Erik Nordeus - The Engineer

The name of Elon and Justine’s first child was Nevada Alexander. When the boy was ten weeks old, they put him to bed on his back for a nap. But he stopped breathing. This was at the age when male infants are most susceptible to sudden infant death syndrome. The paramedics arrived and they resuscitated him. It was too late. The boy had been out of oxygen for so long that he was brain dead. 182

In 2004, the twins Griffin and Xavier were born, and in 2006, the triplets Kai, Damian, and Saxon were born. The children inherited the genius-boy-genes and at least one of them scored in the top percentile when he did an IQ test. He had neither the same problems with bullying in school as his parents had. “Even the older boys like to play with him,” his teacher said. 135

Before the children went to bed, they enjoyed listening to their mother’s made up Darth Vader stories. Vader is the bad guy in the Star Wars movies. “Bad guys and monsters are my favewits,” one of them said. Sometimes they liked a Chewbacca story, who may look like a monster, but is a really good guy. Justine knew what she told them – she was obsessed with the first Star Wars trilogy in high school. Her dream was to be an Angelina Jolie if she learned how to use the Force. 148,152,176

As the children grew older, Elon took them to Disneyland. “I’ve been to Disneyland like ten times. I’m getting really tired of Disneyland,” he said. 53Together with his former roommate Adeo Ressi, both families have begun with Daddy Camping, which is camping trips with their children to the Yosemite National Park. 117Elon is also building model rockets and play video games with his kids. 127

Elon, who earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and economics with an unofficial minor in first-person shooter games, continued playing games. When Elon and his friends were deep inside a game, Justine realized she had to feed them. “Because you have the feeling that your husband and friend would gnaw their own flesh rather than break from their playing to scrounge for something so silly as food,” Justine said. 149Elon’s favorite games included BioShock and Fallout – both games unfolds in a dark future. Maybe the same future Elon is saving us from?

Justine was worried. “My fear is that we become spoiled brats, that we lose a sense of appreciation and perspective,” she said when Elon bought the McLaren F1. 27

Several years later, the relationship began to crumble. “Elon’s central relationship is with his work. I like to compare him to the Terminator. He sets his program and just… will… not… stop,” Justine said. 59When Elon and Justine were going somewhere in the evening, they arrived individually. Elon came nearly always directly from the office. “He’s not some rich guy sitting by a pool somewhere. When I go home at eight o’clock at night, his car is still in the lot,” an employee said. 4

“I came to the United States because this was the one place where all of this was possible – to make your fortune, but to also realize dreams,” Elon said. “On the other hand, you can’t just dream, you have to work hard at it.” 60A high intrinsic drive is the factor that made it possible for Elon to reach the point he has in life. “I can get really set on something, and then I just keep going in that direction,” he said. “If other people are putting in 40-hour workweeks, and you’re putting in 100-hour workweeks, then, even if you’re doing the same thing, you will achieve in four months what it takes them a year to achieve.” 326,409His brother agreed. “Elon has the incredible ability and determination to work and work on an idea until he has the solution,” Kimbal Musk said. “If he believes it’s possible – and he always does when it’s a problem he’s working on – there’s no option for turning back with him. When 99.99 percent of people would have given up, Elon finds the solution that amazes everyone around him.” 128

To be more efficient, Elon performs multiple tasks at the same time. When he talks in the phone, he tries to check out an e-mail, look at a spreadsheet, or search for equipment on the Internet. He e-mail during the transition periods, such as walking between meetings or while eating. 71When Elon is in multitasking mood, someone trying to talk to him has to try multiple times before Elon realizes there’s someone else in the same room. 49“It’s helpful to have an iPhone so I can work during the interstitial moments when the kids don’t need me,” Elon said. “But basically, my life consists of work, kids, wife, and sleep.” 433

Except boiled carrots, Elon loves food, especially from the Indian kitchen. 116But he doesn’t have any time to really enjoy the food. While eating an entire meal in under five minutes, he discusses work related topics. “In the early days, when Elon would have lunch meetings, I used to have to tell people that they shouldn’t worry if he’d already finished before they even sat down,” Elon’s assistant said. 54

Ambitious people hate the fact they have to sleep. What a waste of time! Elon experimented with how much sleep he really needed. The answer is around six to six and a half hours. “Someone like Elon Musk doesn’t sleep much, he’s making decisions at midnight, or two in the morning, or five in the morning,” a Tesla employee said. 335To stay awake, Elon drank eight cans of Diet Coke together with several cups of coffee. “I got so freaking jacked that I seriously started to feel like I was losing my peripheral vision. Now, the office has caffeine-free Diet Coke,” he said. 71

Elon worked long days. When he came home, he was tired. Because Elon was tired, small problems became large. Elon and Justine began arguing about things like whether Justine read too much, about the house, when the kids should go to bed, or if Justine’s hair should become more blonder. 182

The first turning point came when Justine was involved in a car accident while driving her Maserati. “There was a crunch of metal as her car plowed into mine, and when we skidded to a halt, my first thought wasn’t, ‘Thank God nobody’s hurt.’ It was, ‘My husband is going to kill me,’” Justine said. “And in my mind’s eye, I could suddenly see myself: a woman who’d gotten very thin, and very blonde, stumbling out of a very expensive car with the front-left wheel smashed in.” 182

Everyone around Justine thought she was one of those wives with a rich husband who never work. They never asked her “What do you do?” because they assumed she didn’t do anything. 182In reality, she worked as an author and released the book Blood Angel in 2005. It got mostly positive reviews on Amazon.

On one occasion, Justine would meet a friend of a friend at the airport. But they didn’t recognize each other because both had preconceived conceptions on how a rich woman should act and look like. “I heard you were ‘the wife,’ right, and I thought you’d be all la-di-da, loaded down with jewelry and ordering people around and I thought you’d be mean,” the friend of a friend told Justine. “But you came in and you were so down-to-earth and you got out of a cab. I just didn’t think that would be you.” 158

Justine could sometimes dream of the life she had back in her twenties. She was always broke, she was often lonely, but she was free. 179And after the move from San Francisco to Los Angeles, it became worse. “I could no longer hide my boredom when the men talked and the women smiled and listened,” Justine said. “I wasn’t interested in Botox or makeup or reducing the appearance of the scars from my C-sections. The men were highly intelligent and successful. The girls were sweet and bright enough, but academia had never been much of a priority. Still, I was struck by how they would break into conversation with a comment so many light-years away from the sophisticated discourse going on around the table that I would think they were joking. They weren’t joking.” 140,178,182