????她的兩個兒子大學(xué)畢業(yè)后就搬到了加利福尼亞，創(chuàng)辦了電子目錄公司Zip2。梅耶每月能有2,000美元盈余，于是她用這筆錢每隔六周前去陪兒子們一個星期。剩下的錢，無論多少，就送給兒子們。【據(jù)梅耶回憶，當(dāng)時，這兩位斗志旺盛的創(chuàng)始人在基督教青年會（the Y）洗澡，晚上就睡在桌子底下?！坑幸淮?，梅耶與金巴爾去印刷服務(wù)公司Kinko's打印商務(wù)演示的彩色復(fù)印件，當(dāng)然是當(dāng)媽的付錢。這兩位創(chuàng)始人第二天要帶著這些材料去見一位風(fēng)險投資人。而正是那次會面為埃隆和金巴爾贏得了第一筆投資。

????梅耶發(fā)現(xiàn)她很快又要搬家了。托斯卡離開了溫哥華，去加州的山景城與兩位兄弟一起創(chuàng)業(yè)，他們一直邀請梅耶加入。她賣掉了在多倫多的營養(yǎng)學(xué)公司，期待著能在美國獲得成功——畢竟所有美國人都希望能有一位營養(yǎng)師。當(dāng)然，她再一次面臨從零開始的境地。梅耶發(fā)現(xiàn)山景城的生活枯燥乏味，所以她住在了舊金山，努力學(xué)習(xí)美國度量制（營養(yǎng)師協(xié)會的規(guī)定），開始重新構(gòu)想她的商業(yè)模式。她買不起汽車，于是租了一輛。每個周六上午，她在諾德斯特龍（Nordstrom）完成走秀，下午便前往帕洛阿爾托看望她的孩子們，給他們提些建議。

????1998年，Zip2開始有所起色。那一年，梅耶50歲，她的兒子們送給她一輛木制小汽車和木制的小房子。有一天，他們說，我們會給你買真正的汽車和房子。第二年，康柏電腦公司（Compaq）以3.05億美元收購了他們的公司——他們要實現(xiàn)承諾，為梅耶買一棟房子，而這一次，她決定搬到遠離孩子們的地方。之前去曼哈頓旅游的經(jīng)歷讓她決定去那里定居。

????“（紐約人）快言快語，他們走路快，說話快，正好適合我的類型，”她說道。

????梅耶在曼哈頓居住了13年——就在公園大道與百老匯之間的22號大街。她的模特職業(yè)也成就非凡?！境说巧稀都~約》雜志外，她還曾出現(xiàn)在《時代》雜志（Time）的一期健康?？姆饷嫔?，還曾以圣誕夫人的形象登上了塔吉特（Target）在時代廣場（Times Square）上的節(jié)日廣告牌?！慷@一次，她又創(chuàng)辦了自己的營養(yǎng)師公司。

????與此同時，金巴爾在科羅拉多州創(chuàng)辦了一家餐廳，托斯卡在洛杉磯成立了一家制片公司，而埃隆則聯(lián)合創(chuàng)辦了PayPal，后來又把它賣給了eBay，然后繼續(xù)他非凡的創(chuàng)業(yè)之旅，最終讓他成為《財富》年度商業(yè)人物。

????大約八個月前， 托斯卡又說服了母親搬到離家人近的地方。她和埃隆住在洛杉磯。托斯卡有一對雙胞胎。金巴爾則計劃在洛杉磯也開一家餐廳。

????穆斯克家族的成員雖然都非常獨立，但他們似乎不能離開家人太久。梅耶表示，他們都還年輕，“希望用自己的方式，做自己的事情?！?/p>

????或許這是因為蘋果不會落到離樹很遠的地方。梅耶承認：“我一直憑感覺做事。所以，他們有這樣的思維方式再正常不過。”（財富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????After her sons graduated from college, Elon and Kimbal moved to California and started electronic directory company Zip2. Maye had about $2,000 to spare per month, so she used it to visit her sons every six weeks for a week. Whatever was left over was theirs for the taking. (At the time, the scrappy startup founders were showering at the Y and sleeping under their desks, Maye recalls.) During one of her visits, Maye went to Kinko's with Kimbal to print colored copies – that mom was paying for – of the boys' business presentation to take to a venture capitalist the next morning. That meeting was where Elon and Kimbal got their first investment.

????Maye soon found herself packing boxes again. Tosca had recently left Vancouver to join the Musk boys in Mountain View, Calif., and they were all clamoring for Maye to join. She sold her Toronto dietitian business, expecting she would find great success in America -- where everyone wanted a dietitian! -- and, yet again, started from scratch. Maye found Mountain View boring, so she lived in San Francisco and worked to learn American metrics, dietitian union rules, and reframe her business model. She couldn't afford a car, so she would rent one, visiting and advising her children in Palo Alto on Saturday afternoons after modeling in Nordstrom (JWN) runway shows in the mornings.

????In 1998, Zip2's success began to sink in. That year, Maye turned 50, and her sons presented her with a tiny wood car and a tiny wood house. One day, they said, we'll buy you the real thing. Compaq (HPQ) bought the business a year later for $305 million -- and they offered to buy Maye the promised home, but this time she decided to settle far from her children. An earlier visit to Manhattan convinced her to relocate there.

????"[New Yorkers] speak fast, they walk fast, they talk fast," she says. "These are my kind of people."

????Maye lived in Manhattan -- on 22nd between Park Ave. and Broadway -- for 13 years. Her modeling career picked up. (Besides her New York Magazine gig, she's appeared on the cover of a special health issue of Time magazine and as Mrs. Claus on a Target (TGT) holiday billboard in Times Square.) Yet again, she restarted her dietitian business.

????Kimbal, meanwhile, launched a restaurant business in Colorado, and Tosca started a production company in Los Angeles. Oh, and Elon co-founded and sold PayPal to eBay (EBAY) and went on to the extraordinary entrepreneurial feats that merit him Fortune's Businessperson of the Year.

????About eight months ago, Tosca again convinced her mother to move closer to family. She and Elon live in Los Angeles. Tosca has twin babies. Kimbal is looking to open a restaurant in the area.

????The Musks can't seem to stay away from each other for too long, yet they're all fiercely independent. Since they were young, they "wanted to do their own thing," says Maye. "In their own ways."

????Perhaps that's because the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. "I live by the seat of my pants," Maye confesses. "So it's quite normal for them to think that way."