Photo: Jill Greenberg
Sorry, Larry Ellison. You’re absurdly rich, but yachts and MIGs are so 20th-century. You know what’s 21st-century? Going to Mars. When you run SpaceX and Tesla Motors, you don’t need a boat to be a player. The wacky South African genius is our Most Enviable Geek because he has the world’s coolest day jobs.
Why He’s a Geek: PayPal Co-Founder, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors. CEO and Chief Designer at SpaceX. Admitted to playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Why we envy him: Musk gets up in the morning and drives a battery-powered sports car to go make spaceships.
Also:
- He is, almost literally, Tony Stark.
- John Stewart called him “Possibly an evil villain” when he owned the Daily Show.
- He married the geek dream: an actress/model/physicist with a “girl-crush” on Maria Spiropulu
- He’s still odd enough to be interesting. Once tweeted: Wore Marquis de Sade outfit for a party last night. Was v popular with women who’d read 50 Shades :)
- Did we mention he’s going to Mars?
Now THAT is worthy of envy.
View previous geeks:
No. 2: Larry Ellison
No. 3: James Cameron
No. 4: Kevin Mitnick
No. 5: Jeff Skoll
No. 6: Larry Page
No. 7: Mark Pincus
No. 8: Sean Parker
No. 9: Eduardo Saverin
No. 10: Kim Schmitz aka Kim Dotcom