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Comment by beeftime | Hacker News Reader

Both Tesla and SpaceX are successful almost entirely in buying out the work of other people and exploiting government programs. If you already had a bunch of money (thanks to being in the right place at the right time w/r/t PayPal) you too could have done it if you didn't care about anything other than your own aggrandizement

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If the only criteria is that you had money from a prior successful company (Paypal in Elon’s case) to create the preeminent electric car company in the world, then why didn’t many thousands of other people achieve it as well? Why was there not more competition? Why did so many attempts to market electric cars fail before Tesla? The reason is that it is hard, and it takes a combination of both skill and luck to accomplish.

The reason is that no one was in a position to exploit the EV credit system because it didn't exist yet. Right place, right time, only made possible by having a bunch of money and zero qualms about exploiting that program.

Yeah. Same reason no-one is emulating Gates or Jobs right now. Their oportunity was related to their historical moment. It has passed. People will be in the right time and place for _other_ opportunities (see Zuckerberg, Bezos)

The Tesla model S was released before Elon arived. I don't doubt that his money helped but it seems fair to question whether that equates to Musk "creat[ing] the preeminent electric car company in the world"

The argument is that everything was already in place for it to become the preeminent electric car company in the world; Musk simply had to buy it at the right time, which he did.

Now, that may be a skill in and of itself, but that's not a skill for innovation, it's a skill for timing markets.

That’s absolutely false. Your comment makes me strongly think you’ve never started a company or run one. Nothing is trivial no matter how much money you start with, ESPECIALLY if you’re doing something new.

I will give him credit in as much that he is an exceptional con man uniquely skilled at fleecing investors and moneyed nerds. Still, though, that hype machine couldn't have been built without his gobs of money and utter lack of scruples.

All the money in the world won’t get you relandable rockets or put EVs on the map unless you have talent.. to set direction/vision, make partnerships, find talent that wants to work with you, etc.

If money alone was enough we’d see more Teslas from places like Saudia Arabia. But we don’t.

I don't think other governments are stupid enough to let their taxpayers float poorly made cars that keep exploding because the guy in charge keeps talking about self-driving functionality that will never arrive

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