The biography of Elon Musk, known as the founder of Tesla and SpaceX and the longtime chief executive of X (formerly Twitter), traces a bold start that began far from the corporate boardrooms of his later life. At seventeen, Musk left his homeland in South Africa with a modest sum of about $4,000 in his pocket. His first stop on the road to global entrepreneurship was a university dormitory in Canada, where he shared a cramped room with five roommates. This early period, described in depth by biographer Walter Isaacson, frames Musk’s youth as a prelude to the ambitious ventures that would come to define him later in life (Source: Isaacson biography).
According to Isaacson’s account, the departure from South Africa occurred in 1989 when Musk was 17 years old. He received approximately $2,000 from his parents, May and Errol Musk, to support the move. The choice to head to Canada was practical as well as strategic: Musk had Canadian citizenship through his mother, which granted him access to a Canadian passport and opened doors to study and opportunities that were not as readily available in his home country at the time (Source: Isaacson biography). This move set the stage for Musk’s education abroad and the global perspective that would influence his subsequent ventures.
Life in the dormitory was modest and utilitarian. Musk’s shared space—a small room housing six roommates—was a stark contrast to the eventual grandeur of his later achievements. The dormitory experience, as outlined in the biography, offered a window into the frugal and focused years that preceded his discovery of what he would pursue next in life. The conditions were not glamorous, but they provided a crucible in which early resilience and self-reliance could take hold (Source: Isaacson biography).
During the process of writing the biography, Isaacson conducted a concise interview with Errol Musk, Elon Musk’s father. In their conversation, Errol described the family’s situation in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including a period when he served briefly as a co-owner of an emerald mine. The revelation underscored the volatility of wealth and the way fortunes can shift in the blink of an economy’s eye. The mine did not sustain long-term prosperity, and the family’s financial path reflects the unpredictable trajectories that many ambitious families experience during rapid political and economic changes (Source: Isaacson biography).
A note from recent reporting indicates that Musk has at times given minimal attention to questions from journalists about geopolitical topics, including Ukraine. This broader context of public interest has continued to shape how the public perceives Musk, even as his companies pursue ambitious goals across energy, transportation, and technology (Source: Isaacson biography). These moments illustrate the tension between a public figure’s private life and the broader narrative built around cutting-edge ventures.