Elon Musk: From Risk to Riches and Challenging the Skies

In 1989 a South African immigrant, Elon Musk moved to Canada to avoid mandatory service in the South African military. From Canada he migrated to University of Pennsylvania in 1992 to study business and physics. Shortly thereafter he headed to Stanford University in California to pursue a Ph.D in energy physics where he dropped out and founded a company Zip2 corporation. The company was later purchased by Compaq for $307 million.?

In 1999 Musk co-founded X.com, which through acquisition led to the creation of PayPal. In 2002 it was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion, Musk owned 11% of Paypal at the time. Using his fortune Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the intention of building spacecraft for commercial space travel. In 2003, Musk created another venture Tesla Motors, a company dedicated to producing affordable, mass-market electric cars.?

However, in 2008 both companies were taking unsustainable losses as the Tesla cars were not performing and SpaceX had 2 failed rocket launches and not yet proven that it could successfully put a rocket in space. Musk was down to his last $20 million in personal fortune without the help from investors, banks or funding he decides to invest everything into his companies.?

In 2008, the company successfully sends its first rocket into Space and NASA awarded the company it’s first ever contract to handle cargo transport for the International Space Station.?

That contract single handedly revitalized SpaceX providing the cash flow it needed to keep the doors open and get back on track. Subsequently with an influx in cash the company was able to resolve funding issues at Tesla, fix the problems with the engine and start mass producing electric cars.

https://www.energy.gov/lpo/tesla

Today both company’s are multi-billion firms and household names. Elon Musk is a multi-billionaire and is a hero to the modern day entrepreneur.

ULA defends Air Force's "block buy" rocket contract

https://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1404/29ulablockbuy/#.WEkT96IrLeQ

In a lawsuit filed by SpaceX against the US government, the company contends that they only wanted the opportunity to compete for a slice of the government $11 Billion EELV (evolved expendable launch vehicle) contract award.? The California based firm offers a low cost alternative that could save taxpayers billions of dollars but were side stepped by the Washington beltway machine. Unlike their counterparts at Boeing that sued the government in an effort to maximize profits, SpaceX suit was an attempt to level the playing field and eliminate exclusive non compete sole source award contract awards that are “fiscally irresponsible and offensive to American values of fairness and competition”.?????

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) is a joint venture by Boeing and Lockheed Martin currently #2 and #1 respectively of the Top 100 government contractors for 2015. The SpaceX Falcon 9 engine and the majority of it’s components are made in the USA. While Boeing Atlas 5 rocket relies on the Russian RD-180 fist-stage engine to launch U.S. national security payloads.?

The SpaceX legal challenge claims the block buy is an "exclusive deal" that "was concluded outside of public scrutiny" and includes one rocket, the Atlas 5, that relies on a Russian RD-180 first-stage engine to launch U.S. national security payloads.

As a result, SpaceX argues, the contract "funnels hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to Russia's military-industrial base, including monies that may flow to individuals on the U.S. sanctions list."

"Further, it defers meaningful free competition for years to come, costing taxpayers billions of dollars more," the complaint alleges. "Beyond violating core tenets of government procurement law, the ULA Contract is dangerous, fiscally irresponsible and offensive to American values of open competition and fairness."

SpaceX suit was an attempt to level the playing field and eliminate exclusive non compete sole source award contract awards that were “fiscally irresponsible and offensive to American values of fairness and competition”.?

What does Chobani, SpaceX and many other dozens of companies have in common? They were all created, saved or subsidized by the federal government and U.S. taxpayers.

Our U.S. federal government for all it’s criticism is helping to create new industries, markets and support entrepreneurs. They are taking a chance on people and companies with little to no track record. You don’t have to be Chobani or SpaceX because before the company names existed, they were Elon and Hamdi. In fact, I interviewed a local entrepreneur who started a nursing care facility in Las Vegas and all his facilities were impart funded using SBA dollars.

This quest that you are on, I want to invite you to stay the course, be diligent and work the system. The U.S. financial system rewards people who are doers handsomely. They will put all their expertise and resources behind you, your company, your brand and your wild