He gave Russell a call from the highway.“He’s a classic entrepreneur, on the extreme side, with no time for the regular structures and strictures of society,” Russell said.“If you need a salesperson to pitch a new technology to a company, you’d rather have someone like him than someone that shows up and delivers the same message time and time again,” she said.“From the time I was 6, my mother had cancer. The stock later settled back around $34, putting his net worth at about $4.6 billion.
He doesn’t have much patience for conventional wisdom – like “Get a degree if you want to be successful.”“My dad got his degrees in business and finance, and while he wasn’t an entrepreneur, he wanted me to be one,” Milton said.
We want to hear from you."I lost everything I had, twice," he told CNBC in April.
The WAV is a prototype personal watercraft.
CNBC's Robert Frank reports. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. (Rendering: Nikola Motor)Milton often has been photographed with his Labrador retriever, Taffy.These are lofty goals, but Milton has faced challenges before.
“He said he was having a great time, that he was visiting truck stops along the I-90 in the Dakotas.”“I won the lottery when it came to parents,” he said. The buyer was Trevor Milton, CEO of hydrogen-electric truck maker Nikola Motor, according to the report.
In school, he resold candy to other kids for a profit.He tried college, but dropped out after a year.
I made a killing, to the point that the principal wanted to kick me out of elementary school. The next 30 years were all about preparing myself.”“This was about the time he was moving to try to make Nikola a real enterprise,” Russell said. “Three were good successes, three were not so great, but a .500 batting average in baseball is the best player in the world,” Milton said of his track record.Milton often learns by going into the field and asking questions, Russell said.Nikola’s roots extend back to Milton’s early years. ; The 2,670-acre estate is …
“Milton, a Mormon, credits an 18-month church mission to Brazil after high school with helping him learn to be independent – and to become fluent in Portuguese.One day an engineer taught the 6-year-old Milton how a locomotive ran on electricity that was generated by the engine’s huge diesel engines. Hybrid truck company and Tesla competitor Nikola Motor recently received a valuation of about $3 billion, and CEO Trevor Milton is wasting no time spreading some money around.He recently shelled out $32.5 million for a 2,000-acre ranch in Utah, a sum that ranks among the priciest residential sales in Utah history. Milton was a customer of Russell’s prior company, Worthington Industries.The hurdles of those early years formed him and laid the foundation for his successes today, Milton, who isn’t shy about his accomplishments, told Trucks.com.After that miission, Milton spent some time in Puerto Rico, studying Spanish. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis."My number one goal right now is to execute this vision," he said. His family fought financial hardship created by her long years of illness and treatment costs.“He has obsessive focus,” said Mark Russell, a longtime Milton mentor who recently signed on as Nikola’s president. (Photo: Nikola Motor)Milton and his brother and three sisters “had to learn to survive as a family with a mother who was bedridden and a father who had to go to work 4-5 hours away. His entrepreneurial drive started early. But in the end, Milton’s passion is what sold Wabco not only on becoming a development partner but also in investing $10 million in Nikola.Milton isn’t a trained engineer or scientist. It also is developing battery-electric water-sports, all-terrain and military vehicles.Nikola is his sixth business.
Riverbend Ranch just sold to Nikola Motor CEO Trevor Milton for $32.5 million and became Utah's most expensive home sale. His father had quit his job and begun consulting for Union Pacific, mostly in Las Vegas, making the long drive to and from the Milton home in Kanab as often as possible.His key strengths are his vision, communications skills, passion and the “animal spirit” to stake his money and his reputation on an idea, Russell said. Milton, who friends describe as a born entrepreneur, launched five other businesses before Nikola, two of which failed but, he said, taught him valuable lessons.Last November, Milton paid $32.5 million for a 2,670-acre luxury ranch in Utah, which set a new price record for the state. He described his father as his best friend and biggest supporter.Nikola is about more than trucks.
"Nobody has gone through five companies at my age and lost two."Milton's newfound fortune is the latest vindication for the Utah-born college dropout, who founded Nikola at the age of 29 after talking to truckers in the North Dakota oil fields.
It was an alarm and video-surveillance business.“That’s when things got tough,” Milton said. In late November 2018, it announced plans for a Nikola World event for April 16–17, 2019, in nearby Scottsdale, Arizona.
Trevor Milton’s Utah ranch Spanning roughly 2,000 acres, the scenic estate centers on a riverfront mansion of 16,800 square feet full of mahogany, hickory, stone and custom ironwork. It was very tough, the toughest time of our lives, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.