Elon Musk is a household name now, but his mom, Maye Musk, saw the spark in him long before the rest of the world.
Maye reminisced about Elon’s early years in a 2021 interview on CBS This Morning to promote her memoir A Woman Makes a Plan. The Tesla and SpaceX founder was constantly in the headlines for his success, but Maye wasn’t surprised. According to her, she had known since he was a toddler that Elon had a rare kind of mind.
“At 3, I knew he was a genius,” she said, quickly adding that it didn’t automatically mean he’d succeed. “You still don’t know if he’s going to do great things because many geniuses end up in a basement being a genius but not applying it.”
Picture it: a young Elon, just a few years old, with a mind that was already racing. But Maye, like any mother, had a practical side. Sure, she knew her son was special, but the thought crossed her mind – what if he ended up as a recluse, tinkering away in some basement? It’s a funny image now, considering that potential “basement genius” has morphed into a multibillionaire who, quite literally, aims for the stars.
