American Billionaire Elon Musk Sunday recalled the “unhappy days” of his childhood while responding to allegations that the Twitter CEO was born with a silver spoon, and hailed from a wealthy family. He also refuted the claims about his father Errol Musk owning an emerald mine.
Musk was responding to a tweet by a user named Déborah. While commenting on the claims that “Musk came to US with no money and graduated with over $100k in debt”, Déborah tweeted, “Even having a wealthy family, a student can have a lot of financial difficulties.”
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Responding to the tweet, Musk wrote in a long thread, “I grew up in a lower, transitioning to upper, middle income situation, but did not have a happy childhood. Haven’t inherited anything ever from anyone, nor has anyone given me a large financial gift.”
Musk claims his father ran a small company which went bankrupt
In his long Twitter thread, Musk also revealed that his father ran a small electrical/ mechanical engineering company for 25-30 years, but later faced financial difficulties. He also claimed that his father remained bankrupt for 25 years and sought financial assistance from him and his younger brother.
Musk also opened up on the controversy around his father owning an emerald mine in Africa. He wrote, “Regarding the so-called “emerald mine”, there is no objective evidence whatsoever that this mine ever existed. He told me that he owned a share in a mine in Zambia, and I believed him for a while, but nobody has ever seen the mine, nor are there any records of its existence.” He further wrote, “If this mine was real, he would not require financial support from my brother and me.”
“Father taught me values”: Musk
However, Musk took the opportunity to credit his father for the teachings that “are way more valuable than money”. Musk wrote, “That said, he does deserve credit for teaching me the fundamentals of physics, engineering and construction, which is more valuable than money.”
Elon Musk’s net worth is estimated at $178 billion. His wealth nosedived by $13 billion the day when SpaceX’s gigantic rocket turned into a fireball while attempting a take-off.
