the essential
Perceived by his fans as a creative and self-taught genius, Elon Musk is considered by his detractors as an imposter, who has the unfortunate tendency to attribute successes to himself that are in reality collaborative.
Megalomaniac, workaholic, rebel, anti-political correctness… Over the years, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, has built a reputation for self-made-manreflecting among his admirers the image of a self-taught genius, when his detractors see him as a disastrous manager.
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At 53, Elon Musk is the public face of his companies Tesla and SpaceX. However, many of these companies' technical advances are actually due to the work of its engineers.
“Tesla’s success is obviously not just Elon Musk”
Boris Manenti, editor-in-chief of the economics department New Obs and author of a book* on the billionaire, explained last May to RTBF that Tesla was initially founded by another entrepreneur, Martin Eberhard, and an engineer, Marc Tarpenning.
“Elon Musk contributed to it and brought things to it, he created a car model which is updated, which systematically develops, but the initial idea of a high-end electric car, more of a sports car, etc., it's not him at all who has it and Tesla's success is obviously not just Elon Musk”, explains the journalist to our colleagues.
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The same goes for the Hyperloop project, a futuristic magnetic levitation train. “In 2013, he [Elon Musk] arrives presenting this train with great fanfare, saying that it was a revolutionary idea that he had. Except that six months earlier, he met a start-up, ET3, which offered exactly the same thing and which had gone to see Elon Musk because they were looking for investments to develop. He completely ignores that,” adds Boris Manenti.
Self-made-man ?
Musk is also known for his bold announcements and ambitious promises, particularly on technologies developed by his companies. However, it does not always succeed in delivering on its promises, particularly regarding the autonomy of Tesla cars. This tendency to exaggerate or anticipate unfinished technological progress is seen by some as misleading.
His management style also attracts criticism. His habit of brutally dismissing people and putting pressure on his employees tarnishes his image as a visionary and inspiring boss. Thus, when it bought Twitter in October 2022, it laid off, as of November 4, around 50% of the social network's 7,500 employees, affecting in particular the communications and engineering teams.
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Still according to Boris Manenti, Elon Musk would also tend to rework his personal history. “Elon Musk, since his beginnings in the United States, likes to slip into this mold of 'self-made-man', who started from nothing and who, through the sweat of his brow, would have succeeded in everything. […] He likes to say that he grew up in poverty and that everything was very difficult for him.” In reality, adds the journalist, the man comes from “a bourgeois, white background, with many servants and a profusion of travel throughout his youth.
“He grew up in South Africa during apartheid, in a wealthy white family in Pretoria, a stronghold of Afrikaners (Editor's note: white individuals, born in South Africa and speaking Afrikaans). The only blacks he met were his servants”, further specified Boris Manenti in the columns of The Dispatch from the South last May.
This week, the boss of SpaceX has in any case succeeded in one of the craziest bets in recent economic and political history: landing a position as special advisor in charge of “governmental efficiency” in the Trump administration. It remains to be seen how two notoriously egocentric figures like Elon Musk and Donald Trump will get along in the long term…
