on June 11, 1989, Elon had a farewell dinner with his family at Pretoria’s finest restaurant, Cynthia’s. At the time Errol Musk, unimpressed with his plans, told him, “You’ll be back in a few months.” Adding, “You’ll never be successful.”
In an interview with Kevin Rose which was published in 2012 on YouTube, Elon said he always wanted to come to the U.S. “It always seemed like when there was cool technology or things happening, it was kinda of in the U.S. So, my goal as a kid was to get to get to America basically.”
Why It Matters: Musk’s strained relationship with his father, Errol Musk, has been well-documented. On Father’s Day 2022, Musk reminisced about his “bleak” childhood and his father’s negative influence.
In August of the same year, Errol Musk publicly stated that he was proud of Elon’s younger brother Kimbal Musk, calling him his “pride and joy.”
Walter Isaacson, who wrote Elon Musk's biography, previously highlighted the relationship between the entrepreneur and his father. He revealed the psychological scars inflicted by Elon Musk’s father and their lasting impact on his personality and drive.
“Elon Musk’s father instilled his drive but also his demons, beginning at an early age. In my book, Elon and his brother Kimbal tell vivid and psychologically brutal tales and the scars they left, and their father Errol spends hours giving his own side forcefully,” Isaacson said in July last year.
Isaacson mentioned that when Elon left South Africa for Canada, his father gave him $2,000 in traveler's cheques, and his mother provided an additional $2,000.
In a 2018 post on X, formerly Twitter, Elon Musk said he arrived in North America at the age of 17 with $2000.
He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and later went to attend Stanford University only to drop out after two days. The tech mogul obtained American citizenship in 2002 when he was 31 years old.
Photo via Shutterstock
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