Elon Musk’s ex-wife Justine Musk, mother of his 5 children, on two key Traits that set world’s richest man apart
Justine Musk, the Canadian author and first wife of Elon Musk, has offered rare insights into the personality traits that propelled the Tesla CEO to become the world’s richest man. In a widely-cited 2015 Quora response and her 2013 TEDxOlympicBlvdWomen talk, Justine—who shares five sons with Musk—identified two defining characteristics that separate extreme achievers like her ex-husband from everyone else: relentless obsession and the strategic power of saying no.“He worked very hard—much harder than your average bear—and he said no a lot,” Justine revealed during her TEDx talk, describing how she watched Musk rise to unprecedented success. “He said no to people who wanted his time and attention and energy. And I realized that behind every no there is a deeper yes to whatever it is that you do want.”
The obsession that fuelled Musk’s extraordinary achievement
In her detailed Quora essay titled “How to be Elon Musk,” Justine emphasized that extreme success demands extreme personality traits. “Be obsessed. Be obsessed. Be obsessed,” she wrote emphatically. “If you’re not obsessed, then stop what you’re doing and find whatever does obsess you.”She explained that individuals like Musk combine brilliance with an “insane work ethic” that goes beyond normal ambition. “These people tend to be freaks and misfits who were forced to experience the world in an unusually challenging way,” Justine noted, adding that people who develop singular ways of surviving and, later, leverage the insights from those processes for extraordinary business and innovation advantages.
Elon Musk’s emotional intensity behind his ruthless exterior
Justine Musk’s 2010 Marie Claire essay criticized Elon Musk for his emotional distance during their 2000-2008 marriage, especially after their firstborn Nevada’s tragic death from SIDS at 10 weeks. Yet, she still respected his visionary gifts. In response, Musk spoke publicly, praising Justine as “an amazing woman” and underscoring the mutual admiration that endured even as they moved toward divorce.Providing a complementary view, Talulah Riley-Musk’s second wife, whom he married and divorced twice between 2010 and 2016-offers perspectives mirroring this sentiment. In a 2022 BBC documentary, Riley described Musk as “the most emotional person I know” and recounted how he once trudged barefoot through a Colorado blizzard on Christmas Eve to retrieve flowers after realizing he’d forgotten her gift while juggling Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity pressures.Justine’s core message remains clear: extreme success requires sacrificing conventional happiness for singular obsession and ruthlessly protecting focus through strategic rejection—traits that defined Musk’s journey to the top.
