After reading a biography on Musk I basically came to the conclusion that his life has been a series of 1 in 1000 bets that have paid off:

- Paypal

- Tesla

- SpaceX

etc

Multiple times in the book it describes how he gambled it all on whatever project he was working on and it paid off for him. He is clearly brilliant and exceptional at hiring great people work for him. I think it's also important to realize that survivor bias is also at play here.