Elon Musk And How Divorce Prepares Kids To Be Entrepreneurs

On Tuesday, Elon Musk watched SpaceX’s Dragon successfully blastinto space from Cape Canaveral, momentarily satisfying the billionaire entrepreneur’s insatiable ambition. The last time Musk was in the news this much was two years ago, when divorce proceedings with his first wife, Justine, threatened the Tesla Motors’ IPO.

While details of that divorce occupied the media’s attention, it’s likely that his parents’ divorce, when he was growing up in South Africa, has had the more profound effect on him as an entrepreneur.

When mom and dad aren’t happy together, children experience a degree of dysfunction in the home. Steve Blank, Stanford professor and author of the new book, The Startup Owner’s Manual, believes that a disproportionate number of startup founders come from dysfunctional families. In this case, in addition to his many achievements, Musk is the prototypical entrepreneur.