Last Friday (June 12), Elon Musk’s SpaceX made history by recording the largest stock-market jump ever, rising 19% and reaching a market capitalization of nearly $2.1 trillion.

The company, founded by Musk in 2002, thus made its Wall Street debut. “If someone had told me this was going to happen, I would have thought: What madness!” Musk said.

From Ordinary Employee to Millionaire

Things were not always easy, however. In its early days, the company—which specializes in launching space rockets with the long-term goal of colonizing Mars—began looking for workers to help build its vision. Juan Hernández, a welder, was one of them.

In an interview with CBS, Hernández said that before joining SpaceX he knew almost nothing about the company: “It was just another contract job.” Although he no longer works there and is now employed at Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s company and a direct competitor to SpaceX, he still owns about 6,500 SpaceX shares. With the stock closing at $160.95 per share, his holdings are worth more than $1 million.

An Unexpected Stroke of Luck

The opportunity came about through pure luck. A friend who already worked at the company encouraged him to apply.

“I thought to myself, ‘I don’t know what SpaceX is, but let’s go for it.’”

When he was hired, he was granted stock worth about $10,000, something he did not pay much attention to at the time.

“It wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t know anything about it then. I never imagined it would become so significant.”

During his ten years at SpaceX, he progressed from working as a welder—building structures used to lift rockets onto launch platforms—to becoming a supervisor. He explains that offering shares to employees encourages them to feel they have something at stake:

“Their performance will be much better because, in the end, it’s their company too.”

Hernández is grateful for that gesture from Elon Musk’s company, without which his life would not have changed so dramatically:

“He made it possible for people like us—the cook, the electrician. It greatly improves the lives of all these people and gives more meaning to their families’ lives as well,” he concluded.