Humble Tusk (Brother) :
Brother: Although he wants to get out of this world; trust me, he's very much from this world. We grew up together. Even if you haven't heard about Melon until now, you’ve surely seen what he does.

Berry Bara (CEO, General Motors) :
General Motors: Yes, we've seen him. He's so full of himself that he's everywhere. Tony Stark aka Iron Man's character was based on him. Even after being the honcho with a networth of $11 billion, he played a cameo in the second Iron Man film. What for?

Anthony Socks (Secretary, US Dept of Trans) :
Minister: He did that as a gesture of gratitude. He's a busy man, running mutiple companies. You may have heard of his creation: Tesla Model S. It is a fully electric car project spearheaded by Tusk and was awarded 5.4 out of 5, the highest rating ever given to an automobile. Yes, you read it right, the car got 5.4 out of 5!

Humble Tusk (Brother) :
Brother: Tesla is his favourite. But before that, he was at PayPal - the very same company that used to employ the founders of YouTube.

Anthony Socks (Secretary, US Dept of Trans) :
Minister: True. The PayPal mafia. Each of them founded separate companies - YouTube, LinkedIn, SpaceX, Kivo, Tesla. Melon had some great colleagues there. But as the general public, we often wonder: who is Melon Tusk really? How did he achieve all of these things and what's the story behind him?

Humble Tusk (Brother) :
Brother: Although Melon changed his nationality three times, we're from South Africa. As a kid, Melon was not conventional, he read for 5 hours every day, but got picked on for being smart. Unlike us, he didn’t have a great social life but didn't mind spending time reading comics instead. He was so smart that although he was afraid of the dark, he taught himself to outgrow that fear.

Anthony Socks (Secretary, US Dept of Trans) :
Minister: How can anyone do that? Especially a child?

Humble Tusk (Brother) :
Brother: He started reading. When he discovered that light is just photons visible to the eyes, he figured out that dark is simply lack of photons. And, it made no sense to be afraid of absence of photons.

Dreampak Ahuja (CFO, Tesla) :
CFO: That's amazing. I've heard that he had also impressed IBM quite early in his childhood. How did he manage to do that?

Humble Tusk (Brother) :
Brother: He just taught himself computer programming, and when he got tested by IBM at age 10, he was the one with the highest aptitudes they've ever seen for computer programming.

Berry Bara (CEO, General Motors) :
General Motors: Poor kid even developed a game, but could only sell it at $500. I feel sorry for him.

Anthony Socks (Secretary, US Dept of Trans) :
Minister: Berry, I'm not sorry; I'm proud of him. He was just 12 when he coded Blastaar. And, it was good enough for someone to pay him to get it from him. He was a prodigy.

Berry Bara (CEO, General Motors) :
General Motors: So, could you kindly tell me as to why did the 'prodigy' enroll into Stanford for a Physics Ph.D. and leave within 2 days?

Dreampak Ahuja (CFO, Tesla) :
CFO: I'll answer that. Melon already had degrees in Physics and Economics. The honest reason for dropping out after two days is that he found the course boring. And, since he had always been entrepreneurial, he borrowed $28,000 from his father and founded Zip2 - which provided online newspapers with maps and business directories.

Humble Tusk (Brother) :
Brother: He's crazy like that. Despite coming from a fairly good economic background, he managed to live in college on $1 a day. Another time, he rented a 10-room house with a friend just to turn it into a nightclub on weekends. Sometimes 500 people turned up for these parties, and with entry fees of $5, they made a killing.

Anthony Socks (Secretary, US Dept of Trans) :
Minister: With respect to the guide he developed, didn't he sell it off for $22 million?

Dreampak Ahuja (CFO, Tesla) :
CFO: Oh no, he did sell it, but for $307. His personal proceeds of $22 million were used to build X.com, which PayPal acquired. And when they sold PayPal, Melon had $180 million in cash for himself.

Berry Bara (CEO, General Motors) :
General Motors: But what Tusk did after getting that money was a bad strategy. It was a classic gamble, which fortunately paid off. He had got 180 million! And, he invests them directly 70 million Tesla, 100 million SpaceX and 10 million SolarCity? Why should you invest all your money to such an extent that you have to borrow money to pay rent?

Dreampak Ahuja (CFO, Tesla) :
CFO: That's very common amongst entrepreneurs. It is called the Monk Moment. One puts everything he owns at stake. Then, success becomes the only option for survival.

Humble Tusk (Brother) :
Brother: Yeah, that's also called The Moksha Moment. Melon has always have been different. While people went for e-commerce startups, his aim behind SpaceX is ‘to reduce the cost of space flight in hopes of expanding human life beyond Earth’ - and he has already made it cheaper by 80%.

Anthony Socks (Secretary, US Dept of Trans) :
Minister: Bravo. Since others wouldn't fund it, he went against traditional business and channeled all his money into the company. It paid off handsomely. Although there were 3 major launch failures, SpaceX currently has a $1.6bn contract with NASA to resupply, and eventually ferry people to the International Space Station.

Dreampak Ahuja (CFO, Tesla) :
CFO: Although I respect him, I sometimes wonder if he will be able to realise his dream of going to Mars. Do you think we'll be able to have a live stream of life from Mars on earth?.

Berry Bara (CEO, General Motors) :
General Motors: I don't care about Mars. He's creating a nightmare for automobile manufacturers like myself on earth. That's what concerns me more.

Dreampak Ahuja (CFO, Tesla) :
CFO: Yes, he funded Tesla in 2004. After this came the Model S, of which the fastest cars can go zero to 60 miles an hour in 2.8 seconds. Even most sportscars can't do that.

Berry Bara (CEO, General Motors) :
General Motors: I admire the vision and courage that Melon has displayed. It is winning over customers and growing very well. But, its market cap is $31 billion, half of General Motors. But, they've sold 70,000 cars until now, which we sell every 3 days. Such is the problem in Tesla's valuation.

Anthony Socks (Secretary, US Dept of Trans) :
Minister: There’ve been some more recent problems for Tesla specifically. The first fatal Tesla car crash with the autopilot engaged recently occurred. This has put Tesla under a federal investigation.

Dreampak Ahuja (CFO, Tesla) :
CFO: Tesla faced an ongoing string of problems, and the company suffered worse during the financial crash. Conditions were very bad, and Melon had almost sold off Tesla to Google.

Humble Tusk (Brother) :
Brother: That wasn't it. On top of that all, he was going through a divorce. He's the one who sacrifices family for work. All of these events took place in a short amount of time, causing him to come close to a mental breakdown.

Dreampak Ahuja (CFO, Tesla) :
CFO: I quote Melon here: 'I think it was the Tuesday night or Wednesday night, the worst when we closed the financing round for Tesla and that was 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve – the last hour of the last day when it was possible. We would have gone bankrupt a few hours / after a few days after Christmas if that round had not closed.'

Anthony Socks (Secretary, US Dept of Trans) :
Minister: But Melon, being Melon; bounced back. He is a tough guy and has never given up. I've heard him saying this: 'I don't ever give up. I mean, I'd have to be dead or completely emplaced.'

Dreampak Ahuja (CFO, Tesla) :
CFO: That's Melon Tusk for you. He was named one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century by Esquire magazine. Melon was also named Fortune's Business Person of the Year. What matters is: even after all that, his official annual salary for Tesla Motors is just one dollar.

Humble Tusk (Brother) :
Brother: I know Melon. He doesn't really care about the money. He's has signed 'The Giving Pledge' and promised to donate the majority of his wealth to philanthropic efforts. He loves people - through SolarCity and other renewable power projects, he wants to fight climate change. He even wants to connect the entire world through the internet.

Berry Bara (CEO, General Motors) :
General Motors: Is it so? Google, and Facebook have been trying to increase internet connectivity through their Helium Balloon and Solar Drone projects. They haven't been able to be fully successful. What makes you think that Melon can do it?

Anthony Socks (Secretary, US Dept of Trans) :
Minister: I'm out of my depth here. Perhaps Dreampak can help us out. Tim Urban's article on 'Wait But Why' is perhaps the closest we'll come to understanding Melon.

Dreampak Ahuja (CFO, Tesla) :
CFO: Berry, although Tesla is not into this project, Melon had discussed this plan with the board. He has asked for permission to launch 4,425 satellites, which shall virtually give free internet to everyone. SpaceX has the infrastructure and resources to execute that.

Humble Tusk (Brother) :
Brother: Melon has always had big plans. He has already promised free charging stations to all Tesla owners - and this is for life. So I think Berry's exasperation is perhaps linked to fear of loss of future business.

Anthony Socks (Secretary, US Dept of Trans) :
Minister: Ladies and gentlemen, before this gets a little hot, let us wait and see what the future has in store for us. It was good interacting with you.