RM When Elon Musk waited in Netscape lobby to get a job and what made him start his own company
Today, Elon Musk is known as the richest person in the world, leading groundbreaking companies like SpaceX and Tesla. However, long before his global success, Musk was simply a young graduate struggling to break into the fast-growing internet industry of the mid-1990s.
During that time, Musk attempted to secure a job at Netscape, one of the most influential tech companies and the creator of a leading web browser. Despite sending his résumé, he never received a response. Determined but inexperienced, Musk even went to Netscape’s headquarters and waited in the lobby, hoping to meet someone from the hiring team. In a later interview, he admitted that although he stayed there for a while, he was too shy to approach anyone, and the effort led nowhere.
This rejection became a turning point in Musk’s life. Frustrated by the lack of opportunities, he realized that relying on traditional job applications was not working. Instead of continuing to wait, he decided to take matters into his own hands. Musk began writing his own software, believing that creating something himself was the only way to become part of the internet revolution he admired so much.
“I really wanted to be involved in the internet,” Musk once explained. “Since I couldn’t get a job at an internet company, I had to start one myself.” That decision led to the creation of his first company and ultimately laid the foundation for his future success.
Years later, Musk’s career took an extraordinary turn. In 2021, a sharp rise in Tesla’s stock price pushed him past Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest individual, although the top position was occasionally contested by Bernard Arnault. By late 2023, Musk reclaimed the title and maintained it through 2024 and 2025. In December, he also became the first person in history to reach an estimated net worth of $700 billion.
Today, Musk leads or owns several major companies, including X (formerly Twitter), SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, The Boring Company, and xAI. From waiting quietly in a company lobby to building a vast business empire, his story highlights how rejection played a key role in shaping one of the most influential entrepreneurs of modern times.
