Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I don't know why you are falsely implying that Musk's money is not due to great initial capital. If that was true, it would mean that capital for investment doesn't matter, which in turn would mean that we could just as well place a 100% tax on all wealth above a certain level without any detriment.

It doesn't though, since your claim is bullshit. Elon's wealth is absolutely based on his parents' success.




His X.com/paypal was not based on his previous wealth and corresponds to the thing that propelled him to later successes.


He got a $20K investment from his dad for his first company, Zip2, in 1995. That's about $40K in today's dollars. X.com/paypal success seems to have happened in spite of him, not due to him. He got billions from it because he had been lucky enough to be one of the early investors.

I'm not actually saying that he's not a great business tycoon, he clearly is based on track record. Plenty of people have the kind of base resources he had without amounting to anything. Either they don't bother to even try or are too stupid or too unlucky too succeed. His parents wealth is still the catapult that launched him to his current success.

There are plenty of people who could have done what he's done but did not because of lack of resources.


If a rich great childhood was sufficient to build great businesses, then shouldn't we expect a middle-class childhood to be sufficient to build a decent business?

But a lot of middle-class people try and fail to create any kind of business.

The reason is that it takes more than money and education to build a business.

Money and education are necessary to build a great business, like electricity is for your home, but insufficient, as your home also needs good construction, running water, etc.


$40k today is not a lot even for a lot of middle class… basically his parents gifted him an equivalent of a slightly nice new car.

With X.com he did quite a bit than invest as all of the other cofounders left prior to launch. By the time they merged with cofinity Elon was the only one of the original team.


You seem to be conflating "necessary" vs. "sufficient".

Elon's inherited wealth and excellent upbringing were necessary for his Tesla and SpaceX success, but far from sufficient.

If a good rich childhood was all that's necessary to commercialize electric cars, reusable rockets, and fast satellite internet, then we'd have a lot more of these kinds of amazing products as millions of people have good rich childhoods.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: