About

Elon Fitzcarraldo Musk was born in Krasnoyarsk in the former Soviet Union in 1965 to a family of itinerant Siberian gypsies. At the age of six, Musk set off on his own, eventually settling in Pretoria, South Africa, where he earned a reputation for his biting wit and his appetite for rare earth minerals.

Musk quickly taught himself the alphabet at the age of thirteen and began to read, but soon abandoned literacy for clinical psychology. At the age of twenty-two he tried unsuccessfully to open a zoo, then fled South Africa for his native Siberia, where he bought an emerald mine.

Elon Musk has applied for Mensa membership a record 197 times. Musk can also play checkers blindfolded and is the reigning South African hot dog speed eating champion, having devoured 219 Nathan’s wieners in under thirty-two seconds.