Maye Musk raised her three children with minimal resources and maximum freedom in the Kalahari and beyond. She taught them survival skills and curiosity, which shaped Elon, Kimbal, and Tosca's drive to tackle big problems. She believes kindness is the most important trait to instill.
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Mei is 72 years old. She is the world's oldest supermodel. She is a force to reckon with. She was a born adventurer. I bet you you have heard of her children, Tosca Musk, the filmmaker, Kimbal Musk, the restaurateur, and Elon Musk, who is today probably the most famous entrepreneur in the world.
Certainly was a hard birth, as any mother will contest to birth. He had a huge head. Really, you see how big his head is?
You started seeing the genius in Elon at the age of three. What did that make you do differently as a mom?
I noticed that he could reason with me if I would say, well, do that, and he would have a better idea. When he started reading, anything he read, he memorized. I mean, these were volumes of books. Yeah, he always was very curious. And then when after PayPal was sold, he said, should I do space rockets or should I do solar panels or should I do electric cars? And I said, you just do one thing. And he didn't listen to me.
You were born to a couple that were adventurers, and they hopped on a boat and sailed from Canada to South Africa. And that adventuring never stopped. You grew up exploring the deserts of South Africa looking for lost cities. Tell us about that sense of adventure growing up and what it infused in you.
When we were kids and all our friends would go to the beaches, we had to go to the Kalahari Desert. My dad had said when we went into the Kalahari desert, he was wanted to show we can rough it, you know, so we would sleep on the ground with a sleeping bag. And then you zip up the sleeping bag so the hyenas don't bite off your face. And then we had one cup of water. My twin sister and I shared it that we could wash our hands and face in at night, and then in the morning it was frozen, so we'd have to break the ice and then wash our hands and face. So you can. You can live with very little.
Do you think there was something about that adventuring that your parents had that you later picked up and then infused into your children?
All my children have a survival skill. That way my children don't have fear. Yeah. In the beginning when the rockets were exploding, well, I would just want to curl up and cry in the corner. Whereas Elon would come out and say, now we find out what went wrong and we will do the next one.
Right. As I'm reading A Woman Makes a Plan. This very intriguing story about May, about how when she got her first paycheck, the first Thing you bought was a carpet because you had no chairs in your apartment. So you just got a carpet so your kids could be comfortable. And then the second thing you bought was a computer for Elon and Kimbal to sit in the carpet and play with that computer. The bareness of the upbringing is astonishing to me. And it reminds me of an interview I heard your son Elon give to Neil Degrasse Tyson. Elon said something about how he wanted to see if he could live on a dollar a day. And he found that living in an American dormitory, he could live in a dollar a day. He'd just go buy ramen noodles and he could survive. And he said that after he realized he could literally survive and not die on a dollar a day, it gave him the courage to do all of the other epic things he did in his life.
You know, the thing is, when you, when you are trying to survive, then you don't go to the hairdresser. You have to cut your own hair. And I cut my children's hair. You can do without luxuries. And funny enough, when my brothers and my twin sister read my book, they said, we didn't know you were struggling. You never complained. You never asked for money. I said, well, what would I ask for money for? To go to the movies or go out for dinner? Those are luxuries. We didn't have a problem with it. My children never complained. And they even said it was quite fun. You know, you could get second hand school uniforms and, you know, you figure out things.
We have a leading question from Irina Chehosov.
Hi. My question is, what is the most important trait you want to instill in a child? I like them to be considerate of others. Let them just be kind to others.
Kindness. Right, kindness. Your children aren't just building businesses. Your children are building businesses that are actually, in a way, healing the world. Right? Yes.
They're doing what I consider they're doing good things.
Like, Elon wants to move the world beyond a carbon economy. He wants to back up the human species by colonizing Mars. Kimbal is doing so much good work in terms of organic farming and farm to table. How do you install kindness, kindness and care in a child?
I was in a nurturing profession where I help people to eat well, but. But they saw that people would come and see me. And then when they eat better, they're happier and they're healthier and you could see that you're caring about other people. And then my parents were Canadians. They cared about everybody too. My dad was a chiropractor. He kept people in better health. My kids are the same. They find a goal that will help mankind. Or help. Like Tosca with her movies, her Passionflix app, where she has romance movies where the men and women get the same pay. And the female directors, and they romance stories with happy endings. So that the women here are not abused, tortured, you know, violated. They are intelligent, successful, and. But, you know, drama. There's drama because it's a love story.
Thank you for ensuring that you raised children who were compassionate and wanted to heal the world and not evil geniuses. Because imagine if Elon was an evil genius. We'd be freaking screwed.
