4 ms·

emerald fortune? His father paid 275k USD or so for that mine. It's not that much...average people on HN make that in a year. He says his father invested 20k o

emerald fortune? His father paid 275k USD or so for that mine. It's not that much...average people on HN make that in a year. He says his father invested 20k or so in his business, again very little by comparison. Elon Musk was definitely privileged, but he built himself up.

ForHackernews 4y ago
> Elon Musk was definitely privileged, but he built himself up. Mostly he got lucky that his early crappy company got acquired by Paypal, and then he won the Paypal lottery. The Musk story is about 70% right-place-right-time, 25% great salesmanship and 5% actual engineering genius. Keep in mind this is a guy who thinks a billion dollar explosive vacuum tube[0] is a better idea than... a train. [0] https://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/'serious-engineering-analysis-shows-hyperloop-is-decades-away https://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/'serious-engineerin...
- flavius29663 4y ago
  I think Musk is both an engineer but also a great salesman. The stupid tube is the salesman part... A lot of people won the paypal lottery, also other lotteries...if you keep winning the lottery(paypal, starlink, tesla, spaceX) maybe it's not a lottery after all. Few have driven a handful of companies to success like he did. That being said, it's hard to trust the guy, because you never know when it's the salesman or the engineer making the pitch. Also, I wouldn't want to work for him.
- colinmhayes 4y ago
  > The Musk story is about 70% right-place-right-time, 25% great salesmanship and 5% actual engineering genius It's just so hard for me to believe this when he's had 3 successful companies. At that point he's making his own luck. I'd put the numbers at 20% luck for being able to attend expensive schools, 65% salesmanship for getting people into EVs and rockets and being a huge persona on twitter, and 15% being good at listening to the engineers he hires and getting the most out of them.
  - Schroedingersat 4y ago
    If a billion people put all their money on a single number on roulette five times in a row, we wouldn't call the three that won geniuses as a result. Meritocracy is a myth. billionaires are no better at the awful game of trying to exploit others than the millions of others with privilege, intelligence, drive, and the willingness to do anything to anyone no matter how awful to make line go up. They're just the ones that won.
  - ForHackernews 4y ago
    You don't have to make your own luck when you're a billionaire - everyone else will make it for you. Anything Elon musk touches is instant investor catnip and he has a cult of true believers that chase any trend he offhandedly mentions. Evidence: look what happens to any shitcoin he tweets about.

ForHackernews 4y ago

> Elon Musk was definitely privileged, but he built himself up. Mostly he got lucky that his early crappy company got acquired by Paypal, and then he won the Paypal lottery. The Musk story is about 70% right-place-right-time, 25% great salesmanship and 5% actual engineering genius. Keep in mind this is a guy who thinks a billion dollar explosive vacuum tube[0] is a better idea than... a train. [0] https://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/'serious-engineering-analysis-shows-hyperloop-is-decades-away https://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/'serious-engineerin...

flavius29663 4y ago
I think Musk is both an engineer but also a great salesman. The stupid tube is the salesman part... A lot of people won the paypal lottery, also other lotteries...if you keep winning the lottery(paypal, starlink, tesla, spaceX) maybe it's not a lottery after all. Few have driven a handful of companies to success like he did. That being said, it's hard to trust the guy, because you never know when it's the salesman or the engineer making the pitch. Also, I wouldn't want to work for him.
colinmhayes 4y ago
> The Musk story is about 70% right-place-right-time, 25% great salesmanship and 5% actual engineering genius It's just so hard for me to believe this when he's had 3 successful companies. At that point he's making his own luck. I'd put the numbers at 20% luck for being able to attend expensive schools, 65% salesmanship for getting people into EVs and rockets and being a huge persona on twitter, and 15% being good at listening to the engineers he hires and getting the most out of them.
- Schroedingersat 4y ago
  If a billion people put all their money on a single number on roulette five times in a row, we wouldn't call the three that won geniuses as a result. Meritocracy is a myth. billionaires are no better at the awful game of trying to exploit others than the millions of others with privilege, intelligence, drive, and the willingness to do anything to anyone no matter how awful to make line go up. They're just the ones that won.
- ForHackernews 4y ago
  You don't have to make your own luck when you're a billionaire - everyone else will make it for you. Anything Elon musk touches is instant investor catnip and he has a cult of true believers that chase any trend he offhandedly mentions. Evidence: look what happens to any shitcoin he tweets about.