Elon Musk a billionaire thanks to ‘strict father, South African upbringing’

Elon Musk has been active in the news cycle lately – from buying Twitter for US$44 billion to saying his life might be under threat, and forcing Tesla employees to return to the office.

Despite all the publicity, not much is known about the SpaceX and The Boring Company CEO’s early life in apartheid-era South Africa.

Speaking to AFP, Elon Musk’s father said he raised his sons “as South African boys” and with “the same discipline he learnt in the military”.

Errol Musk speaks

“I was a strict father. My word was the law. They learnt from me,” the 76-year-old Errol Musk told AFP’s Graeme Raubenheimer and John van der Berg.

Errol said Elon had ambitions of being the wealthiest man alive from an early age and credits the ‘uber-macho South African boy’ upbringing as the driving force.

“It’s part of the way we lived, the way I lived. We strove to be the best we could”.

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Errol, a retired engineer and property developer who currently lives in Langebaan, said striving to be the best is “sort of our make-up, we sort of expect that”.

Elon Musk’s childhood

Of Elon’s childhood, Errol said his son had always been unusual, speaking without a filter and playing pranks. He would also often join adult conversations.

“Even as young as four years old, he would tend to sit with adult people,” said Errol. Once, when told by a guest to join the other children, Elon replied: “No, I prefer to listen to you”.

When young Elon announced that he planned to be a millionaire another adult apparently scoffed at him. Errol remembers “this man laughing, holding his drink and cigarette and saying, ‘When you grow up you’ll see. It’s not like that… you’re going to be disappointed’.

“Elon responded, ‘Well, I think you’re stupid'”.

Strained relationship

Despite the pleasant walk down memory lane, Elon has on numerous occasions said he had an unhappy childhood, describing it as “excruciating”.

Back in 2015, Bloomberg technology reporter Ashlee Vance authored Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, describing the tech billionaire as bookish and awkward.

Musk had said his father was emotionally abusive and tough on his children. Errol would allegedly tell Elon and his brother, Kimbal, “to sit silently for hours as he lectured them”.

Despite the hiccups in their relationship, Errol said they now “care about each other”. However, Errol hasn’t physically seen his son in six years.

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