Raising a billionaire: How Maye Musk's own life lessons played into Elon's success

Maye Musk reveals the age she knew Elon was a special child Maye also talks about her Canadian parents, how they impacted her parenting, modeling, her new book and more.

TORONTO — Parents hoping to raise successful children should look no further than their own values and career aspirations to set their kids on the path to success, says Canadian-born model Maye Musk.

Musk, 71, knows a thing or two about overcoming obstacles to find success. At 69-years-old, she overcame ageism in the modelling industry to make history as CoverGirl’s oldest model.

She is also the mother of Tesla co-founder and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

In her recently released memoir, “A Woman Makes a Plan,” Musk describes how her personal and professional struggles taught her to invest in her full potential, a lesson that played into her parenting.

“If you’re not getting to your full potential and you know you can do better, you have to move on,” Musk told CTV’s Your Morning on Tuesday.

“It’s scary and you have no confidence… [but] what do you have to lose?”

Musk says her Canadian upbringing played a large role in how she raised Elon and her two other children.

“I think you should be nice and kind, which is very Canadian,” said Musk. “It was so lovely to be brought up with really kind, thoughtful parents who were considerate of others and polite. The way they brought me up, I brought up my children.”

Musk was born in Regina in 1948. Her parents moved the family to South Africa when she was a young child, where Musk began a modelling career at 15.

Her son Kimbal Musk is a restaurateur and philanthropist, and daughter Tosca Musk is a film producer and director.

Elon, she says, showed “genius” at the age of three.

“He just reasoned with me so well. I didn’t know how he could figure out things—I mean he was three,” she said. “The nice thing is that he took what he could do an actually implement it.”

The book details Musk’s life, from becoming a single mother at 31, to navigating careers as a model and respected dietician.

But the biggest piece of advice found in the book, Musk says, is that you can have the life you want at any age.

“I’m at the happiest,” she said. “71 is really good, but probably 81 will be too.”