Elon Musk reveals the challenges he faced at the start of his career

The world's richest man Elon Musk has hit out at detractors attempting to link his success to his wealthy upbringing.

The world's richest man Elon Musk has hit out at detractors attempting to link his success to his wealthy upbringing.

The owner of Tesla, Space -X and now Twitter (among others) has frequently been accused of riding on the coat-tails of his family fortune, having enjoyed a well-off childhood in part due to his father‘s position as co-owner of an Emerald mine in Zambia.

Elon Musk, pictured at 17, had a rich upbringing in South Africa. Picture: Supplied

However, in an exchange on Twitter this week, Musk stressed that his first years as an entrepreneur were characterised by student debt, unreliable accommodation and constant hard work.

Musk’s revelations began when a fan tagged him in a tweet: “If being born to a well-off family is why Elon Musk succeeded extravagantly in life then explain to me why all these rich kids go to art school, never get a job, and waste away?”

Musk quickly responded: “Yeah, kids starting with lots of money usually have much less motivation than those who have nothing.

“When we started our first company (Zip2) in ‘95, I had over $100k of student debt, a computer I built myself and a few thousand dollars.”

Yeah, kids starting with lots of money usually have much less motivation than those who have nothing.

When we started our first company (Zip2) in 95, I had over $100k of student debt, a computer I built myself and a few thousand dollars.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 3, 2022

Musk revealed that during the early Zip2 days, he and co-founders – brother Kimbal and the late investor Greg Kouri – turned their share house into a nightclub, charging $5 for entry to help pay the bills.

Musk was also known to have slept on the Zip2 office couch and showered at a YMCA before the company found success.

Yeah, we paid for rent by turning the house into a nightclub & charging $5

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 3, 2022

Coinciding with the dotcom boom of the 1990s, Zip2 provided a searchable business directory and city guide for small businesses and newspapers, similar to the yellow pages, with maps included.

Musk went on to sell Zip2 to infotech company Compaq for $US307 million in 1999, providing the break he needed to launch his multifaceted career.

Earlier this week, Musk made his first public appearance since his purchase of Twitter for an estimated $US61.4 billion last month, attending the Met Gala with his mother, model Maye Musk.

CEO of Tesla Motors Elon Musk speaks at the Tesla Giga Texas manufacturing Cyber Rodeo grand opening party in Austin, Texas. Picture: Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP

When quizzed about his plans for the platform, Musk revealed he wanted to make the site as “inclusive as possible,” and service a “broad swath of people”.

However, his acquisition of the site has left employees at the company far from thrilled, with leaked internal communications last month revealing a furious reaction from staff, some of whom claimed they were “going through the five stages of grief”.

“A Musk-owned Twitter is one of the greatest threats to the 2022 and 2024 elections. We are f**ked if this happens,” one staffer reportedly wrote, while another lamented “sometimes I think (the future) can’t be as bad as I’m imagining it’ll be. Then I see something like this and I’m all, ‘Nope it’ll be even worse.’”