English Listening Practice (A2–B1) | Elon Musk Story | Improve Speaking with Easy English Podcast

Pierustin pyöräilyvää teitä valmistavan ornotin vuonna 2013. Mielestäni parasta Shopify saan se, että voimme harjoittaa liiketoimintaa ilman teknistä osaamista. Voimme hallinoida yrityksen taustajaristeelle mien ja front-endia sekä myydä verkossa, vaivattaa. Jos Shopify olisi pyöräilyvaruste, sollisimielestäni itse polkupyörä. Sillä asiat hoidetaan ja meidän liiketoiminta me hoituu Shopify'sssä. Aloita ilmainen kokeilu, Shopify piste komsi vustolla. Olen Shannon Maldonado, käsintehtyjä artesaanitua teitä myyvän jauji-lahjakaupan perusta. Valitisin Shopify, koska alustoja testa testa-tessani totesin sen ehdottomasti yhdeksi helpokäyttöisimmistä alustoista. Minulla oli tärkeää pohtia kehittymistämme tulevaisuudessa. Kaikki myyntiin tarvittavat työkalut, kuten varaston suunnittelu ovat kätivästi dashboardissä. Aloita ilmainen kokeilu Shopify piste komsi vustolla. Himme ihmisten, jonka oikealle katen açılan. I have the story of a man who drinksности. A man who wants to help the world. He believes that humans can lives on other planets. His name is Elon Musk. In this episode, I will tell his story in Sempol English. You will learn about his childhood, his struggles, and how he started his journey. This is not just a story about money. It is a story about ideas. It is a story about courage, and it is a story about never giving up. Elon Musk was born in 1971 in South Africa. At that time, South Africa was very different from today. It was a country with many political problems. Life was not always easy there. As a child, Elon was quiet and different. He did not enjoy sports very much. He did not care about being popular. Instead, he loved reading books. He read a lot. He read science fiction books. Science fiction means stories about the future, about space, about robots and technology. He also read books about science and engineering. By the age of ten, Elon got familiar with computers. This changed his life. In the early 1980s, computers were not common. Many families did not have one. But Elon was very curious. He always wanted to learn and understand new things. He taught himself how to program, how to write instructions for a computer, so it can do something. He did not have a teacher. He read a book and practiced by himself. When he was only 12 years old, he created a small video game. The game was called Blaster. It was simple, but it worked. He sold the game for $500. That was his first business success. But his childhood was not easy. At school, other children bullied him. Bullying means hurting someone again and again, often because they are different. He was small and quiet, and some boys were very aggressive. They were violent and unkind. One day, the bullying became very serious. A group of boys pushed him down the stairs and hurt him badly. He had to go to the hospital. These experiences were painful, but they also made him strong inside. They taught him how to survive difficult situations. At home, life was all so complicated. His parents divorced when he was young. Elon decided to live with his father. Later, he said this was not a good decision. His relationship with his father was difficult and painful. But through all these problems, Elon always had one thing. His imagination. He did not just think about small goals. He thought about big problems. He asked big questions. How can we improve the future? How can we protect humanity? How can we travel to space? These questions stayed with him for many years. When he was 17, he made an important decision. He wanted to leave South Africa. At that time, young men in South Africa had to join the military. Military service means joining the army. Elon did not want to do that. He also wanted more opportunities. So, he moved to Canada. His mother was born in Canada, so he could get Canadian citizenship. Citizenship means being an official member of a country. Life in Canada was not easy at first. He did many small jobs to earn money. He cleaned boilers. A boiler is a machine that heats water. It was dirty and dangerous work. He worked on farms. He did whatever he could to survive. After some time, he started studying at Queen's University in Canada. Later, he moved to the United States to study at the University of Pennsylvania. The US was important for him. He believed that America was the best place for technology and innovation. At university, he studied physics and economics. He was not just a normal student. He was always thinking about the future. After finishing university, he was accepted into a PhD program at Stanford University. But something surprising happened. After only two days, he left. Why? Because he felt that the internet was becoming very important. It was the 1990s and the internet was new and exciting. Many people did not understand how big it would become. Elon saw the opportunity. He believed the internet would change the world. So, he made a risky decision. A dangerous and uncertain decision. He left his PhD program and decided to start a company. This was the beginning of his journey. He and his brother created a company called ZIP2. The company helped newspapers create online city guides. A city guide is information about restaurants, hotels and businesses in a city. At that time, many newspapers did not know how to use the internet. ZIP2 helped them move into the digital world. In the beginning, life was very hard. Elon and his brother worked day and night. They even slept in the office. They showered at a local gym because they did not have an apartment. They had very little money. Sometimes, they could not even afford proper food. But they did not stop. They believed in their idea. Slowly, the company grew. Investors began to notice them. Investors are people who give money to a company because they believe it will succeed. In 1999, a big company bought ZIP2 for about $300 million. Elon became a millionaire at the age of 20. But here is something important. For Elon, this was not the final goal. For many people becoming a millionaire would be enough. They would relax. They would enjoy life, but not Elon. For him, this was only the beginning. For Elon money was not the final goal. It was only fuel. It was only energy for movement. Just like fuel moves a car, money helped him move his ideas forward. After selling Zip2, Elon did something bold. He did something brave and confident. He did not keep the money in the bank and relax. Instead, he invested almost all of it into a new company. This company later became PayPal. At first, the company was called x.com. It was an online bank. Online banking was very new in the late 1990s. Many people did not trust the internet. They were afraid to send money online. But Elon believed the future would be digital. People means using computers and the internet instead of paper and cash. Later, x.com joined with another company and became PayPal. PayPal allowed people to send money through email. This was revolutionary. Revolutionary means something that changes the system in a big way. For example, people could buy things on eBay and pay quickly and safely. This made online shopping much easier. However, inside the company, there were conflicts. There were serious disagreements. Elon and some other leaders had different ideas about the future of the company. So at one point, Elon was removed as the top leader of the company. This was a difficult moment, but he did not leave the company completely. He stayed as a major stakeholder. Stakeholder is someone who owns part of a company. In 2002, eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion. Elon earned about $180 million from the sale. Now he had serious money. But again, he did not choose a quiet life. Instead, he made one of the craziest decisions of his life. He decided to build rockets. Yes, rockets. He believed that humans must become a multi-planet species. Multi-planet means living on more than one planet. He was worried about the future of the Earth. He thought that if something terrible happened, like a global disaster, humanity could disappear. So he wanted humans to live on Mars one day. Many people laughed at him. They thought he was crazy. Rockets were built by governments, not by private companies. How could one man compete with that? But Elon did not try to compete in the traditional way. He created a company called SpaceX in 2002. But first, SpaceX struggled. It faced serious difficulties. The first rocket launch failed. The rocket exploded. The second launch also failed. The third launch failed again. Each rocket cost millions of dollars. Elon was losing money very fast. He was close to bankruptcy. Bankruptcy means having no money left and not being able to pay debts. At the same time, another company of his was also in trouble. That company was Tesla. Tesla was founded in 2003 by other engineers, but Elon joined early and invested a lot of money. Here he became the CEO. Tesla wanted to build electric cars. At that time, electric cars were not popular. People thought they were slow and boring. The car industry was controlled by big traditional companies like Ford. Elon believed electric cars could be fast, beautiful and powerful. That building cars is very expensive. Production costs were high. There were delays. There were technical problems. Investors were nervous. By 2008, Elon Musk was almost out of money. Both SpaceX and Tesla were close to collapse. They were about to fail completely. So Elon had to make a decision. He took his last money and divided it between the two companies. He believed in both dreams. Then something incredible happened. In late 2008, SpaceX finally succeeded. The fourth rocket launch worked. This was historic. It was the first time a private company launched a rocket. So SpaceX was saved. At the same time, Tesla survived the financial crisis of 2008. A financial crisis is a period when the economy becomes very weak and unstable. Tesla later released the Model S, a luxury electric car. Luxury means high quality and expensive. The Model S was fast, it was stylish, and it proved that electric cars could compete with gasoline cars. So Tesla began to grow. Elon Musk was no longer just a businessman. He was becoming a symbol. He was the one who was the most powerful in the world. He was the most powerful person in the world. In factories, he pushed his team's very hard. Some people admired him. They respected him deeply. Others criticized him. They spoke negatively about him. He was intense. He was very strong and serious. But one thing was clear. He was not afraid of failure. He once said that failure is an option. If you are not failing sometimes, you are not trying hard enough. Elon Musk's story is not just about success. It is about risk, pressure, and responsibility. The boy who read science fiction books in South Africa was now building real rockets. And his dreams were getting bigger. The dream is becoming real. But Elon Musk did not stop with rockets and cars. He also became interested in artificial intelligence or AI. So why did Elon continue? Because he thought about the long term future. He asked questions like, "What will the world look like in 50 years?" How can we reduce suffering? How can we reduce pain? How can we expand human consciousness? Consciousness means awareness, the ability to think and experience life. Some people see him as a hero. Some people see him as controversial. Controversial means causing strong disagreement. But almost everyone agrees on one thing. He is different. He takes risks most people would never take. He invests his money in ideas that seem impossible. He works extremely hard and he believes that the future can be better. Innovation requires risk and failure is often part of success. Now, let me ask you something. What is your big dream? It does not need to be Mars. Maybe it is learning English fluently. Maybe it is starting a business. Maybe it is writing a book. Every big story begins with one small step. And Dad brings us to the end of another episode of English Unleashed. If you enjoyed this story, listen again. Notice new words. Repeat key sentences. Let language become familiar and comfortable. And remember, the future is built by people who dare to imagine it. Bye for now. (upbeat music)