Fan Lord said: Thrifty rich
Some time ago, "Forbes" released the record of the collapse of the value of American billionaires in 2022, and Musk, the former richest man in the world, ranked first on the list, with a net worth of $137 billion, $200 billion less from his peak!
Although it has recently recovered some because of Tesla's stock price rise, it still failed to take back the richest man throne from LVMH boss Bernard Arnault~
In the face of the "more and more deflated" wallet, Musk, who was not generous, has become more critical and searching, saving money, people and housing, and striving to become a thrifty rich.
Recent "glorious deeds" include reviving the overtime culture on Twitter, turning the company conference room into a bedroom so that everyone can stay up all night, and using 1 person as N people...
The strangest thing is that in order to save money, he also fired the cleaning staff of Twitter's San Francisco office. As a result, garbage piled up in the office, toilets were blocked and unusable, parts of the building were smelly, and for some time employees had to bring toilet paper from home to the company toilet.
Some netizens took the "toilet paper report" to ask Mr. Ma, but they didn't expect the other party to reply generously: "BYOTP! Haha, for half a day it was like this. ”
It wasn't just Twitter employees in San Francisco who were unlucky, but employees of Twitter's Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore were evicted from the office building a few years ago, reportedly due to rent arrears, and it was not until Musk paid the rent the next day that everyone went back to work.
Since this is said, today Lord Fan will give you a pick, why is Musk so picky, and what is the style of saving rich people~
01 Pair the company, fancy and save money
Layoffs cut benefits and kept costs to a minimum
Musk is notoriously critical of the company, he belongs to the category of superficial picking, as a well-known "cost killer", has always been "spending a lot of money like flowing water, saving small money like a thread."
Coupled with the fact that every project before burned money to bankruptcy, and then frantically reduced costs (Tesla only got financing a few hours before bankruptcy), it really can't be changed all the way (picking) over~
Lay off employees while using them hard
This time, in the face of tens of billions of losses per day, Lao Ma's door DNA immediately moved, and he first implemented comprehensive cost-cutting measures for the company.
Twitter that hit the muzzle, after Musk took over the wash basin, a large-scale layoff was immediately carried out, and the first laid-off employees included CEOs, CFOs, policy directors, legal advisers, etc. ~
Later, Musk forced 1,200 employees to retreat by forcing the signing of the struggle agreement, and he asked employees in the email to become "extremely hardcore" and leave with three months' salary if they did not accept.
And this matter is very chicken, some employees revealed that "in fact, he did not specify how long and how much work intensity he had to work in, because he would be prosecuted if he said wrong." ”
After a set of operations, the number of employees has been sharply reduced from more than 7,500 to 2,700, and the cost brush has fallen, and the rest are "special forces" who can fight hard!
However, many netizens complained: Why are there so many Indian and Asian faces...
With these elite soldiers, Musk certainly has to use people to the extreme and save labor costs to the greatest extent. As mentioned earlier, he transformed part of the office of Twitter's San Francisco headquarters into a simple bedroom to facilitate everyone to work all night↓
Executives also lead by example and help bosses keep costs to a minimum!
The rumored next Twitter CEO, Steve Davis, was "one of the first to spend the night in the office." This brother is really ruthless, who used to be famous for working 16 hours a day, now he doesn't have 8 hours left, and lives at work with his wife and newborn baby, taking the children and having meetings.
Zhu Xiaotong, Tesla's global vice president and president of China, was also on call almost 24 hours a day, reportedly often returning to work WeChat at 3 or 4 a.m., and did not have a special office, standing at the workstation like other employees.
The house is simpler, like the boss, I live near the factory, the rent is less than 2,000 yuan, and the furniture is all rented.
Zhu Xiaotong also said in an interview with "Pacific Auto" that he doesn't like bells and whistles, so (living) is very convenient, the commute time is short, and even can carpool with colleagues to and work, help each other get express...
Of course, don't look at Musk's fancy "abuse" of employees, in fact, he has also been "abused".
When he first arrived in Canada, he worked as a boiler room shovel for $18 an hour in a lumber mill. According to Musk himself, because of the difficult conditions, thirty people worked in this job, and then only three remained.
Later, he also sold computers, interned in a bank, was scolded for using a leadership coffee machine, and started a business... Nowadays, being a harsh boss is somewhat psychological.
Reducing employee benefits saves money
A while ago, I saw that Twitter lost $4 million + a day, and the cash flow almost became negative $3 billion, Musk began to frantically reduce costs and increase efficiency, drastically simplifying the office environment, canceling employee benefits, and even rent can be delayed.
Or take Twitter as an example, in addition to the "toilet paper incident", according to the New York Times, the company has not paid rent for various offices around the world on time for several weeks, especially the office building in San Francisco's Hartford Building, which owes 130,000+ rent unpaid, and the landlord informed Twitter that it will be treated as a breach of contract if it does not give money (as a result, Singapore thundered first).
Not only the four-story office was compressed to two floors, but it also announced the cancellation of free canteens↓
The big boss Musk personally calculated the company's food expenses, and on Twitter the Yin Yang free canteen "is particularly strange, because almost no one comes to the office, last year the cost of each meal exceeded $400, and more people prepared breakfast than people ate breakfast." ”
As a result, the executive in charge of ordering the meal was confronted and said that the average person was less than $25.
Even high-end office supplies are sold "hanging idle fish", with more than 1,000 items at auction, most starting at $25, a few starting at $50, from Eames chairs to bicycles, all discounted ↓
Twitter's iconic mascot has not escaped the fate of being ruthlessly auctioned, including flower pots shaped like @ symbols in front of Twitter usernames, bluebird sculptures, and more...
While helping Twitter do subtraction, Tesla, whose car manufacturing costs have been reduced by 40% in 5 years, has also been "reduced" because of poor sales, and employees have begun to complain on the Internet that it is uncomfortable to sit at work, work stations are crowded, WiFi is poor, and even parking spaces cannot be found.
SpaceX is the same, originally focused on second-hand rockets to save costs, but Musk is reluctant to throw it away when he uses "scrapping". The Falcon series rockets, which could have been reused 9 times, Musk sent 11 times.
After the delivery, it is necessary to fish it back, send a salvage ship to take back the fairing, dry it and continue to use it, the cost is immediately reduced by several million dollars.
Cut the leftover scraps from the previous rockets, take them to make peripherals, make them into whistles, sell them for $50 each, and you can't waste a single trace ...
02 Pick at yourself and don't spend money if you have it
Life is simple, no food, no clothing, no house
In terms of life, Musk is not generous to himself.
This stems from the fact that he lived a difficult life when he was young, lived with his mother after his parents divorced, was so poor that he could not afford a turkey on Thanksgiving, he could only go to a fast food restaurant, and was taught by his mother: "Save money, don't be jealous of other people's luxurious life, wait for success".
There were few clothes, and the hair was cut by itself
Musk's picks and comparisons with other big guys are revealed. The old brother Bezos next door, his image has been fully upgraded in recent years, and he is doing cosmetic surgery and medical beauty, and he is wearing big-name couple clothes with his girlfriend, and where does Musk go in those clothes...
Usually he wears the most cotton T-shirts, from L to XXXL are this type ↓
There are also cultural shirts issued by the company, and the money for buying clothes is saved, and a wave of advertising is played by the way.
Going on vacation is also a T-shirt to go to the world, and everyone complains about it from body shape to clothes ↓
When I went to Qatar to watch the World Cup at the end of last year, the Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner were all in straight suits, and he was still an old man.
It feels the same thing I would wear when I first bought Twitter, and I didn't even change my belt.
The leather jacket with a little style in the private clothes has also been worn repeatedly for many years, almost becoming vintage.
Only when attending important occasions such as MET GALA will he wear a Tom Ford tuxedo and change back to the appearance of a rich man~
The rich love trench watch, Musk is not very interested, he bought Imperial Oak and RM 029 in his early years, and later estimated that he felt "not worth it", and decisively cut this part of the budget.
Over the years, I have been taking a low-key route, empty-handed↓
The only thing that is willing to spend money is plastic surgery + hair transplantation, but according to expert estimates, fat injection and 4 hair transplants are only 140,000 US dollars (Beckham used hundreds of thousands of dollars for hair transplantation alone), which is quite cost-effective.
However, after planting, it is still a little alopecia areata, easy to show the scalp, I already knew to spend more money...
Anyway, the hair is finally thicker, and there will be some ambitions for hairstyles, but Musk is reluctant to hire a hairdresser, so he can only cut his hair and do styling himself, and the result is a chicken nest wherever he goes...
Eat and live simply, drive the company
Other rich people love to collect luxury houses, and Musk has done the same in the past, buying 7 mansions with a total value of more than $100 million.
As a result, the occupancy rate was not high, this workaholic just started a business with a record of sleeping in the company for 3 months, and in the early years, he maintained a workload of nearly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and his girlfriend at the time had to come to the office to squeeze in order to be with him.
Since 2020, Musk has become more extreme, selling out houses one after another, carrying bags and moving into rented "folding houses" near SpaceX, so that he can all in at work.
Larry Pei also broke the news about Musk, saying that every time he went to Silicon Valley, he had to "ask for a night", and emailed Page to ask: "I don't know where to live tonight, can I go to your place?" ”
At the end of last year, he finally sold his last property for $30 million+, becoming a rare "homeless person" among the top rich.
Some media analyzed that he was trying to avoid taxes, and if he didn't care that money was really shrewd, escaping California could save 16 billion yuan in taxes. But Musk declared that he sold his house for freedom and the cause of space, and that "wealth will only crush people."
In the same way, the car is not his pursuit, just made a fortune will spend 1 million US dollars to buy McLaren, the result is a very bad "sense of experience", not long after driving was crashed, so depressed that he no longer wants to buy a luxury car.
Later, he became the richest man and directly rubbed the company, and his private car was a Model S Performance, and he used to drive a Cybertrunk all over the street.
Eating is simpler, usually does not like to eat, and delay time and low cost performance, recently he tweeted that he likes to make pizza at home.
Eating out is also dominated by fast food and light meals, such as whirlwind potatoes that everyone can afford.
Business trips in China are also "squeezed by dumpling shops" and "roadside pancakes will be sized", and you can save some money between your teeth.
03 Cut the other half, and was torn by the predecessor collectively
The lowest divorce fee for rich people, girlfriends think he picks
For the family, Musk's door snipping is a complete replica of the behavior of the scumbag father, with that blood flowing in his body.
When Musk's mother divorced, the rich dad gave them only a house that needed to pay back $300 a month, 5% alimony and a worn-out Toyota Corolla.
The media called Musk the "second generation of mines", and Lao Ma also came out specifically to explain: "This is a very terrible lie, my father has no jade mine at all, I finished college by working part-time, and finally owed $100,000 in student loan debt." ”
Even his own son started a business, his father only gave 28,000 US dollars of support, and when he first made Zip2, Musk couldn't even afford to buy a second computer...
Knock on the door of the ex-wife and be a rich man who can "afford to leave"
Musk, who has not felt the generosity of his family, naturally became a picky husband, and the divorce fee must be carefully calculated, and no woman can take advantage of him.
Look at the other divorced bigwigs on the wealth list, they are very interesting to their ex-wives, after Bill Gates divorced, the shares were hit on the account in minutes, and Melinda became a rich woman worth more than $70 billion in seconds.
Bezos's ex-wife is too, after the two separated, Mackenzie divided $36 billion, so much money that the speed of giving money is not as fast as wealth increases.
And Musk's treatment of his ex-wife is basically in the same vein as his father, using his wife as a fertility machine + nanny, and almost letting the other party go out of the house after separation.
His first wife was Canadian writer Justin Wilson, and the two were classmates at Queen's University in Ontario. It can also be seen from the old photos that Justin is a white-skinned and beautiful sister.
The two had a total of five children, but at the time of the divorce, Justin only got $2 million and a Tesla... It's kind of learning the essence of dad.
So Justin has always had a deep grudge against Musk, and later wrote a column to complain that Musk is too controlling, saying that he is completely insignificant in his world, even if he is an employee, he will be fired, until he returns to singleness, and regains "freedom of hair color choice".
Musk's second wife is British actress Talulah Riley, who are more bloody, and have experienced marriage, divorce, reconciliation, remarriage, and finally divorce.
Over the years together, Talulah is equal to the free substitute mommy of the old Ma family - although she has not given birth to a baby, her husband and her ex's 5 babies are all brought by her, and she can't make a career at all.
When the two separated, Musk, who had a divorce experience, seemed very comfortable, and only gave Talulah $20 million and a Tesla.
Feeling that Lao Ma is a little more generous to his children, he does not recognize ordinary schools, so he "generously" created an Ad Astra (to the stars) private school for children to attend.
According to IRS documents, Musk provided nearly $500,000 to the school from 2014 to 2015 alone.
From time to time, I also take my children on vacations abroad, and the family has traveled to Sydney before, and last year I took my children to the Vatican to meet the Pope.
Drying up the baby is also the look of father's love bursting~
However, Xavier Musk, the son born to his first wife, was not so appreciative, and Xavier applied to the Los Angeles County Court last year to change his gender and sever his biological father, and since then changed his mother's surname to Vivian Jenna Wilson...
More critical of his girlfriend, eating and living is not as good as beating workers
One of his girlfriends & children's mother Grimes, ran out a while ago to spit on Musk, saying that the two lived like they lived below the poverty line when they dating.
Grimes said Musk invested most of the money in the Mars project, and the two lived in a $40,000 mobile home with no security or privacy, about 40 square meters. Because Musk is reluctant to buy a new mattress, the side where Grimes sleeps is broken...
In order to save living expenses, Grimes also ate peanut butter for 8 consecutive days... A series of operations made netizens swell, ready to crowdfund Lao Ma~
I feel that people's ex-girlfriends are really not exaggerating, she and Musk were the only thing they were photographed in the restaurant, they ate a copper pot shabu, the dishes on the table were pitiful, and the four people ordered a meat and a vegetarian...
Next door, Bezos & Sanchez, is Nobu (Michelin restaurant & high-end Japanese restaurant) at every turn↓
Only in the dating stage, when you want to "win" the woman, Musk's treatment will be better, such as taking his girlfriend who he just met at the time to San Tepelo for a vacation in May last year, or staying in a high-end hotel (but later Musk broke up with a baby with a subordinate female executive, and the girl fled quickly, the specific story can be poked: Musk's father and son gave birth to 17 babies to destroy three views, and his 23-year-old girlfriend learned that they broke up in seconds!). Why do Musk's women want to escape? ）
Well, Musk's door-picking operation will be picked up here for everyone, what do you think about this, let's talk about it in the comment area~