How The Twisted Childhood of Elon Musk Changed The World Forever

Okay, we need to get to the bottom of who Elon Musk really is. Okay, so when did it all start? It's not when or where, but who. It starts with the world's oldest supermodel. Her name is May, like the month, but with an E at the end. Thanks for spelling my name, Elon. It says May Haldeman immigrated from Canada to South Africa in 1950. 20 years later, she married Errol Musk. And a year after that, in 1971, Elon was born. Yeah, he always was very curious. And when he started reading, anything he read, he memorized. I mean, he knew exactly what he read. I thought I was insane. Why did you think you were insane? Because it was clear that other people did not... Their mind wasn't exploding with ideas. They wouldn't understand you? I hope they wouldn't find out, because they might, like, put me away or something. You thought that? For a second, yes. He hated going to school, because the other kids liked to follow him home. And they would throw soda cans at his head. Wasn't his parents' marriage tumultuous? Yeah, Errol was allegedly abusive. Allegedly. Did you suffer that kind of abuse? Yes. You know, there was a saying in South Africa, when you get divorced, you stop falling in the shower. Because every time you have a scene with bruises, you said you fell in the shower. Elon never talks about his father. Why is that? Whenever the topic of Errol arrives, members of Elon's family clam up. They're in agreement that he is not a pleasant man to be around. I was not a happy childhood. My father has serious issues. So he sought refuge in computer games, which got him into coding. He made a space-themed video game called Blaster. What did video games do for you? They made me want to learn how to program computers. Because then I thought, well, I could make my own games. You get to control something. They construct a little universe. When I was in high school, we called them geeks. And it was not a compliment. What is a geek? Somebody who is obsessed with learning something, mastering a skill set or a body of knowledge, and would rather do that than develop social skills. I think on Wikipedia, it says that I was inspired by my father in terms of technology. This is actually not true. I think that needs to be corrected. He's somewhat of a Luddite, actually, in many respects, particularly computers. He didn't want to buy a computer and refused to use computers and said they would never amount to anything. As far as role models, Neil Armstrong was one of his heroes. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Do you think, from your knowledge of the moon, having been there, that it is going to be possible in the foreseeable future to set up scientific bases there on anything like a large scale? Oh, I'm quite certain that we'll have such bases in our lifetime. That, right there, that's what gave Elon his purpose. When I was growing up, I'd read lots of books and they were very often set in the United States. It seemed like a lot of new technology was being developed in the United States. So I thought, OK, I really want to work on new technology. So I want to get to Silicon Valley. 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. In the following years, he founded Zip2 and then PayPal. So this is an ATM. What we're going to do is transform the traditional banking industry. I met him when I was 18, he was 19. We were at college. Science fiction novelist Justine Wilson. My fear is that we become spoiled brats, that we lose a sense of appreciation and perspective. How many kids do they have? Six. I'm only counting five. I had a son who died at 10 weeks. It was called a SIDS-related incident. And I went to Burning Man, I think, six times after that happened. And I had a ritual I would do. And I would go to the Temple of Loss. But I always found a place on one of the walls and I would write, Nevada, Alexander, Musk. He was a good baby. And then they would set the temple on fire. And that ritual was incredibly comforting to me. Did Elon ever talk about it? No. He just threw himself into his work. There need to be things that make you look forward to waking up in the morning. Wake up in the morning, you look forward to the day, forward to the future. A future where we are a space-faring civilization and out there among the stars, I think that's very exciting. We create a parallel world to escape the world that rejects us, or the world that we find too painful to live in. But some people are so good at doing this and master such an amazing skill set that they take their world and they infuse it into our world and they change it. And these are the people we call visionaries. 2008, the rocket company is not going well. You've had three failures. Right. The car company is hemorrhaging money. Yeah. Each month that passes, it literally costs us tens of millions of dollars. I mean, we need to appreciate that. And the American economy has tanked in the worst recession since the Great Depression. Right. This is serious. This is a major threat to our economy. What was that year like for you? And I'm getting forced, by the way, to add to that. And then came the betrayal. Who betrayed him? SpaceX's lack of experience bothers some NASA legends, like Apollo astronauts Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan. But having cut my teeth in rockets more than 50 years ago, I am not confident. Now is the time to overrule this administration's pledge to mediocrity. You know, there are American heroes who don't like this idea. Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan. And I wonder what you think of that. I was very sad to see that because those guys are, yeah. Those guys are heroes of mine, so it's really tough. They inspired you to do this, didn't they? Yes. And to see them casting stones in your direction. It's difficult. Did you expect them to cheer you on? So they hope and they would. What are you trying to prove to them? I think he understood at that moment that he would never fit in. But I think people can choose to be not ordinary. You know, they can choose to not necessarily conform to the conventions that were taught to them by their parents. So yes, I think it's possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary. But the edge can be a very interesting place to be. I mean, it can be lonely and painful and sometimes dangerous, and I don't mean to underplay any of that. But it's also the place where something is in the process of turning into something else. Revolution enters at the edges. Well, we've spent part, if not most, if not all of our lives trying to amputate those parts of ourselves that did not fit. You know, we've tried to be pleasing and we've tried to do what's expected and we suck at it. And we eventually reach a point where we realize that we are so depressed or stuck or numbed out that the only way to save ourselves is to figure out how to be ourselves on purpose. Before we call these people visionaries, before they have that kind of success, we have other words for them. We call them, you know, geek or outsider, socially awkward, weird, a little different, odd one out. When critics say you can't do this, your answer to them is, we've done it. That's what outsiders do. They don't change the world from within by fitting in or conforming. They change the world by creating a new one. Elon Musk visited Amber Heard late at night while Johnny was away. They were also caught on camera together in the elevator of the building, getting a little bit handsy. Hurts my brain and my heart. I don't know what I did. Had anyone brought this to your attention? No, I was just looking at it.