Before acquiring immense wealth, private jets, and multi-billion dollar companies, Elon Musk had an incredibly harsh financial start. Upon arriving in North America at age 17 to pursue his education, the young man self-imposed a rigorous spending regime: to sustain his life on just $1 a day. This decision wasn’t driven by poverty, but by a test of will aimed at proving his absolute ability to survive and focus on a bigger goal.

The Strict Test: 30 Days on $30

After leaving South Africa to avoid mandatory military service and seek opportunities in the US, Musk attended Queen’s University in Canada before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). Although he did not come from a financially struggling family, Musk was determined to prove that he could minimize his living expenses to the extreme, dedicating all his mental energy to studying and his startup ideas.

Musk observed, through his young man’s perspective: “It was pretty easy to survive in America.” However, surviving on $1 a day required iron discipline and a smart bulk-buying strategy.

His secret was to purchase food in large quantities from the supermarket, focusing on cheap staples that could sustain life.

The $1/Day Menu: Bland Spaghetti, Hotdogs, and Oranges

Musk described his austere diet during his early college years:

“I was essentially doing bulk food buys at the supermarket… I lived on hot dogs and oranges. And after a while, you get sick of hot dogs and oranges. Then I upgraded to spaghetti and some green peppers. That’s about it. That helped me survive in an expensive country like the US.”

Eating a monotonous cycle of basic foods like hotdogs, oranges, and spaghetti was not just a culinary sacrifice but a mental exercise. By minimizing his daily decisions regarding food and money, Musk freed his brain to focus on bigger problems—physics, economics, and how to build a company.

Saving Money, Maximizing Time

The ultimate purpose of living on $1 a day was not to save a fortune, but to maximize time and resources.

For Musk, if he could survive and maintain basic function at the lowest possible cost, he could dedicate more time to reading books and researching fields like the Internet, sustainable energy, and space, rather than taking on part-time jobs to make ends meet.

The lesson from this austere spending regime still follows Musk today. The intense focus on his objective and the elimination of all non-essential elements from his life (from complex meals to frivolous social engagements) is the driving force behind his ability to build a rocket company simply by reading books and working 100 hours a week.

The story of the bland spaghetti and cheap hotdogs shows that to become a multi-trillionaire, the starting point is not wealth, but an iron will of self-discipline and a goal bigger than your stomach.