Luck. Invested in Alibaba and Yahoo JP (and he funnelled money into the latter pre-2001 from other projects to boost revenue). Got money from banks that didn't close him out when they should have (this would have happened anywhere in the world bar Japan and, possibly, Germany).

Son's record as a VC is horrible. He raised something like 6 VC funds before 2001. None produced anything but busts. And he actually invested more capital on the way down.

His only quality is zealotry. This the absolute worst possible trait for an investor (he isn't an investor, he is a salesman).