In 1995, when Young Elon and his brother Kimbal moved to the United States from South Africa, Elon had been working as an intern in the Silicon Valley area of California.
During the term of his internship, an agent from the Yellow Pages visited the office. This agent was negotiating conventional YellowPages advertising space, but also persuading the company to purchase an online listing that supported the traditional paper one.
However, the agent was technically deprived of using the internet and his pitch to the company failed obviously as he was helpless to elucidate the advantages of such a purchase.
Thus, when this unskilled Yellow Pages agent didn’t even know the significance of what he was vending, Elon had an idea.
He reached out to his brother Kimbal and they began operating to solidify Global Link Information Network which was later rebranded to Zip2.
“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”
– Elon Musk