After losing his $180 Million PayPal fortune...
Elon was 3 weeks from bankruptcy.
Tesla was losing $10 Million/month. Everyone thought he was finished.
Then, he bet his last $6 Million on his cousin's dying startup.
Here's how a family meeting saved him: 🧵
2008: Everything was falling apart.
SpaceX couldn't get a rocket to orbit.
Three failed launches had drained millions.
Tesla was bleeding $10M every month trying to deliver the Roadster.
And Elon? He was living off personal loans just to pay rent...
The PayPal fortune was gone.
From $180M to nearly zero in just a few years.
Most billionaires would've cut their losses. Declared bankruptcy. Started over.
But Elon was about to make a decision that seemed completely insane:
With just weeks of cash left...
He called a family meeting.
What happened next would either destroy his last chance at survival...
Or change the future of energy forever.
His cousins Lyndon and Peter had a radical idea:
Make solar power accessible to everyone, not just the wealthy.
When they started in 2006, this seemed impossible. Solar panels cost a fortune. Oil was king.
But they had cracked a revolutionary model:
Instead of selling expensive panels, they'd lease them to homeowners.
No massive upfront costs. No maintenance nightmares.
Just clean energy at prices anyone could afford.
The catch? They needed $6M to launch...
Elon had a choice:
Save his last millions for Tesla and SpaceX...
Or bet everything on a third company in an industry investors called "dead on arrival."
He wrote the check. And became chairman.
By 2012, that "doomed" bet became SolarCity – America's largest solar provider.
They went public at $1.6 Billion
The same company investors mocked was now powering more homes than any competitor in the country.
2016: The master plan revealed itself.
Tesla acquired SolarCity for $2.6 Billion.
Critics screamed "bailout!" Shareholders sued.
But they missed what Elon saw in that family meeting years ago:
He wasn't just saving a solar company...
He was building the world's first complete sustainable energy ecosystem:
• Cars powered by electricity
• Homes powered by sun
• Batteries storing clean energy
All working as one.
The courts eventually cleared him.
That desperate family meeting didn't just save his fortune.
It laid the foundation for a world beyond fossil fuels.
Today, that "crazy" solar bet is powering millions of homes.
What started as a last-ditch family meeting became an energy revolution.
The future belongs to those bold enough to bet everything on it.
Even when they're weeks away from losing it all...
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