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Elon's PayPal wealth is not a rare occurrence. There are over 500 billionaires in just the US alone. His wealth was an essential ingredient for sure, but it mus

Elon's PayPal wealth is not a rare occurrence. There are over 500 billionaires in just the US alone. His wealth was an essential ingredient for sure, but it must be obvious that it takes more than wealth to create a company like SpaceX.

blaser-waffle 6y ago
500 billionaires in a country of 330 million people? What do you think rare is, then? I'd argue that wealth is step 1, but step 2 is a willingness to gamble that wealth, to lose it, and to hustle.
- elliekelly 6y ago
  And of the billionaires I’ve met none would be willing to risk losing a comma no matter how big the potential payoff. In that respect Elon is definitely the 1% of the 1%.
  - 1MoreThing 6y ago
    Wait, you've met multiple billionaires?
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - sunstone 6y ago
    Forbes (a website I despise) did a survey of people and how much they worried about money. As I recall even those with $3bn still worried about not having enough money. I'm not sure if that feeling is ingrained from evolving on the plains of Africa or if it's about losing status among your peers.
RNCTX 6y ago
It helps when NASA is laying off everyone you need to hire, and they have no other choice of a place to work (unless they like blowing up poor kids in poor countries for Raytheon). It should also be noted that he was not a founder at Tesla, even. He bought his way in.
- Klathmon 6y ago
  >It helps when NASA is laying off everyone you need to hire, and they have no other choice of a place to work Actually Musk has said in the past that they had a LOT of trouble hiring early on. They had goals of reusable rockets right around the start of the company, and most people in the industry didn't take them seriously. Nobody wanted to work for the laughing stock of a company that dreamed of doing something that most thought was impossible (affordably reusing rocket stages).
  - RNCTX 6y ago
    People who pay astroturfers by the dozens might not be trustworthy sources of information.
- valuearb 6y ago
  He founded Tesla through force of will. They had a concept but no funding and no drivetrain. Elon got them funded and hooked them up with an engineer he had been funding to build a drivetrain. Their original roadster was going to cost $200,000+ just to build, Elon pushed them out of the way and saved the company.
  - RNCTX 6y ago
    He did not found Tesla.
    - valuearb 6y ago
      If he hasn’t gotten involved, it would have failed. That’s indisputable. The common usage of founder nowadays doesn’t require someone was an employee on day 1, it means they were instrumental in its early days and Elon certainly was.
serf 6y ago
>There are over 500 billionaires in just the US alone. His wealth was an essential ingredient for sure, but it must be obvious that it takes more than wealth to create a company like SpaceX. it's just that there are lots of low risks ways to make money with lots of capital than to risk wasting it on engineering or 'boundary-push' style business movements. Big projects are cool, and great PR -- but safe trading and high interest accounts pay out more consistently, and often better. It'd be nice to move the incentive over to value-building/engineering more than banking, though.

blaser-waffle 6y ago

500 billionaires in a country of 330 million people? What do you think rare is, then? I'd argue that wealth is step 1, but step 2 is a willingness to gamble that wealth, to lose it, and to hustle.

elliekelly 6y ago
And of the billionaires I’ve met none would be willing to risk losing a comma no matter how big the potential payoff. In that respect Elon is definitely the 1% of the 1%.
- 1MoreThing 6y ago
  Wait, you've met multiple billionaires?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- sunstone 6y ago
  Forbes (a website I despise) did a survey of people and how much they worried about money. As I recall even those with $3bn still worried about not having enough money. I'm not sure if that feeling is ingrained from evolving on the plains of Africa or if it's about losing status among your peers.

RNCTX 6y ago

It helps when NASA is laying off everyone you need to hire, and they have no other choice of a place to work (unless they like blowing up poor kids in poor countries for Raytheon). It should also be noted that he was not a founder at Tesla, even. He bought his way in.

Klathmon 6y ago
>It helps when NASA is laying off everyone you need to hire, and they have no other choice of a place to work Actually Musk has said in the past that they had a LOT of trouble hiring early on. They had goals of reusable rockets right around the start of the company, and most people in the industry didn't take them seriously. Nobody wanted to work for the laughing stock of a company that dreamed of doing something that most thought was impossible (affordably reusing rocket stages).
- RNCTX 6y ago
  People who pay astroturfers by the dozens might not be trustworthy sources of information.
valuearb 6y ago
He founded Tesla through force of will. They had a concept but no funding and no drivetrain. Elon got them funded and hooked them up with an engineer he had been funding to build a drivetrain. Their original roadster was going to cost $200,000+ just to build, Elon pushed them out of the way and saved the company.
- RNCTX 6y ago
  He did not found Tesla.
  - valuearb 6y ago
    If he hasn’t gotten involved, it would have failed. That’s indisputable. The common usage of founder nowadays doesn’t require someone was an employee on day 1, it means they were instrumental in its early days and Elon certainly was.

serf 6y ago

>There are over 500 billionaires in just the US alone. His wealth was an essential ingredient for sure, but it must be obvious that it takes more than wealth to create a company like SpaceX. it's just that there are lots of low risks ways to make money with lots of capital than to risk wasting it on engineering or 'boundary-push' style business movements. Big projects are cool, and great PR -- but safe trading and high interest accounts pay out more consistently, and often better. It'd be nice to move the incentive over to value-building/engineering more than banking, though.