Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet
Earth
in 2004 and recounted the company’s tumultuous journey. The book painted Musk as an
egomaniacal, stubborn jerk, making wrong decisions at every turn, and portrayed Thiel and Levchin as
heroic geniuses. Valleywag, the technology industry gossip site, piled on as well and turned bashing Musk
into one of its pet projects. The criticisms grew to the point that people started wondering aloud whether
or not Musk counted as a true cofounder of PayPal or had just ridden Thiel’s coattails to a magical
payday. The tone of the book along with the blog posts goaded Musk in 2007 into writing a 2,200-word e-
mail to Valleywag meant to set the record straight with his version of events.
In the e-mail, Musk let his literary flair loose and gave the public a direct look at his combative side.
He described Jackson as “a sycophantic jackass” and “one notch above an intern,” who had little insight
into the high-level goings-on at the company. “Since Eric worships Peter, the outcome was obvious—
Peter sounds like Mel Gibson in 
Braveheart
and my role is somewhere between negligible and a bad
seed,” Musk wrote. Musk then detailed seven reasons why he deserved cofounder status of PayPal,
including his role as its largest shareholder, the hiring of a lot of the top talent, the creation of a number of
the company’s most successful business ideas, and his time as CEO when the company went from sixty to
several hundred employees.
Almost everyone I interviewed from the PayPal days leaned toward agreeing with Musk’s overall
assessment. They said that Jackson’s account bordered on fantasy when it came to celebrating the
Confinity team over Musk and the X.com team. “There are a lot of PayPal people that suffer from warped
memories,” said Botha.
But these same people reached another consensus, saying that Musk had mishandled the branding,
technology infrastructure, and fraud situations. “I think it would have killed the company if Elon had
stayed on as CEO for six more months,” said Botha. “The mistakes Elon was making at the time were
amplifying the risk of the business.” (For more on Musk’s take on the PayPal years, see Appendix 2.)
The suggestions that Musk did not count as a “true” cofounder of PayPal seem asinine in retrospect.
Thiel, Levchin, and other PayPal executives have said as much in the years since the eBay deal closed.
The only useful thing such criticisms produced were the bombastic counteroffensives from Musk, which
revealed touches of insecurity and the seriousness with which Musk insists that the historical record
reflect his take on events. “He comes from the school of thought in the public relations world that you let
no inaccuracy go uncorrected,” said Vince Sollitto, the former communications chief at PayPal. “It sets a
precedent, and you should fight every out-of-place comma tooth and nail. He takes things very personally
and usually seeks war.”
The stronger critique of Musk during this period of his life was that he had succeeded to a large

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degree despite himself. Musk’s traits as a confrontational know-it-all and his abundant ego created deep,
lasting fractures within his companies. While Musk consciously tried to temper his behavior, these efforts
were not enough to win over investors and more experienced executives. At both Zip2 and PayPal, the
companies’ boards came to the conclusion that Musk was not yet CEO material. It can also be argued that
Musk had become a hyperbolic huckster, who overreached and oversold his companies’ technology.
Musk’s biggest detractors have made all of these arguments either in public or private and a half dozen or
so of them said far worse things to me about his character and actions, describing Musk as unethical in
business and vicious with his personal attacks. Almost universally, these people were unwilling to go on
the record with their comments, claiming to be afraid Musk would pursue litigation against them or ruin
their ability to do business.
These criticisms must be weighed against Musk’s track record. He demonstrated an innate ability to
read people and technology trends at the inception of the consumer Web. While others tried to wrap their
heads around the Internet’s implications, Musk had already set off on a purposeful plan of attack. He
envisioned many of the early pieces of technology—directories, maps, sites that focused on vertical
markets—that would become mainstays on the Web. Then, just as people became comfortable with buying
things from Amazon.com and eBay, Musk made the great leap forward to full-fledged Internet banking. He
would bring standard financial instruments online and then modernize the industry with a host of new
concepts. He exhibited a deep insight into human nature that helped his companies pull off exceptional
marketing, technology, and financial feats. Musk was already playing the entrepreneur game at the highest
level and working the press and investors like few others could. Did he hype things up and rub people the
wrong way? Absolutely—and with spectacular results.
Based in large part on Musk’s guidance, PayPal survived the bursting of the dot-com bubble, became
the first blockbuster IPO after the 9/11 attacks, and then sold to eBay for an astronomical sum while the
rest of the technology industry was mired in a dramatic downturn. It was nearly impossible to survive let
alone emerge as a winner in the midst of such a mess.
PayPal also came to represent one of the greatest assemblages of business and engineering talent in
Silicon Valley history. Both Musk and Thiel had a keen eye for young, brilliant engineers. The founders of
start-ups as varied as YouTube, Palantir Technologies, and Yelp all worked at PayPal. Another set of
people—including Reid Hoffman, Thiel, and Botha—emerged as some of the technology industry’s top
investors. PayPal staff pioneered techniques in fighting online fraud that have formed the basis of
software used by the CIA and FBI to track terrorists and of software used by the world’s largest banks to
combat crime. This collection of super-bright employees has become known as the PayPal Mafia—more
or less the current ruling class of Silicon Valley—and Musk is its most famous and successful member.
Hindsight also continues to favor Musk’s unbridled vision over the more cautious pragmatism of
executives at Zip2 and PayPal. Had it chased consumers as Musk urged, Zip2 may have ended up as a
blockbuster mapping and review service. As for PayPal, an argument can still be made that the investors
sold out too early and should have listened more to Musk’s demands to remain independent. By 2014,
PayPal had amassed 153 million users and was valued at close to $32 billion as a stand-alone company.
A flood of payment and banking start-ups have appeared as well—Square, Stripe, and Simple, to name
three among the S’s—that have looked to fulfill much of the original X.com vision.
If X.com’s board had been a bit more patient with Musk, there’s good reason to believe he would
have succeeded with delivery of the “online bank to rule them all” that he had set out to create. History
has demonstrated that while Musk’s goals can sound absurd in the moment, he certainly believes in them
and, when given enough time, tends to achieve them. “He always works from a different understanding of
reality than the rest of us,” Ankenbrandt said. “He is just different than the rest of us.”

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While navigating the business tumult of Zip2 and PayPal, Musk found a moment of peace in his
personal life. He’d spent years courting Justine Wilson from afar, flying her out for visits on the
weekends. For a long time, his oppressive hours and his roommates put a crimp on the relationship. But
the Zip2 sale let Musk buy a place of his own and pay a bit more attention to Justine. Like any couple,
they had their ups and downs, but that passion of young love remained. “We fought a lot, but when we
weren’t fighting, there was a deep sense of compassion—a bond,” Justine said. The couple had been
sparring for a few days about phone calls Justine kept getting from an ex-boyfriend—“Elon didn’t like
that”—and had a major spat while walking near the X.com offices. “I remember thinking it was a lot of
drama, and that if I was going to put up with it, we might as well be married. I told him he should just
propose to me,” Justine said. It took Musk a few minutes to cool down and then he did just that, proposing
on the spot. A few days later, a more chivalrous Musk returned to the sidewalk, got down on bended knee,
and presented Justine with a ring.
Justine knew all about Musk’s grim childhood and the intense range of emotions he could exhibit. Her
romantic sensibilities overrode any trepidation she might have had about these parts of Musk’s history and
character and centered instead on his strength. Musk often talked fondly about Alexander the Great, and
Justine saw him as her own conquering hero. “He wasn’t afraid of responsibility,” she said. “He didn’t
run from things. He wanted to get married and have kids early on.” Musk also exuded a confidence and
passion that made Justine think life with him would always be okay. “Money is not his motivation, and,
quite frankly, I think it just happens for him,” Justine said. “It’s just there. He knows he can generate it.”
At their wedding reception, Justine encountered the other side of the conquering hero. Musk pulled
Justine close while they danced, and informed her, “I am the alpha in this relationship.”
3
Two months
later, Justine signed a postnuptial financial agreement that would come back to haunt her and entered into
an enduring power struggle. She described the situation years later in an article for