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Elon Musk was worth more than $20 million before taking over Tesla and SpaceX. Jeff Bezos was worth more than $20 million before Amazon started AWS. Sergey and

Elon Musk was worth more than $20 million before taking over Tesla and SpaceX. Jeff Bezos was worth more than $20 million before Amazon started AWS. Sergey and Larry were worth well more than $20 million before Google launched Gmail. Jack Dorsey was well more than $20 million before starting Square. Stephane Bancel was worth much more than $20 million when he became CEO of Moderna. Steve Jobs was worth much more than $20 million before starting NeXT or Pixar, or returning to Apple to build the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Andrew Carnegie was worth more than the equivalent of $20 million before US Steel. John Rockefeller was worth more than the equivalent of $20 million before starting Standard Oil. Edison was worth more than $20 million before starting General Electric. Howard Hughes was worth more than $20 million before starting his aviation business. Carl Bosch was worth more than $20 million before commercializing nitrogen fixation.

david927 5y ago
- Elon Musk took over Tesla and SpaceX. He was not the innovator there. - Did Bezos think of AWS? I think not. It was literally selling excess processing capacity. - Gmail was not innovative; it was just a better client. Web-based mail had been around for a while. - I'm not sure how innovative Square is but I don't think any of it would have to do with Dorsey. - The NeXT was based on innovation coming from Alan Kay. The iPod wasn't innovative; it was just a hit. The iPhone was already underway when Jobs came back. The iPad is a bigger iPhone. Big companies don't mean innovation; they often mean acquiring innovation and monetizing it. All the big innovations of the 20th century were accomplished by individuals who did not do so based purely on financial incentive. That's a myth. "Let's not feed kids crying themselves to sleep at night from hunger because that might mean we won't get iPads with blue casing." Shame on you.
- ben_w 5y ago
  > Elon Musk took over Tesla and SpaceX. He was not the innovator there. I remember before Tesla: electric cars were a joke, nothing more. Even if the only thing Musk did was convince rich people they were not-terrible, this was worth it. (Same RE: the iPod, which was infamously dismissed on slashdot, yet did in fact revolutionise the MP3 player market). When it comes to SpaceX, however, Musk is an actual rocket scientist. And of course, the iPods being popular created a lot of jobs that would otherwise not have existed, both for rich people like us and for the industrialisation in the same area as the Foxconn factories in China)

david927 5y ago

- Elon Musk took over Tesla and SpaceX. He was not the innovator there. - Did Bezos think of AWS? I think not. It was literally selling excess processing capacity. - Gmail was not innovative; it was just a better client. Web-based mail had been around for a while. - I'm not sure how innovative Square is but I don't think any of it would have to do with Dorsey. - The NeXT was based on innovation coming from Alan Kay. The iPod wasn't innovative; it was just a hit. The iPhone was already underway when Jobs came back. The iPad is a bigger iPhone. Big companies don't mean innovation; they often mean acquiring innovation and monetizing it. All the big innovations of the 20th century were accomplished by individuals who did not do so based purely on financial incentive. That's a myth. "Let's not feed kids crying themselves to sleep at night from hunger because that might mean we won't get iPads with blue casing." Shame on you.

ben_w 5y ago
> Elon Musk took over Tesla and SpaceX. He was not the innovator there. I remember before Tesla: electric cars were a joke, nothing more. Even if the only thing Musk did was convince rich people they were not-terrible, this was worth it. (Same RE: the iPod, which was infamously dismissed on slashdot, yet did in fact revolutionise the MP3 player market). When it comes to SpaceX, however, Musk is an actual rocket scientist. And of course, the iPods being popular created a lot of jobs that would otherwise not have existed, both for rich people like us and for the industrialisation in the same area as the Foxconn factories in China)