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I Did Everything I Could To Buy ClickHole, But Their Editorial Integrity Won Out Over My Billion-Dollar Offers, And I Respect Them Even More For That (By Elon Musk)

From electric cars to space travel to brain-computer interface technology, I am constantly expanding my portfolio to include big, forward-thinking ideas that I believe are worth investing in. That’s why when I first read ClickHole, I immediately envisioned the possibilities offered by their unwavering commitment to making all content go viral. I simply knew I had to be a part of what they were doing, even if it meant sacrificing a great portion of my own personal wealth. My efforts were to no avail.

I did everything I could to buy ClickHole, but their editorial integrity won out over my billion-dollar offers, and I respect them even more for that.

My initial bid to acquire ClickHole, an amount that exceeded 10 digits, was turned down on the spot. I got on my knees and begged them to reconsider, but they politely refused, proving that they value their duty to push out highly clickable web content on their social channels over any promise of wealth. Not even a blank check with the instructions to write down anything—any number of zeroes that they desired—could get them to budge. That kind of virtuous discipline is quite hard to come by these days, and I admire ClickHole all the more for forging their own path in shameless content aggregation.

Although I cannot own ClickHole, I still click on all their articles each day.

None of my desperate, grandiose pitches to change their minds were a match for ClickHole’s principled resistance to temptation. I would put their children through college, and their children’s children. I would give them any amount of my own shares in Tesla or SpaceX that they wanted. I offered to legally waive my right to infringe on any aspect of their editorial process. Yet even the auspice of a billionaire tangentially connected to their noble process of sharing the most attention-grabbing quizzes, blogs, and fail compilations was reason enough for them to rule out my propositions. I stood there, not in anger at ClickHole’s dismissal of my offers, but rather in awe of their unyielding allegiance to promulgating shareable articles in the face of great fortune.

Nowadays, when I hear the name ClickHole I think of two things: a relentless torrent of aggregated viral content, and honor.

Although I cannot own ClickHole, I still click on all their articles each day. I was initially drawn to ClickHole for their irresistibly clickable content, but now, I’m drawn to them for their steadfast devotion to making people share articles and maximize their pageviews above all else. Whether I ever acquire them or not, my admiration for ClickHole will only continue to grow with each article they publish.