Elon Musk The 28 Year Old Who Bet 400 Million on the Internet

Elon Musk speaking. It's 7 o'clock in the morning and Elon Musk anxiously waits for his golden payoff. His prize for paying his dues in the Valley. I expect to receive a car that I've just bought which is called McLaren F1. It's a million dollars for a car. It's decadent. There are 62 McLarens in the world and I will own one of them. Back in 95, there weren't very many people on the internet. And certainly nobody was making any money at all. Most people thought the internet was going to be a fad. Not this South African entrepreneur. Musk sold his first computer program at the age of 12 and he hasn't stopped selling since. Wow, I can't believe it's actually here. It's pretty wild, man. Just three years ago, I was showering at the Y and sleeping on the office floor. And now, obviously I've got a million dollar car and quite a few creature comforts. It's just a moment in my life. All clear. My values may have changed, but I'm not consciously aware of my values having changed. My fear is that we become spoiled brats, that we lose a sense of appreciation and perspective. A year ago, Musk sold his software company, Zip2, which enabled newspapers to publish online for $400 million cash. Receiving cash is cash. I mean, those are just a large number of Ben Franklin's. It's the perfect car for Silicon Valley. It really is. There it is, gentlemen. The fastest car in the world. I could go and buy one of the islands in the Bahamas and turn it into my personal fiefdom. I'm much more interested in trying to build and create a new company. So this is an ATM. What we're going to do is transform the traditional banking industry. I do not fit the picture of a banker. Come, this is Julie. Raising $50 million is a matter of making a series of phone calls. And the money is there. I've sunk the great majority of my net worth into X.com, which is the new banking and mutual funds company on the Internet that I've started. Big X. Exactly. X.com. I think X.com could absolutely be a multi-billion dollar bonanza. Because if you look at the industry that X is pursuing, it's the biggest sector of the world economy. Is that a McLaren F1? Yes. Oh my God. That's unbelievable. It's sort of like a series of poker games. And now I've gone on to a more high-stakes poker game and just carry those chips with me. And I haven't gone and taken my winnings and spent a big chunk, but I've just really put almost all of it back into the new game. No, I'd say the real payoff is the sense of satisfaction in having created the company that I sold. Yes, yes, yes. With the cars. With the cars, sure. The cars. Sure as ****. Let's be honest. Sure as ****. You'll take the car. You talk to any of these people who have hit the jackpot early, they don't even have a conceptualization of the amount of money that they have. It's funny money. It's something you don't even think about. The amazing thing is that almost none of them quit, even when they could. It's not a vesting thing. It's not that there's some secret clause in there that keeps them from doing it. They want to do what they're doing. They think that to stop doing that is death. I'd like to be on the cover of Rolling Stone. That'd be cool. What you've got going on with the internet is it's basically like an earthquake where the epicenter is Silicon Valley. And it's shaking up the whole world. So this is still a new series for me. I'd love to know if you like it, if I should continue with profiling different entrepreneurs and their young starts. Let me know in the comments below. And if you want to see the last one I did on Jeff Bezos from his 1997 interview, go check out the link right there next to me. I think you'll enjoy it. Continue to believe and I'll see you there. Where did you get an idea for Amazon.com? Well, three years ago, I was in New York City working for a quantitative hedge fund.