The guy was a decent salesman, heavilly empowered by daddy's money and connections, who had a bit of luck, even though he only had one kind of salesmanship technique - the Techbro Brew: heavy on selling "high-tech" and "innovation" as inherently good and always trumphing other considerations - and kept walking the grey legal area between lies, exageration and Fraud.
However he seems to have started believing his own schtick that he's a special golden boy whose farts smell of roses, and here we are now.
Know this: having that amount of money is deeply not normal. None of us could do it. We'd save people. We'd build things that helped instead of giant toys. Billionaires are a type of sociopathy. And this guy's got it bad.
"One tiny step for mankind and one giant leap for me personally" -- Jason Alexander during a skit about piece of shit billionaires making dick shaped rockets going out into space.
The irony of course is Jason, Jerry, Julia, and Larry are all billionaires.
edit: apparently Jason only has a net worth of 50 mil despite being on the most popular sitcom of all time and the comparative net worths of his colleagues. I guess he got nothing on the back end for syndication. Shitty.
In comparison, that's absolutely shitty and I agree. On the other hand I look at his net worth though and it reminds me of a recent article about Tesla's cofounders, and how out of 5 only two "got rich". Within that same article the guy with the lowest net worth was still worth 200 million. Jason's hilarious and I love his work, but at the same time if he "only" is worth 50 mil, congrats to the guy for getting rich anyway.
Exactly. Musk and Trump are the poster children for why you shouldn't leave your kids everything if you're wealthy. It'll ruin their lives and the lives of their children.
Not trying to defend excessive wealth, but Trump and Musk were both ruined by their fathers.
The regular model for self aware billionaires is to keep your head down. How much do you know about the Johnson and Johnson heirs? Or the Walmart heirs? They know their necks will be on the chopping block is they're well known and a revolution comes.
Musk spent a lot of money trying to teach people that that doesn't work.
He's a billionaire because he owns the majority of Tesla and Tesla is very valuable. He has no taxable income unless he draws a salary or liquidates some of his Tesla shares
He demonstrated it by liquidating some shares and getting a tax bill
Billionaire spending money comes from a deal with a bank - the billionaire gets as much credit as they like, the bank is paid back by their estate upon death
I have a couple of acquaintances that are PayPal Mafia and what I've put together from them and anecdotes around the Valley is pretty much spot on what you've got here. He's not special. Life just had a course that worked out for his douche ass.
I'd typically respond "aren't they all?" But the MF has more money than God. I really don't know what to make of him. I think he's just a legitimate piece of shit incel king edge lord who lost the thread and doesn't know he's no longer just a troll. Maybe the daddy issues are so bad he cant see his own power. Why else act like this?
Nailed it. They always think they're the victim hero saving us from ourselves. Who needs Kang and Doc Oc when you have jabronis like this guy and orangeman