For #1: he could sell a minority share publicly. I think a lot of people could see a successful spacex make quite a bit of money on the current plan. For #2:

For #1: he could sell a minority share publicly. I think a lot of people could see a successful spacex make quite a bit of money on the current plan. For #2: We'll see about that. Mars has sat there for a long time, and nobody else has done much about it. By the time others get interested because of (a) SpaceX showing that it can be done (b) Popular interest due to SpaceX's work, SpaceX may be too far ahead for anyone else to help (outside of being customers). For #3: Agreed. I think this may naturally occur as the company stabilizes a bit and the "living on the razor's edge" feeling dissipates. At some point they'll focus more on getting it right then meeting deadlines. For #4: You can control political/cultural/international issues on mars by controlling who gets on the ship from earth. For #5: a bit of hero worship for the future marstronaughts will do plenty, I think. There's a lot of innate interest in whoever becomes the first human to step foot on another planet.