And "Hyper Loop".
Let's add "Cyber Truck" while we're at it since it's still MIA.
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Elon is killing it
- Thread starter ToSlow
- Start date
And "Hyper Loop".
Let's add "Cyber Truck" while we're at it since it's still MIA.
Hmmm. He does wear a Shamwow on his head.
How much of his wealth was the cachet of his name?
How many things did Edison actually invent compared to the number of patents he held?
If you hire someone to invent something for you, you own the patent.
That’s not how patents work. You need to have been involved in the original idea to be on the patent.
If you have billions of dollars you lucked into, you can hire a bunch of really smart people to do really smart things, and then when cool things result, you can just gloss over all those people who actually accomplished all those things, and instead, just jump up and down and yell "Look at the cool thing I did!".
And people will say wow, cool, amazing, fawn over you like the second coming of Christ, and believe that you, and you alone did it all alone by yourself, without question, since you never mention all those other people actually accomplishing all that cool stuff.
Those other peasants who actually *did* all that cool stuff you take credit for but never get any acknowledgment? Yeah, F those people, I paid them, they can sit back and shut up. Yay me!
I know lots of rich kids who don't become Elon Musk.
Lots of rich people invested in companies and failed.
He's an excellent salesman/conman but there are lots of those too.
He didn't personally design the cars but I don't think Steve Jobs was personally soldering circuit boards or coding either. They're effective engineering managers, pushing their teams to build their visions. Even at my level of having 5 engineers working for me, I provide the direction and when they say they are done I say it looks/works like **** and give direction on what needs to change. I rarely do programming anymore but without me the machines would be garbage.
Lots of rich people invested in companies and failed.
He's an excellent salesman/conman but there are lots of those too.
He didn't personally design the cars but I don't think Steve Jobs was personally soldering circuit boards or coding either. They're effective engineering managers, pushing their teams to build their visions. Even at my level of having 5 engineers working for me, I provide the direction and when they say they are done I say it looks/works like **** and give direction on what needs to change. I rarely do programming anymore but without me the machines would be garbage.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
And you can have a lot of kids.
11 so far. Some great names: Nevada (RIP), Griffin, Vivian, Kai, Saxon, Damian, X Æ A-12, Exa Dark Sideræl (aka Y), Techno Mechanicus, Strider and Azure.
FTFY
Mikedezo44
Well-known member
It really irks me when Forbes or whatever magazine praise Kylie Jenner for being a "self made, youngest" billionaire for her makeup business and whatever else she does. Acting like she was sitting in rush hour, going into the office everyday at 7:00am building a makeup company from 0 to a billion on her own.
Can almost guarantee she put a few million dollars in a bank account, hired some of the best in the business at what they do, went into the office once a month to put her 2 cents in on a couple of color palates, made some Instagram posts - boom, billionaire. Sad world we live in.
Steve Jobs was an ******* as well, but at least a genuine visionary. And in the early days, yeah, him and Woz absolutely were holed up in a garage soldering circuit boards.
Musk invested some money in tesla, enough to eventually become the top shareholder, pushed the other guys out, made a few design decisions for the Roadster, and then just started throwing random **** at the wall (as well as many decrees, IE Tesla still refusing to use Lidar vs just cameras in it's self driving tech) and tells the people actually doing the work what he wants, and they make it actually happen.
All those stories about him sleeping at the factory, yeah, he's just there to tell people what he wants and how they should do it (often via methods that don't make any sense), and if they don't bow to his demands or dare question him, he just fires them.
Add in that sweet PayPal windfall, and boom, you have a stupid billionaire who people think rules the world, yet in reality, when he's the sole "visionary" at a company without guardrails, just drives businesses into the ground, IE Twitter. If Tesla wasn't a private company and bound by a lot of laws accordingly, many fear he'd have done the same to Tesla. Heck, the SEC basically ordered Tesla to "put an adult in the room" with Musk.
Grimes sues Elon Musk, claims he won’t let her ‘see my son’ - National | Globalnews.ca
Grimes has claimed that her ex, Elon Musk, will not give her access to one of their children.
globalnews.ca
I am flabbergasted that you think that you can luck your way into over 200 billion dollar net worth.
The only thing that I originally said was that you could call him lots of things, just not stereotypical.
I think it's silly to say that Elon lucked his way into where he is now. You don't get to this level of wealth by luck.
He had a good head start (as pretty much all billionaires and wealthy people do...regardless of what they tell you), but it's a combination of right time, place, and savviness that gets one to that level.
He may be an idiot/a$$hat (IMO) regarding some of his moves, beliefs, and actions over the last 5-10 years. But I would never dismiss his cunning abilities to get to where he is.
He had a good head start (as pretty much all billionaires and wealthy people do...regardless of what they tell you), but it's a combination of right time, place, and savviness that gets one to that level.
He may be an idiot/a$$hat (IMO) regarding some of his moves, beliefs, and actions over the last 5-10 years. But I would never dismiss his cunning abilities to get to where he is.
Jay Alexander
Well-known member
This part cannot be understated enough. OPPORTUNITY.
People who are already well-off are in a different place than "normal" people. Their opportunities are greater than most. Yes, he's a piece of ****. Yes, he's not a "genius". But he did make the most of what opportunities were available to him, and the opportunities that his position of wealth allowed him to create.
An important thing to note is if we fail at a business, we can start again - albeit in a rougher position than when we may have started originally. People with wealth can throw money at the wall - infinite walls - to see what sticks.
Comparing his success to normal people is already failing to distinguish the differences that actual wealth with connections can do for people.
I think of it like the housing market in the GTA.... last 30 or so years.
Some people lost their shirts in the early 90s.
Some people had the means at the time to buy in when prices dropped.
Some people got in while it was going up, some waited and never got in.
Some people had the means at the time to buy in around 2008 (blip).
Some other people got in as it kept going up, some waited and never got in thinking it was going to crash any minute.
Some people got in around 2021 and will likely lose their shirts short term... maybe not???
Over all the above some timed each blip and bought and sold, upgraded, downgraded.
With some exceptions the people that won the game are maybe, maybe at best a little smarter--or not at all. Most, not all, also lucked in on when they were born or when they graduated, right place--right time, maybe got some free to them money, maybe just worked hard and played the game, maybe they took some risks that others did not and won, maybe they were obsessed and put in way more effort and time the normal person would not (life balance). Likely some combination of these.
As for Elon, IMO he got a combination of the above in business. There are a bunch of people (real Engineers) way smarter than he is working on his products, running his companies, etc. but they may have been more risk adverse, not in the right place at the right time, no free seed money, no interest in putting in the level of effort (life balance). Last one is a big factor in my understanding.
Some people lost their shirts in the early 90s.
Some people had the means at the time to buy in when prices dropped.
Some people got in while it was going up, some waited and never got in.
Some people had the means at the time to buy in around 2008 (blip).
Some other people got in as it kept going up, some waited and never got in thinking it was going to crash any minute.
Some people got in around 2021 and will likely lose their shirts short term... maybe not???
Over all the above some timed each blip and bought and sold, upgraded, downgraded.
With some exceptions the people that won the game are maybe, maybe at best a little smarter--or not at all. Most, not all, also lucked in on when they were born or when they graduated, right place--right time, maybe got some free to them money, maybe just worked hard and played the game, maybe they took some risks that others did not and won, maybe they were obsessed and put in way more effort and time the normal person would not (life balance). Likely some combination of these.
As for Elon, IMO he got a combination of the above in business. There are a bunch of people (real Engineers) way smarter than he is working on his products, running his companies, etc. but they may have been more risk adverse, not in the right place at the right time, no free seed money, no interest in putting in the level of effort (life balance). Last one is a big factor in my understanding.
Thank you, that's what I was trying to get across.
It's easy to start and fail things if you always have a fallback to prevent you from bankrupting.
Sure, I want to start my own contracting gig now...but I can't because I CANNOT afford to fail at it because it means risking my house and family's stability.
Some can/will risk that because they believe it'll work out. I can't, because if I fail...I take down 5 other people that depend on me.
People like Elon, Gates, Bezos, Trump, Ford, Trudeau, and the list continues....can fail time and time again. But it doesn't matter. Because they'll ALWAYS have that money backing them, and they got to where they are because of 'free' money from backers. Not their own money. They were able to play with their parents' / investors' money.
It's easy when you don't care if you fail. It's not your money anyway.
@mimico_polak Narcissists and even more so Sociopaths don't typically have the same issues you and most of us have with financial risk and how the failure could impact those around them. How it could impact them (positive or negative) is all that matters, changes the equation substantially.
I rarely lose at Monopoly as I play it like a Sociopath, I could never do that in real life.
I rarely lose at Monopoly as I play it like a Sociopath, I could never do that in real life.
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