That’s because he’s not and never was a businessman. He’s a tech guy who got super lucky and became filthy rich. Musk builds and designs shit, he doesn’t know squat about running a company. He should stick to playing with his rockets and making new roadsters. This whole CEO foray has turned out real bad.
He’s a tech guy who got super lucky and became filthy rich.
Not even that…
He was (at best) an average coder decades ago who used family money to buy lots of startups and a few made a lot of money.
He was a gambler, not a businessman. It’s just when you start out wealthy you can keep buying lottery tickets till you win. It doesn’t even mean he was good at picking lottery numbers, he could just afford to buy more tickets than other people.
Not mine but…
Entrepreneurship is like one of those carnival games where you throw darts or something.
Middle class kids can afford one throw. Most miss. A few hit the target and get a small prize. A very few hit the center bullseye and get a bigger prize. Rags to riches! The American Dream lives on.
Rich kids can afford many throws. If they want to, they can try over and over and over again until they hit something and feel good about themselves. Some keep going until they hit the center bullseye, then they give speeches or write blog posts about “meritocracy” and the salutary effects of hard work.
Poor kids aren’t visiting the carnival. They’re the ones working it.
Also, we are all looking at this backwards. The very definition of survivorship bias.
We always only see the luckiest people. All the richest people have been super lucky, because if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be the richest. And also the most ruthless for the same reasons.
If you look at all the lottery winners, then by definition you will see people who gambled and won. Because someone has to win. That doesn’t mean the lottery winners have some better skillets or are smarter at picking numbers than those who didn’t win.
He’s not even a tech guy. He inherited his money, and then lucked into a couple jobs with actual tech guys that he could take the credit for. His entire career has been built around buying other tech companies that were just taking off, pushing the original founders out, and then taking credit for everything everyone else did.
What’s crazy is that he had fooled a lot of people into thinking he was a tech guy with a very carefully crafted image, but he threw it all away to help the alt right
Lucky timing is: being a white guy growing up in the 70s/80s America.
Besides that, if you look at the company he started. It started selling books, but he always wanted to sell other stuff. His shareholder letters describe his vision from the very first one and it is consistent. It didn’t change over time. They company got lucky, they talk about prime being a fluke all the time. But on the other hand, the culture in the company was something that supported a fluke like that to bubble up through the idea pond.
Any who, yea. I don’t care for the person that the media portrays him as today. But for his initial years I absolutely give him a lot of credit.
I haven’t heard off Amazon being built on stolen ideas or usurping someone else’s company or being born with a silver spoon.
Yes he was a white male in America in the 70s and has all the privilege associated with that, but there were like another 50 million in that category.
It’s more about launching a company right when internet purchases took off. People tried before, but the timing wasn’t right. He had the right skill set, at the right time, and it took off.
He is remarkably bad at running a business for a billionaire.
That’s because he’s not and never was a businessman. He’s a tech guy who got super lucky and became filthy rich. Musk builds and designs shit, he doesn’t know squat about running a company. He should stick to playing with his rockets and making new roadsters. This whole CEO foray has turned out real bad.
Not even that…
He was (at best) an average coder decades ago who used family money to buy lots of startups and a few made a lot of money.
He was a gambler, not a businessman. It’s just when you start out wealthy you can keep buying lottery tickets till you win. It doesn’t even mean he was good at picking lottery numbers, he could just afford to buy more tickets than other people.
And definitely not that
Not mine but… Entrepreneurship is like one of those carnival games where you throw darts or something. Middle class kids can afford one throw. Most miss. A few hit the target and get a small prize. A very few hit the center bullseye and get a bigger prize. Rags to riches! The American Dream lives on.
Rich kids can afford many throws. If they want to, they can try over and over and over again until they hit something and feel good about themselves. Some keep going until they hit the center bullseye, then they give speeches or write blog posts about “meritocracy” and the salutary effects of hard work.
Poor kids aren’t visiting the carnival. They’re the ones working it.
Also, we are all looking at this backwards. The very definition of survivorship bias.
We always only see the luckiest people. All the richest people have been super lucky, because if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be the richest. And also the most ruthless for the same reasons.
If you look at all the lottery winners, then by definition you will see people who gambled and won. Because someone has to win. That doesn’t mean the lottery winners have some better skillets or are smarter at picking numbers than those who didn’t win.
He’s not even a tech guy. He inherited his money, and then lucked into a couple jobs with actual tech guys that he could take the credit for. His entire career has been built around buying other tech companies that were just taking off, pushing the original founders out, and then taking credit for everything everyone else did.
Strongarmed his way into other people’s success, then slapped his name on it and claimed it as his own.
He wishes he was a tech guy. He just piggybacks off of everyone else. He’s a leech, a parasite.
What’s crazy is that he had fooled a lot of people into thinking he was a tech guy with a very carefully crafted image, but he threw it all away to help the alt right
Does he though?
Musk attaches his name to things others have built and designed.
As surprising as it may sound, most billionaires do not arrive there through competence. They get there by way of inheritance and privilege.
And lucky timing.
Is bezos an exception?
How? That’s exactly lucky timing.
Lucky timing is: being a white guy growing up in the 70s/80s America.
Besides that, if you look at the company he started. It started selling books, but he always wanted to sell other stuff. His shareholder letters describe his vision from the very first one and it is consistent. It didn’t change over time. They company got lucky, they talk about prime being a fluke all the time. But on the other hand, the culture in the company was something that supported a fluke like that to bubble up through the idea pond.
Any who, yea. I don’t care for the person that the media portrays him as today. But for his initial years I absolutely give him a lot of credit.
I haven’t heard off Amazon being built on stolen ideas or usurping someone else’s company or being born with a silver spoon.
Yes he was a white male in America in the 70s and has all the privilege associated with that, but there were like another 50 million in that category.
It’s more about launching a company right when internet purchases took off. People tried before, but the timing wasn’t right. He had the right skill set, at the right time, and it took off.