Elon Musk Confirms He Was Rejected by Netscape in 1995 in Reply to Twitter User

Elon Musk’s career path is of course well known, with him being the one of the richest people on the planet as well as the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. But while we may know where he studied and worked, the places he was rejected by remain a little more mysterious. But thanks to a Twitter user’s revelation earlier this week, we’ve learnt that Musk had struggled finding a job at an Internet company in the 90s, and tried and failed to get a position at startup Netscape in 1995.

As the story goes, in 1995, Musk wanted to work with Netscape, an Internet, software, and telecommunications company founded in 1994, and that he had even shared his resume with the recruiters. However, it turns out he didn’t get the job. A Twitter user, @PPathole, shared this story on the micro-blogging site with a photograph of a younger-looking Musk, adding that Musk founded his own Internet company as he struggled to land a gig.

“In 1995, @elonmuskwanted to work with an Internet company, he applied to work at Netscape, sent his resume, tried hanging out in their lobby, but he was too shy to talk to anyone. So he started his own Internet company (Zip2) as he wasn’t able to get a job anywhere,” wrote the user. In a second tweet, the user added, “@elonmusk and his companies (Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, Boring) is why I feel inspired and excited about the future of this humanity.”

Little did he know that the third richest person on the planet will take note of his tweet, and even respond to it. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO corrected his fan, saying that he could get a job, but just not at an Internet company. Musk added there weren’t many back then.

Now, if you follow Musk on Twitter, you know that he is an absolute champion of market advice, memes and quirky responses on social media. Musk’s response went viral with over 89,000 people liking his tweet. Many lauded the billionaire for how far he had come in his life since that day.

“This proves if a person can’t get the job at a place doesn’t mean the person doesn’t have the potential. Tesla is a lot more worth than Netscape,” said a user.

“Now I bet they wish they hired you,” said another.

“Look where you are now and what you have achieved, everything worked out for the best,” wrote another fan of the Tesla CEO.

Here are some more reactions:

Elon Musk has been battling for the position of the richest person on the planet with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and as per Forbes, is currently the third richest, behind Bezos and LMVH’s Bernard Arnault & Family. According to a report, Musk’s wealth grew by nearly five times over the last year.

Is OnePlus 9R old wine in a new bottle — or something more? We discussed this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Later (starting at 23:00), we talk about the new OnePlus Watch. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.