Intelligence and merit are not the same thing. Elon Musk, Steve Jobs etc did not succeed because they are extremely intelligent. Almost all successful people a

Intelligence and merit are not the same thing. Elon Musk, Steve Jobs etc did not succeed because they are extremely intelligent. Almost all successful people are somewhat intelligent coupled with a lot of luck/street-smart/hard work/underhandedness etc. These are what constitute "merit" in a businessman. So your friend is partly right. But certainly you couldn't just replace Musk with someone of the same intelligence, that is not what determines success at that level.