This emerald mine story is commonly quoted by Elon Musk’s detractors but it is misinformation and has been explicitly labeled a myth by journalists who investigated it (https://www.insidehook.com/article/history/errol-musk-elon-f...). In terms of hard evidence, it’s not even clear that his father actually owned a mine, or what qualifies as a “mine”, or what its output was, or what his father’s income was from this mine. Most mines are small operations that amount to digging on a bit of land, with varying degrees of profit (or unprofitability), and not some massive corporate operation digging out those giant town-sized holes in the planet.
I also know plenty of people who weren’t born rich and became successful via hard work and talent. It is pretty evident that their life priorities, work ethic, and other qualities are very different from the average person. To reduce their lifelong efforts and sacrifices to luck is really just a completely false narrative used by people today to undermine the idea of a meritocracy, since that’s necessary to ethically justify large redistributive policies, by labeling someone’s fortune as “unearned”. It’s the same reason why Musk’s detractors repeatedly reach for this emerald mine story without a shred of evidence.
> Since Musk and Kimbal weren’t going to get any funding with a mere proof-of-concept, they had to build out the company using their own capital, and there wasn’t much of it. When Zip2 launched, Musk only had $2,000 in the bank. Kimbal had a bit more, having recently sold his share in a College Pro Painters franchise, but most of their startup costs were covered by their father, Errol Musk, who gave them $28,000 to get going.
Elon's "rebuttal" around this point is highly deceptive. Yes, his life with his mom was hard at times. But his dad did in actual fact have a half share in a Zambian emerald mine for 6 years. He was wealthy before that however, due to his engineering company.
So the truth is essentially "both." Did Elon struggle and have to show some grit at times? Yes. Did he get access to initial capital that many people wouldn't? Yes.
Musk, his brother, and mother left South Africa and moved to Canada, fleeing his allegedly abusive father. Elon held various odd jobs early on (https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/03/odd-jobs-elon-musk-had-when-...). He also worked his way through college and ended up with lots of student debt (https://marketrealist.com/p/elon-musk-emerald-mine/). That doesn’t match your narrative that he was born into riches and was successful only because of that.
I also know plenty of people who weren’t born rich and became successful via hard work and talent. It is pretty evident that their life priorities, work ethic, and other qualities are very different from the average person. To reduce their lifelong efforts and sacrifices to luck is really just a completely false narrative used by people today to undermine the idea of a meritocracy, since that’s necessary to ethically justify large redistributive policies, by labeling someone’s fortune as “unearned”. It’s the same reason why Musk’s detractors repeatedly reach for this emerald mine story without a shred of evidence.