Personally, I'd say both extremes miss the mark somewhat. Remember, prior to Tesla and SpaceX, Musk co-founded and built what was effectively the precursor to Map Quest and Google Maps. And a few years later founded one of the first online banking services, which later merged with Peter Thiel's Confinity to become Paypal and paved the landscape of online consumer banking.
While he's certainly been lucky, I think it's more than fair to suggest that luck isn't the only factor shaping his trajectory, rather that to do what he has also requires a level of intelligence and forward-thinking. I certainly wouldn't suggest that he's the greatest businessman ever, but with Zip2 and X, he certainly made a prediction on the future of the internet and technology that won out. And while he didn't technically 'found' Tesla as such, the two actual founders were absolutely spinning their wheels before he took a more active role in the company.
So I'd say that he's at the very least both lucky and competent. Most executives and investors often know jack shit about the product and development process, they can memorize copy, but their job has very little to do with actually knowing and understanding how everything works. The fact that Musk clearly has some understanding about how his companies work (even if he is prone to flights of fancy that rarely pan out) is at least noteworthy.
Dig enough on these people and you'll see it's just King making done by the elites. Elon is what happens when they decide to crown someone with charisma and good marketing.
Personally, I'd say both extremes miss the mark somewhat. Remember, prior to Tesla and SpaceX, Musk co-founded and built what was effectively the precursor to Map Quest and Google Maps. And a few years later founded one of the first online banking services, which later merged with Peter Thiel's Confinity to become Paypal and paved the landscape of online consumer banking.
While he's certainly been lucky, I think it's more than fair to suggest that luck isn't the only factor shaping his trajectory, rather that to do what he has also requires a level of intelligence and forward-thinking. I certainly wouldn't suggest that he's the greatest businessman ever, but with Zip2 and X, he certainly made a prediction on the future of the internet and technology that won out. And while he didn't technically 'found' Tesla as such, the two actual founders were absolutely spinning their wheels before he took a more active role in the company.
So I'd say that he's at the very least both lucky and competent. Most executives and investors often know jack shit about the product and development process, they can memorize copy, but their job has very little to do with actually knowing and understanding how everything works. The fact that Musk clearly has some understanding about how his companies work (even if he is prone to flights of fancy that rarely pan out) is at least noteworthy.
Dig enough on these people and you'll see it's just King making done by the elites. Elon is what happens when they decide to crown someone with charisma and good marketing.