Elon Musk’s adven­tur­ous spir­it traces back to his mater­nal grand­fa­ther, Joshua Halde­man, a risk-tak­er and chi­ro­prac­tor from Cana­da, who ven­tured into var­i­ous pro­fes­sions and activism. After los­ing his farm dur­ing the 1930s depres­sion, Haldeman’s love for adven­ture led him through numer­ous escapades, includ­ing hobo and stow­away adven­tures. He became polit­i­cal­ly active, engag­ing with the Social Cred­it Par­ty and Tech­noc­ra­cy, advo­cat­ing for eco­nom­ic and tech­no­crat­ic reforms. Joshua’s love for adven­ture inter­twined with his future wife, Win­nifred Fletcher’s, when he joined her dance class. Their adven­tur­ous spir­it cul­mi­nat­ed in mar­riage and the birth of four chil­dren, includ­ing Maye, Elon Musk’s moth­er.

Joshua height­ened his adven­tur­ous life by learn­ing to fly, becom­ing known as “The Fly­ing Halde­mans”. The family’s dar­ing lifestyle includ­ed long-dis­tance flights and ral­lies. Their mot­to, “Live dangerously—carefully,” epit­o­mized their approach to life’s risks. In 1950, dis­sat­is­fied with Cana­di­an gov­er­nance, Joshua moved the fam­i­ly to South Africa, seek­ing adven­ture and a new life under the white apartheid regime. Their adven­tures con­tin­ued in Africa, includ­ing year­ly expe­di­tions into the Kala­hari Desert in search of a myth­i­cal city.

Elon Musk’s father, Errol Musk, equal­ly embod­ied an adven­tur­ous spir­it. Com­ing from a robust lin­eage marked by a strong-willed moth­er and a qui­et, cryp­tog­ra­ph­er father, Errol pur­sued engi­neer­ing, pol­i­tics, and busi­ness adven­tures in South Africa. His ven­tures involved fly­ing, busi­ness deal­ings in pre­cious stones, and dab­bling in non-con­ven­tion­al trade prac­tices.

The nar­ra­tive dove­tails with the sto­ry of Maye Halde­man and Errol Musk’s tumul­tuous rela­tion­ship. Maye, shar­ing her father’s adven­tur­ous spir­it, was ini­tial­ly resis­tant to Errol’s pro­pos­als. Their on-and-off rela­tion­ship, marked by Errol’s infi­deli­ty, even­tu­al­ly led to mar­riage after a dra­mat­ic courtship. Their union, steeped in dra­ma and uncer­tain­ty, reflects the com­plex inter­twin­ing of risk, adven­ture, and per­se­ver­ance that char­ac­ter­izes Elon Musk’s fam­i­ly back­ground. This back­drop of dar­ing ven­tures, polit­i­cal activism, and uncon­ven­tion­al life choic­es set the stage for Elon Musk’s own path of inno­va­tion and risk-tak­ing.