Elon Musk has warned budding entrepreneurs hoping to emulate his success to “be careful what they wish for”.
Asked at a business forum in Bali on Monday what an up-and-coming “Elon Musk of the East” should focus on, he said he was “not sure how many people really want to be me”.
“They wanted to be who they imagined me to be, and it was different,” he continued. “I mean, frankly, I tortured myself to a higher level.”
musk Speaks at the B20 Business Forum ahead of the G20 Major Economies Summit on the Indonesian island.
new Twitter The owner joined the meeting via video link weeks after completing a heavily scrutinized takeover of the social network.
He had been expected to attend the event in person, but Indonesian government minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, who is coordinating preparations for the summit, said Musk could not attend because he was preparing for a court case this week.
The testimony began on Monday in Delaware, where Tesla shareholders are challenging Musk’s pay package as chief executive, which could be worth more than $55bn (£47bn).
“My workload has increased a lot lately,” he said with a laugh, referring to the Twitter deal. “I mean, oh man. I have too much work, that’s for sure.”
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Musk appeared in a darkened room and said the power went out just before he got connected, and his face was projected on a large screen above the summit hall.
He bought Twitter for $44bn (£37bn) last month and quickly fired the company’s board and senior executives.
Earlier this month, he fired most of the company’s remaining full-time employees via email and is now cutting jobs at outsourced contractors charged with fighting misinformation and other harmful content as he begins a campaign to loosen restrictions on what users can say on the platform .
Musk acknowledged the controversy surrounding his recent Twitter moves, adding: “There’s no way to make everyone happy, that’s for sure.”