"The Great One Man Myth" (or: Elon Musk Deconstructed)

[Smokey]

...
Same for Telsa and Space-X. They were both on the verge of bandruptcy, as in weeks away for Tesla, before the 4th Space-X rocket finally worked and they got the NASA contract days later. That saved Space-X and Tesla. If that rocket failed, it's likely this thread would never have started.

"Elon Musk’s Space Dream Almost Killed Tesla"
http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-elon-musk-spacex/

[mtdoc]

I'm not saying it was all luck, of course not, but some luck always plays a part in any success story.
There are countless people that had a better idea and better products and worked harder and were smarter businessmen than Musk, but many of them luck-out and never get the financial reward Musk did.

Yes, this. Absolutely.

[Bassman59]

The thing is once you get that money and a name for yourself, it gets easier to get money. If Space-X and Tesla had failed (as they were on the verge of doing), Musk could still walk into any VC and get a chunk of cash for the next venture. The serial entrepreneurs know this, and hence are more willing to gamble it all, but most don't, they like to blow other people's money not their own.

That has been Donald Trump's modus operandi from day 1. In Trump's case, he had Daddy's name and money.

[Galenbo]

That has been Donald Trump's modus operandi from day 1. In Trump's case, he had Daddy's name and money.

Donald's brother Fred Jr Trump also had Daddy's name and money.
Turned out a littlebit different.

...I'm not saying it was all luck, of course not, but some luck always plays a part in any success story...

Also the other way around: Without serious efforts and ambition, you can't have luck.
Who again said it? How can you make it if you never even try.

[Kjelt]

Also the other way around: Without serious efforts and ambition, you can't have luck.
Who again said it? How can you make it if you never even try.

You can per definition always have luck since luck has no preferences.
I myself have a large aversion against the popular "if you really want you can make it" prophecies that gains popularity the last decade. I agree that if you do nothing the chance is small you will have everything. But even if you do everything within your powers it is still a small chance you end up with everything.
Only the ones that make it end up in the picture inspiring others to try to do the same thing, what is forgotten that for every person that really makes it, there are thousands that never will, and that should also be good enough.
A normal life with a family and a normal job, nothing wrong with that. Too bad those normal people do not get in to the picture (except Dave ofcourse  ). Youth all dreaming to become rockstars, moviestars or models while only 0.001% will ever become that (and regret it later on in life).

[zapta]

Also the other way around: Without serious efforts and ambition, you can't have luck.
Who again said it? How can you make it if you never even try.

Some people are much better than others taking advantage of opportunities that luck brings.

[Bud]

Without serious efforts and ambition, you can't have luck.
Who again said it? How can you make it if you never even try.

"The harder I work, the luckier I get". Trump said that, attributing the origin of it to a golf player who exercised hard to win.

[Galenbo]

A normal life with a family and a normal job, nothing wrong with that. Too bad those normal people do not get in to the picture (except Dave ofcourse  )

Why do you give him as example? I think there's not too much normal in his life, being the most known EE in the world, being in a healthy shape, doing also outdoor adventures and sports, having published books and articles in his youth of both EE and other domains,...

Looks more like a life those selfmade multimillionaires have/had.

[Kjelt]

Well before a couple of years he shot his vblog's he had a pretty normal EE career and family life and at the look of it he still has. I don't see him driving a ferrari and sitting behind a desk controlling a company with 1000 people 
He just got one student employee now. He still gets home on time for dinner with the family as normal people do.
He can answer for himself but I still regard Dave as a family man.

[EEVblog]

Also the other way around: Without serious efforts and ambition, you can't have luck.
Who again said it? How can you make it if you never even try.

Of course, you can't become become the founder of Space X and Tesla and PayPal by luck.
You can win lotto by pure luck, but not much else.

[EEVblog]

Whatever side of the fence you sit on here about articles like this, or on the fence, the headline of this article will make you so furious you'll want to self harm, you have been warned:
http://fortune.com/2015/07/29/ubeam-meredith-perry-wireless-charging/

[SeanB]

So long as they do not use My money they are welcome to the delusions they believe in.

[Kjelt]

They had better called it brainless charging 

[Bob F.]

Whatever side of the fence you sit on here about articles like this, or on the fence, the headline of this article will make you so furious you'll want to self harm, you have been warned:
http://fortune.com/2015/07/29/ubeam-meredith-perry-wireless-charging/

I think there may be something wrong with me: I laughed myself silly instead. 

To paraphrase Stephen Fry: there is simply not enough vomit in the world to respond adequately to such arse-gravy.

[Galenbo]

...Dave... I don't see him driving a ferrari and sitting behind a desk controlling a company with 1000 people 
He just got one student employee now...

That's all part of the media campaign, most Ferrari owners put it in the garage of one of their country cottages...
He even owns Multimillion company Batteriser, behind the scenes :-)

[Galenbo]

...You can win lotto by pure luck, but not much else.

I can't. Except when someone puts my name on his lotto paper by accident.

[SeanB]

...You can win lotto by pure luck, but not much else.

I can't. Except when someone puts my name on his lotto paper by accident.

I have been very lucky with the lotto, mainly because Ithuba has so few outlets, and they are so regularly off line when I do chance across one. Hoever, on the last ticket I won $2 on a $1 ticket. The local post office used to do lotto, but the new operator did not give them a machine, and the other post office has a machine, but it has been broken ( Eish, Ungaas lutho when tata ma chance will be talking again mlungu) for the last 2 months.........

[zapta]

Musk's latest hobby, barnstorming:

[rx8pilot]

For the most part......I want to be Elon pretty bad.

[helius]

Checked the writer's bio, and (no surprise) they are on staff at Slate, where your feelings are news.

[LabSpokane]

Musk's latest hobby, barnstorming:

Foe $650, you too can "barnstorm" a la Elon. It's just a ride at an airport in England. 

[djacobow]

Actually, Solar City is also very close to being a bank.

Solar City does not make solar panels. It installs them. But more importantly, it _owns_ them. You pay them monthly for the the energy, less than you would for utility power, but more than if you owned them yourself. But you don't have to get any of your own cash involved. That's the business model.

It is a finance operation, first and foremost.

Isn't the guy discussed in this topic, a banker that uses his dollars to buy himself a new image?

No.  He has never been a banker.  He is CEO of Solar City (makes solar panels) Tesla (makes EV cars and batteries for EV cars and for home and industrial use) and SpaceX (space launch company).

I think PayPal is very technically close to a bank, in the opinion of the US Government at least.

[helius]

That's a good point, and it should remind us that there is not that much that is fundamentally new. General Motors also had a finance subsidiary (GMAC) that became nearly as large as the manufacturing arm of the company. They were also involved in mortgages and derivatives, making GM (prior to the bailout) in some sense a bank.