Luck has nothing to do with it. Daddy’s apartheid emerald mines money and megalomania got him there. He didn’t invent anything, he’s just a glorified investor. All of ‘his’ successful companies are other, smarter people’s ideas he ‘stole’ by forcing them to make him ‘co-creator’ as a requirement to invest his cash.

It’s all about pushing a narrative. If he did it the ‘normal way’, he would probably be seen as a decent VC, known in some business circles but in the shadow from a general audience perspective. By making himself the ‘co-creator’, he deperately tries to makes us think he’s the genius he believes he is, and gain the power and influence that come with it.

There are positions in all these companies where people are working roud the clock to prevent him from fucking everything up. And sometimes, even they can’t prevent idiotic bullshit like the Cybertruck. Tesla and SpaceX work because they actively spend a massive amount of energy to work against his moronic ideas. Twitter is the best example of what happens when he’s given free rein.