The dazzling electric car and astronaut Elon Musk was awarded the 2021 Person of the Year award by the American “Time” magazine. “Few people have a greater impact on life on Earth and possibly beyond than Elon Musk,” Time editor-in-chief Edward Filsenthal said Monday.
The magazine honors the 50-year-old for “finding solutions to an existential crisis, embodying the possibilities and dangers of the age of tech giants and pushing forward the boldest and most comprehensive transformations of society.”
How did Elon Musk get his success?
Musk, who runs the private space company SpaceX in addition to Tesla, is considered the richest person in the world with an estimated fortune of more than $300 billion.
Born in South Africa, he first immigrated to Canada as a teenager. Four years later he moved to the United States, where he studied physics and economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Musk once earned his seed money as a co-founder of the payment service Paypal, and made a fortune when it was acquired by Ebay in 2002.
Tesla, SpaceX, and more
Musk is expanding worldwide with Tesla – the company is currently building its first plant in Europe near Berlin. After Tesla was on the verge of bankruptcy a few years ago, Musk is now by far the world’s most valuable automaker on the stock exchange. His space company, SpaceX, which will one day take people to Mars, is also a huge success.
Musk has recently mixed up the crypto landscape in particular. The rowdy entrepreneur and father of six has a huge influence on the prices of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Dogecoin through his tweets. Musk is very active on Twitter. There are more than 57 million users who follow it. Musk is celebrated by many as a genius and visionary. However, he has repeatedly created negative headlines with provocative tweets.
Elon Musk’s workaholic
A few years ago, Musk gave The New York Times deep personal insights in an interview. He hasn’t taken more than a week off since 2001, when he was bedridden with malaria for a while. He works 120 hours a week. “There were times when I wouldn’t leave the factory for three or four days,” Musk said. Sometimes he finds peace only with sleeping pills.
In addition to Person of the Year, TIME also named Covid-19 vaccine developer as Champion, gymnast Simone Biles as Athlete of the Year and singer Olivia Rodrigo as Female Artist of the Year. “Time” has been voted Person of the Year for nearly a century. Last year, the title went to current US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.