Maye Musk's new memoir, 'Timeless,' is built around one central message: getting older does not have to mean slowing down.
Musk, 78, is known as the mother of Elon Musk, but she has also built a career of her own as a dietitian, model, author, and public speaker. In the book, released September 15, she looks back on childhood, divorce, and her years as a working single mother of three, while also reflecting on the later career breakthroughs that reshaped her public life.
One of the strongest threads in the memoir is timing. Musk says she considered herself a late bloomer and wrote that 'most of the things I'm known for didn't happen until after I turned fifty.' She says she did not walk runways in New York, Paris, or Milan until after 50, and that her Times Square billboards came when 'most people my age were considering retirement.'
That pattern continued. In 2017, Musk became CoverGirl's oldest spokesperson at 69. Two years later, at 71, she published her first memoir, 'A Woman Makes a Plan: Advice for a Lifetime of Adventure, Beauty, and Success.' At 74, she became the oldest cover model in Sports Illustrated history, a title she held until Martha Stewart appeared on the cover at 81 the following year.
Musk also writes about beauty standards and the pressure to hide age. She says she stopped bleaching her hair when she was nearing 60, cut it short, and found she loved the new look. Her agent warned her she would 'never work again,' but Musk says the opposite happened: fifteen agencies outside New York City signed her, and she booked work across Europe and the US.
The book also revisits her hesitation around Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue. Musk writes that agents had long told her she did not have a 'swimsuit body,' and she worried about showing wrinkles and cellulite. Her daughter encouraged her to do it anyway. Musk says she ultimately chose to 'walk proudly and show the world how happy and healthy I was in my swimsuit.'
Her work as a dietitian is still part of the story too. The University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa, awarded her an honorary doctorate in dietetics in 2023, and she says she still keeps up with nutrition research. Musk writes that every five years, she passes seventy-five exams to keep her accreditation current.
The business lesson is clear. Reinvention is not just a young person's advantage. Markets still reward people who keep learning, stay visible, and turn experience into trust. For founders, that is a useful reminder: your runway in life may be longer than your last job title suggests.
