Elon Musk, the world's richest and first trillionaire, too has stress in his life. How does he remove stress?
Even at the very top of the wealth pyramid, stress doesn’t disappear. It just changes shape. Elon Musk, now widely reported as the world’s richest person and even described as the first trillionaire, has often been seen as the face of extreme ambition. But behind the headlines of rockets, cars, and AI, there is a very human side too. Long nights, physical exhaustion, and moments where pressure doesn’t just sit in the mind but shows up in the body.
According to Forbes, Musk’s net worth is estimated at around $1.1 trillion following a surge after SpaceX’s IPO pricing at $135 per share, up from $982 billion a day earlier. But wealth hasn’t insulated him from strain. As reported in Walter Isaacson’s biography, Musk’s success story has also included stress-related insomnia and episodes of physical distress during some of his most intense professional crises.
As per reports by Business Insider, Walter Isaacson, in the biography of the trillionaire, has written that when Musk faced “torturous challenges,” the pressure often kept him awake at night and sometimes led to vomiting. The biography describes how running multiple companies at once, combined with high-stakes failures and personal upheaval, created a level of strain that became physically visible.
One incident highlighted in the book came in 2008, a particularly difficult year. SpaceX had suffered rocket failures, and Musk was also going through a divorce. On the day after preparing to deliver a speech, he reportedly woke up with severe stomach pain. Isaacson notes that the pain was intense enough to require medical attention, although serious conditions like appendicitis were ruled out. Later that same day, Musk went out to a London nightclub in an attempt to decompress, where he met Talulah Riley, whom he later married twice.
The biography also includes accounts from Riley, who described the intensity of Musk’s stress during that period. She recalled him experiencing night terrors, screaming in his sleep, and physically reacting to stress in ways that were difficult to witness. At times, she said she would stand beside him as he struggled through episodes of vomiting and extreme discomfort.
Elon Musk's ex-wife on handling stress
In contrast to the physical toll, another perspective on handling stress comes from Justine Musk, his ex-wife, who shared her thoughts on Quora when asked how successful figures like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk manage pressure. Her view focuses less on avoiding stress and more on expanding one’s capacity to handle it.
She wrote that the key is to learn to handle a level of stress that would break most people. In her explanation, it is not about escaping pressure but learning to carry more of it over time. That shift, she suggested, comes from purpose and direction. She added that it begins with following deep curiosity until it turns into a meaningful problem worth solving, something large enough to feel fully committed to. Over time, she explained, people build resilience by exploring different areas of knowledge, connecting ideas, and slowly shaping a long-term mission.
Her broader point was that high performers often don’t avoid failure or stress. Instead, they move through it, even when it is uncomfortable or public. They learn to reframe setbacks and continue anyway, building what she described as grit and resilience along the way. In that framing, stress is not removed. It is absorbed, understood, and gradually expanded until it no longer breaks you the same way.
According to Forbes, Musk’s net worth is estimated at around $1.1 trillion following a surge after SpaceX’s IPO pricing at $135 per share, up from $982 billion a day earlier. But wealth hasn’t insulated him from strain. As reported in Walter Isaacson’s biography, Musk’s success story has also included stress-related insomnia and episodes of physical distress during some of his most intense professional crises.
As per reports by Business Insider, Walter Isaacson, in the biography of the trillionaire, has written that when Musk faced “torturous challenges,” the pressure often kept him awake at night and sometimes led to vomiting. The biography describes how running multiple companies at once, combined with high-stakes failures and personal upheaval, created a level of strain that became physically visible.
One incident highlighted in the book came in 2008, a particularly difficult year. SpaceX had suffered rocket failures, and Musk was also going through a divorce. On the day after preparing to deliver a speech, he reportedly woke up with severe stomach pain. Isaacson notes that the pain was intense enough to require medical attention, although serious conditions like appendicitis were ruled out. Later that same day, Musk went out to a London nightclub in an attempt to decompress, where he met Talulah Riley, whom he later married twice.
The biography also includes accounts from Riley, who described the intensity of Musk’s stress during that period. She recalled him experiencing night terrors, screaming in his sleep, and physically reacting to stress in ways that were difficult to witness. At times, she said she would stand beside him as he struggled through episodes of vomiting and extreme discomfort.
Elon Musk's ex-wife on handling stress
In contrast to the physical toll, another perspective on handling stress comes from Justine Musk, his ex-wife, who shared her thoughts on Quora when asked how successful figures like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk manage pressure. Her view focuses less on avoiding stress and more on expanding one’s capacity to handle it.
She wrote that the key is to learn to handle a level of stress that would break most people. In her explanation, it is not about escaping pressure but learning to carry more of it over time. That shift, she suggested, comes from purpose and direction. She added that it begins with following deep curiosity until it turns into a meaningful problem worth solving, something large enough to feel fully committed to. Over time, she explained, people build resilience by exploring different areas of knowledge, connecting ideas, and slowly shaping a long-term mission.
Her broader point was that high performers often don’t avoid failure or stress. Instead, they move through it, even when it is uncomfortable or public. They learn to reframe setbacks and continue anyway, building what she described as grit and resilience along the way. In that framing, stress is not removed. It is absorbed, understood, and gradually expanded until it no longer breaks you the same way.
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