The accident of the whom and where he was born did play into it, but I will echo another commenter that he is an amazing capitalist - and I do mean that as an insult to Elon. He has done an amazing job of playing the game in a system that rewards shrewdness, cutthroat action, and manipulation. He managed to get enough clout to be able to lie about just about anything and pay for the echo chamber that makes it real enough.
Overrated? In most aspects yes. In being everything that is wrong with capitalism he’s right on point.
I can despise someone while appreciating what they built or their prowess in a given field. Pretty sure you can find plenty of people throughout history whose accomplishments genuinely impressed you (and useful for humanity) while simultaneously thinking that same person belongs in prison.
Projects are composed of many people. This idea that it's all "1 person" is nonsense. Companies that big are mostly ran by employees and leaders,not just the CEO sitting on top supervising and giving directives
Yes? If they're from a sanctioned country then I could be held criminally liable or have my service interrupted without warning. I would not evaluate professional infrastructure if the owner refused to tell me where they were located.
> This idea that it's all "1 person" is nonsense.
It's the basis of how all C-suite operations work, do you need to see an org chart for a reminder? The idea that it's "all 1 person" is baked into the concept of private capital. Arrangements that give the employees or leadership executive priority is far, far in the minority of how businesses are ran today.
This was seen as a major risk of Apple ("what's going to happen if Steve dies, last time they got rid of him it almost went under"), and held its stock back for a considerable time before market accepted that dependence on that 1 person wasn't as big as feared.
This is seen as a major risk of SpaceX now, too. Companies are not people. A company that's worth something - not just makes a profit - shouldn't be dependent on one person, because you can't sell a person due to 13th Amendment, but being worth something means that one can buy and sell.