So, who was Elon Musk before he became a billionaire? Here's the story

Worth $21 billion, Tesla's chief has been through the grind, being ousted as CEO of his start-up and fired from his Paypal CEO role while honeymooning

At 12, he taught himself how to program... and consequently made a sci-fi inspired video game and sold it to South African tech magazine for $500. 

While he was studying at Unversity of Pensylvania in 1992, Elon Musk used to make an entire month of his rent in just one night, coding stuff.

Musk once applied for and failed to get a job at 'Netscape'. He was ousted as the CEO of his start-up. He was fired from his 'Paypal' CEO role while he was on a flight to his honeymoon.

His motto: If things aren't failing, you're not innovating enough.

In 1995, he dropped out of his PhD course in Energy physics at Stanford in order to start 'Zip2' which provided maps and directories to online newspapers. 

The idea arose from the three things he felt would change humanity- Internet, sustainable energy and space travel.

He taught himself rocket science before starting 'SpaceX'.

He believes in the 100-hour week. He reasons that if other people are working for 40 hours a week and you're working 100 hours, you'll learn something in four months what others would learn in a year.

At his first startup, he barely left his office, sleeping in a bean bag working 7 days a week. Four years later, he sold that business for $22 million. The world doesn't give you a billion dollars for nothing, says elon's ex-wife, Justine Musk, which makes it clear that luck doesn't get you into the Billion dollar club. The world gives you money for something it perceives to be of equal or greater value.

This is an excerpt from the article published on TechInAsia. You can read the full article here.