This musk is not cologne

byJoe Henning

741 followers

13 years ago

Yeah, Bertha, I heard you when you said you bought your handsome Dieter, some musk flavoured aftershave (or do you call it cologne?), but Joe, you're such a newbie, what are you about! Well, my friends, say after me... HAAAAA!!! Stick with Joe and you'll become clever, sought after and someone others want to hang out with... :-) Enough sillyness, let's chat...

Whom here have ever heard of Paypal..?
What is the name of the company that now ferries toilet paper and canned peas to the International Space Station, since NASA took a nosedive like the loser in the 'Fight Club' movie..?
Whose life was celebrated in the movie "Iron Man"...?
Who dusted off the work of late Mr Tesla and now produce an very good looking, very sexy hybrid motor car (that's a car that runs on batteries, like the Duracell bunny, Bertha) and it does 0 - 60 mph in just 4.4 seconds...? and running on the battery for 300 miles?
Who's designing commercial missions to Mars, that will make Richard Branson's tours to the moon look like a horse and buggy ride in Central Park and also working on commercial aircraft that will rise vertically, in other words they won't need a runway and they might fly faster than the Concorde did?

Suffice it to say this guy is outrageously successful; he's worth 2 billion, having started from zero; apparently not the nicest guy to work for and yes, Bertha, he's already married... this genius was born and lived in South Africa and that made me proud, a rare moment of being proud about... oh, let's not go there... Reality is that he now lives in the US, spends mega bucks in the US and the major beneficiary of his brain power... the US... I spilled my beer and afterwards cried in my pillow when this hit me..!!

His name is Elon Musk and yes, he....
... was the co-founder of Paypal ...
... his space express delivery company is called SpaceX ...
... the car is built by the Tesla factory and yes, Bertha, you could buy one for Dieter as we speak...
... we're still awaiting more details of the Mars flights and the new airline jets ...

This guy, with the cologne surname, came from a broken home, so what's new, you may say... he was still a youngster when he's mother left for Canada, her birth country, to which he followed her, leaving South Africa as a 15 year old and started showing up to work at the farms of relatives and friends and yes, Bertha, this was real work... work like shovelling grain, tending vegetable patches and cleaning out boilers at a lumber mill... oh yes, he read a lot, a helluva lot! He also obtained two university degrees and funded much of his study fees by throwing wild parties and wrote business plans. He started his first company, called Zip# which Compaq Computer later on bought for $300+ million. He now had the money to go bigger and co-founded Paypal, which Ebay later on bought, letting him walk away with $180 million...

Joe, your point, puhleeaase... sure, my point is that we may never know which stubborn acting teenager should be encouraged to think big, dream wild dreams and if assisted to exploit their crazy wishes, could turn out to be sheer genius, especilly if they might be prepared to work hard and read a lot, could they be like this dude, a one-in-a-million gem of a man? And no, Bertha, I haven't yet had lunch with him, but I'd definitely pay if I could!! I swear, his breath is probably inspiring and remember, we both hail from South Africa, where the president recently (so I heard) made a speech about the problem of clever women... and he's suggested that programs be put in place to stop women from becoming too clever...!! duuhhh??

I admire Elon Musk, not for being a South African, but because he's showing the world there's still so much to achieve. My message...?? Nobody knows the potential and capabilities of those we meet and interact with, in other words people who may be hanging out right here!! I decided to treat everyone I deal with as if you might be the next genius the world still needs to discover and to the geniuses out there, please share with this community what you have. We respect you anyway but if we could work together, like pushing the wagon up a hill before the fun going down starts, we'll have more fun than the painters at the next World Body Painting competition!!