[p51-remorse]

So if Musk isn’t special, he just happened to start successful business in the two hardest categories possible?

Regardless of what you think about him, he’s good at something. It’s not grifting; there are plenty of people good at that who couldn’t possibly hit this level of success.

[saturn8601]

He is the product of hard work + a lucky break that he compounded into his multiple subsequent successes. His recent ventures (Tesla, SpaceX, etc. would not have succeeded without the sacrifices in mental, physical and emotional toll his thousands upon thousands of workers have given to his companies. What he is good at is hiring the right people to find and grind down as many necessary people as possible until burnout tosses them into the laps of their competitors.

[FDAiscooked]

Granted, but I view SpaceX as being Gwynne Shotwell's company since a few years, not Musk's, who seems busy trolling people on Twitter. Shotwell's been the one running the business.

[TMWNN]

Musk is, and remains, both CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX. According to Isaacson's biography, Musk is the person who suggested and, against considerable opposition from his engineers, insisted on Starship switching to stainless steel instead of carbon fiber.

[ceejayoz]

Musk is also spread very thinly across several large companies (SpaceX, Tesla, Twitter), a number of smaller ventures, and shitposting on Twitter.

As a part-time CEO, he probably deserves part-time credit.

(I am 100% a SpaceX fan, personally. Whatever it is that has made it work.)

[EasyMark]

People change, get older, mental stability can change. What he’s been doing at twitter is not a stable way to run businesses. I used to look at him as a quirky business genius. I’m not so sure that applies any longer as his wandered off into the weeds the past couple of years embracing Qanon theories and alternate facts clearly contrary to basic logic.

[antifa]

> he just happened to start successful business

*buy pre-existing companies

[TMWNN]

SpaceX is 100% founded by Musk.

Tesla was four guys with the brand name and nothing else when Musk came along six months after founding. Given that Musk was the first large outside investor and invested in/joined the company four years before Roadster (which he heavily participated in designing) deliveries began, I don't think it's unreasonable to call him a founder even aside from such being legal fact.