The trait that sets Elon Musk apart from the rest of humanity, according to his best friend from college

best friend Elon Musk During the university revealed what is the feature that distinguishes the founder Tesla And X space – The second richest man in the world – than the rest of humanity.

Navid Farouk He became friends with Musk in the fall of 1990. The billionaire was 17 years old and had just moved out of his home in South Africa to move to Canadawhere he joined b Queen’s University From Kingston, Ont.

Farouk and Misk lived in the same apartment and soon drew on their experiences abroad (Farouk was Canadian and grew up in Geneva). They also shared a fondness for Strategy gamesas stated in the book Ashley Vance Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Search for a Brilliant Future (Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Brilliant Future).

When Farouk lived near Musk, he got to know Musk more closely, which allowed him to identify what he considered to be his defining characteristic.

“When Elon gets into something, he evolves it interest level Farouk said in Vance’s book, According to the Logo: CNBC. “This is what sets Elon apart from the rest of humanity.”

Farouk remembers this when the strategy video game went on sale in 1991 Civilization“Elon can get lost for hours and hours” playing.

He can also remain lost in thought for hours despite being at a party. “We were the kind of people who could be alone at a party without feeling uncomfortable. We could think of ourselves and not feel socially awkward about it.”

According to the book, The intensity of musk He has been “steady” during their long friendship, even in academic performance.

In college, Musk studied business, competed in public speaking contests and outperformed his peers when it came to scoring tests, according to the book.

After an economic test, Musk, Farouk, and their other buddies Compare notes To try to estimate his test score, when it became clear that Musk controlled the material much better than the rest.

“It was a group of excellent students, W Elon emergedFarouk explains.

This particular, intense level of interest, determination, and focus of Elon Musk has been highlighted by others who knew Musk in his college days.

Justin Wilsonhis first wife, I count several anecdotes that illustrate Musk’s personality.

“He was calling with great urgency,” he said in Vance’s book. “You always knew it was Elon because the phone kept ringing. The guy doesn’t take no. You can’t ignore him. I think of him as in Terminator. He sets his sights on something and says, ‘It’ll be mine.'”

Justine also said that Musk was comparing his notes to hers. She and Musk took the same abnormal psychology class. After the test, Justin scored 97, and Musk scored 98.

He returned to speak with the teacher to recover the two points he had lost I got a hundredJustin says in the book. “It seemed like we were always competing.”

Musk still seems to have that intensity and ability to focus extraordinarily on any project at hand. In an interview in November 2018, he said he was in the act 120 hours per week Trying to speed up production Tesla Model 3.

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