Elon Musk, tech enthusiast and entrepreneur unconventional in his approach to applying tech to world problems has been named the Time Person of the year for 2021. According to Time magazine, 2021 was the year of Elon Unbound. In April, his company SpaceX won NASA’s exclusive contract to put U.S. astronauts on the moon for the first time since 1972. In May, Musk hosted Saturday Night Live. In October, car-rental giant Hertz announced it planned to add 100,000 Teslas to its fleet.
He has a net worth of more than $250 billion making him the the richest private citizen in history. In 1995, Musk co-founded his first company, Zip2, an online city guide that was a precursor to MapQuest and Yelp. He was 25 at the time and his mother, Maye Musk told Time, “… he was always different. He was my little genius boy. From the time he was 3, we used to call him that—Genius Boy.”
Musk began his life in Pretoria, South Africa and as a schoolboy was bullied when vicious gangs of bullies targeted him relentlessly, at one point beating him so badly he was hospitalized, until he hit a growth spurt in high school and started punching back.
The tech icon who has two siblings; Kimbal and Tosca was mocked as a crazy con artist on the verge of going broke few years ago. However, in his special Time feature, he is described as a shy South African with Asperger’s syndrome, who escaped a brutal childhood and overcame personal tragedy, bends governments and industry to the force of his ambition.
Along with his brother, Kimbal, Elon has always been at the verge of taking over the world with ideas, so while Kimbal tried to drum up business, Elon wrote code nonstop.
Their first company, Zip2, was the first Internet mapping service, using GPS data to help consumers find businesses in their neighborhood—a precursor to MapQuest. In 1999, Compaq bought the company and Musk netted $22 million for his share. For his next act, Musk decided to reimagine the global banking system. His company, X.com, eventually became part of PayPal, which was purchased by eBay in 2002.
Relationship wise, Musk has not been very successful. Fathering 7 children, the tech enthusiast has been married twice and recently announced a semi-separation from his partner with whom he has a toddler named X Æ A-Xii. Per the future, Musk hopes it is a time when no one tells you what to do. Robots perform all the labor, and goods and services are abundant, so people only work because they want to. “There’s, like, plenty for everyone, essentially,” he says.
The magazine also recognized Vaccine Scientists as HEROES of the year, gymnast Simone Biles as ATHLETE of the year and Olivia Rodrigo as ENTERTAINER of the year.
