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Comment by iudqnolq | Hacker News Reader

His success isn't all due to luck, he has genuine skills.

But his success isn't all due to skill, either. Someone with the same brain and no seed money from Daddy would have been far less successful.

> "We were very wealthy. We had so much money at times we couldn’t even close our safe,” [said Elon's father] adding that one person would have to hold the money in place with another closing the door. “And then there’d still be all these notes sticking out and we’d sort of pull them out and put them in our pockets.”

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https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1005593651219582977:

> More background: I arrived in North America at 17 w $2000, a backpack & a suitcase full of books. Paid my own way thru college. Dropped out of Stanford Eng/Phys grad school w $110k in college debt.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1211064937004589056

> We started Zip2 with ~$2k from me plus my overclocked home-built PC, ~$5k from my bro & ~$8k from Greg Kouri (such a good guy — he is greatly missed).

> My Dad provided 10% of a ~$200k angel funding round much later, but by then risk was reduced & round would’ve happened anyway.

As a general principle I don't credit that kind of statement by that kind of person. This is because every time I've looked into one of them in depth it was very misleading. That kind of rich person generally misunderstands the question and misses significant support.

Edit: For example, while he did work on a farm to pay for college that farm was owned by his Mom's cousin. Working for family is generally a significant advantage.

Edit2: Having a wealthy childhood has enduring benefits even if the money doesn't last. For example, it significantly increased his chance of having access to a computer at age 12, which probably had an enduring impact on his coding skills.

I'm not saying that means he didn't work hard and isn't smart. I am saying that it's telling he thinks that kind of thing didn't also contribute.

> I am saying that it's telling he thinks that kind of thing didn't also contribute.

I don't see why you think that this is what he thinks? It's certainly not what I think. What he is doing is answering persistent claims going too far the other way; that his success is only because of seed money from his father.

Or, as you say seemingly somewhat derogatory, "daddy". Their relationship wasn't always that great as far as I understand it, but I don't know the details.

Fair point, I shouldn't have said "seed money". I stand by my earlier statements that

1. If someone has wealthy family members this tends to benefit them, and they tend not to realize it.

2. Growing up wealthy didn't guarantee Musk's success, but it made it easier than it would have been if he grew up poorer. This happens in ways that are hard for someone like him to realize. For example, he might not realize that if he'd grown up worrying about money there's a significant chance his brain would have noticably changed in a way that made it harder for him to function.

There are scores of millions of people in the US who had similar resources and much more, and failed to produce a SpaceX.

There are many people who had the resources but didn't, not sure about millions. There are also many people who could have been as successful but didn't have the resources. That's why I said:

> His success isn't all due to luck, he has genuine skills. ... But his success isn't all due to skill, either.

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