As one of the richest men in the world, Elon Musk has the money to buy any fragrance he wants to wear. So what cologne does the South African billionaire wear?
Elon Musk does not wear cologne due to his heightened sense of smell. He is highly sensitive to smells and his employees and job candidates are asked to not wear cologne or perfume when meeting with him. Musk has spoken out about smells on more than one occasion.
You can read more below about Elon Musk’s interesting habits surrounding smells and other things.
Elon Musk’s Scent Sensitivity
It’s not uncommon for people to have allergies to perfumes. A perfume allergy can be triggered by an allergen in the perfume and a specific scent used. Reactions can range from a headache when the scent is smelled to a rash if rubbed on the skin.
However, in Elon Musk’s case, it appears that the tech billionaire is just very sensitive to any smell. As he has put it, he just has a heightened sense of smell.
It’s because of this hyper-awareness of the smells around him that he has some rules for his employees and even people coming in to interview with him. His number one rule is that employees should not wear any perfume or cologne when around him and anything else they wear should either be unscented or very weak in smell.
Anyone who is ever coming in for an interview with the eccentric billionaire is told again to not wear any perfumes or colognes to their interview. This is actually a pretty common practice in many workplaces. It is good to wear little to no fragrance so that you don’t trigger another person’s allergies.
However, Elon Musk takes it to the next level. Wired reported that during a 2017 visit to his Tesla manufacturing plant known as the Gigafactory, Musk went on a bit of a rampage.
He was stressed at the time trying to have the company finish their more affordable Model 3 for middle-class consumers. Musk was firing employees left, right, and center and one employee called some of his firings ‘rage firings.’
At one point, one of his executives tried to get him to see some sense saying that he was putting too much pressure on his employees. According to the piece, “Musk, though, had other concerns. ‘What’s that smell?’ he asked. Everyone went silent.”
There was a vat of silicon heating up nearby that smelled of burnt plastic and Elon Musk claimed that the vapors from the vat were going to kill him and people.
You can watch Joe Rogan interview Space X consultant and astronaut Garrett Reisman about what it’s like working for Elon Musk in the below video.
Elon Musk’s Other Interesting Habits & Rules
The Tesla and Space X founder has some rules and habits that will surely surprise many. These are things that he and his employees all have to follow.
In fact, he has so many that a lot of news outlets have actually made lists of them like this one from Hot Cars called ‘23 Weird Rules Elon Musk’s Employees All Have to Follow’. In this article, they highlight things like no employee discounts, no weekends off, no sick leave, no calling ambulances, and hide your injuries.
That doesn’t exactly sound like the best work environment but these rules all seem to be ones that the CEO follows himself. He often works over 110 hours a week and doesn’t seem to take time off.
Elon has also been involved in some strange ventures like manufacturing a flame thrower under The Boring Company. One that has now sold over 20,000 units.
A lot of his other habits are ones that contribute to him being extremely productive as an entrepreneur. One of those habits is reading 500 pages a day from books.
He has also taken Ambien to try to make his body sleep when he felt he wasn’t getting enough due to overworking himself. Musk also sets up his schedule in units of 5 minutes to ensure the highest level of productivity.
Finally, before he became the massive success he is today, Elon Musk had another habit that he had to kick: caffeine addiction. According to CNBC, Musk was drinking eight diet cokes a day and so much coffee he’d be shaking. He did eventually cut back though.
So the whole no perfumes and colognes thing really doesn’t look that intense compared to some of the other habits and rules Elon Musk enforces day-to-day.