The university and Elon Musk have a very special relationship. The founder of Tesla and recent owner of Twitter is the richest man in the world and, for many people, an example of a successful entrepreneur.
However, there is much effort and willingness to train and learn behind this success. Elon Musk has a background closely related to the entrepreneurial model he has become, directly related to technology and a very particular vision of the world.
Elon Musk is a different kind of billionaire with a solid university background
One of the most admired things about Tesla’s founder is his tenacity throughout his professional and business career. All the successes he has achieved have to do with a strong conviction in the industries he developed. But also in a solid education and a strong commitment to learning, especially in higher education and university.
Elon Musk showed an innate talent for technology and computer science even as a child. But he also had a very particular vision of business and entrepreneurship.
At the age of just 12, he was able to create and develop a video game that he managed to sell to a computer magazine.
At an age when other children only think about playing games or sports, Elon Musk not only developed video games he also showed great commercial vision when he tried to create an arcade near the high school where he studied. Only bureaucratic problems prevented making what would have been the billionaire’s first business.
The leap to Canada and the start of university studies
At the age of 18, Elon Musk moves to California. He was accepted to Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, for his undergraduate studies.
An important fact that shows the effort he had to make during his student years is that his family was not well off. To continue his higher education, he had to resort to obtaining a scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania.
At that university, he graduated with a degree in economics and physics. This degree would be the beginning of a career of studies and university specializations in continuous learning that he has never abandoned.
Elon Musk’s complementary studies
Musk has said on many occasions that he never stops studying and learning. He always spends time reading, mainly scientific publications or technological advances.
When someone else would have been satisfied with two university degrees, he would continue with further studies and specializations.
In this way, we see how he goes on to study for a degree in economics at a business school while at the same time learning about aspects such as renewable energy and new communications via the Internet.
At the age of 24, when he moved to California, he enrolled again, in this case at Stanford University, to start a PhD in applied physics.
This time would be his last period at the university as an enrolled student, as he would abandon these studies to begin his business career.