Before he was a public megalomaniac, he was a private one
UNFORGETTABLE SAGAS, SCOOPS AND SCANDALS
from Toronto Life’slong-form archives |
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Dear reader, On Monday, Elon Musk will have a front row seat to the most contentious Carrie Underwood concert of all time: Donald Trump’s inauguration. He’s expected to sit with Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Trump’s cabinet members, a menacing assortment of libertarians, tycoons and anti-vaxxers. The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has been ingratiating himself with Trump for years. After he purchased Twitter (now X), he unblocked Trump’s account, then donated hundreds of millions to his re-election campaign. Soon, Musk will set up shop inside the White House complex to head the Department of Government Efficiency, a mysterious and unofficial operation to slash spending. In fact, he’s become so deeply involved in the president-elect’s affairs that other MAGA insiders, like Steve Bannon, are already trying to oust him. But, before he was a public megalomaniac, Musk was a private one. In 2023, Haley Steinberg wrote about Musk’s early years in Ontario, where he attended Queen’s University. Even then, his now-infamous character traits—relentless ambition, delusional techno-optimism and egotistical social climbing—were on full display. For more great long-reads from Toronto Life, subscribe to our print edition here. |
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| —Maddy Mahoney, assistant editor |
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Before he was the egomaniacal, influential and just plain weird owner of SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter, he was an awkward kid who built computers and chased girls at Queen’s University. Inside the Ontario years of the world’s most absurd billionaire |
BY HALEY STEINBERG | JANUARY 3, 2023 |
Elon Musk’s years at Queen’s University were formative. It’s where he met his first wife, Justine Wilson; his best bud, Navaid Farooq; and the fellow computer programmers who would go on to help him build his early companies. It was also where he contemplated the big ideas that would eventually turn him into the tech industry’s most controversial rock star: electric vehicles, solar energy, space travel and galactic colonization. By the time he finished his post-secondary studies, Musk had decided that he could do whatever he wanted. Make a fortune. Become famous. Shape the world. |
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