Boredom Leads to Great Things 47
contacted a supplier of arcade games, and all they needed
to open their dream was a permit from the city. But to get
a permit, one of their parents had to sign a document, and
neither of their parents thought it was a good idea. “We
got stopped by the city,” Kimbal said. “We couldn’t get a
variance. Our parents had no idea. They flipped out when
they found out, especially my father.”^278
When home computers became affordable, the arcade
era ended. The gamers could now create their own games.
Elon felt he needed to learn how to program his own
computer software because he wanted to learn how to
create his own games. He asked his father if he could teach
him how to program, but Errol thought computers were
only toys that will amount to nothing and he refused to use
computers. Elon thought his father was silly, so he decided
to learn how to make his own games despite his father’s
negative thoughts.^49
To learn how to make his own games, Elon attended
classes in computer programming. But he was always
ahead of the teacher. Bored, he began to teach himself
how to program with the help of the thick, heavy manuals
that arrived with early computers. He became a better and
better programmer and in the end, he could really make his
own computer games.
In 1983, at age twelve, Elon earned $500 when he sold a
game he had made to a computer magazine. “I read a lot of
computer magazines and there was a computer magazine
that you could sell software to,” Elon said. “I needed more
money to buy a better computer and more video games. So