[throwawaysea]

Grew up rich? I don't think that's accurate. I know a lot of Musk-hating articles have been played up, particularly on socialist Twitter circles, alleging that Musk inherited family wealth from an emerald mine. But this is simply not true. The emerald mine story is dubious and vague, and it's only real mention is from Ashlee Vance's book on Musk, and her source is Elon's father. Elon and his mother fled an allegedly abusive relationship with the father, and had nothing in terms of wealth. It's why Elon had to work odd jobs after moving (https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/03/odd-jobs-elon-musk-had-when-...).

[coliveira]

It is well know that Elon's father is a successful owner of an engineering company in South Africa. If something was missing in his youth it was not money. Of course, his father being rich didn't immediately translate into personal wealth for him, that's why these people like to claim that they are "self made".

[icapulet2]

Elon later got thousands of dollars from his dad to start Zip2 so it's not like he ran away without a safety net. He did what so many other trust fund babies have done: He slummed. Stop contributing to the Horatio Algers narrative that Musk spins, among hundreds of other yarns,

[throwawaysea]

Per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip2

> In Ashlee Vance's biography of Elon Musk, it is claimed that the Musks' father, Errol Musk, provided them with US$28,000 during this time,[4]:Ch.4 but Elon Musk later denied this.[6] He later clarified that his dad provided around 10% of US$200,000 as part of a later funding round.[7]

I feel like someone who is able to get 90% of their funding round could either convince an existing investor in the round or convince someone else to join the round. This doesn't sound like money to "start Zip2" as you claim.

Also, note that Elon had to shower at a YMCA while starting up Zip2 (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/19/how-elon-musk-founded-zip2-w...). Does that really sound like a "trust fund baby" to you? I feel like a lot of the myths trying to tear down Elon Musk's successes are all sourced from Ashlee Vance's book, which in turn are based on, as I understand it, interviews of Errol Musk himself (the father).