# How does someone with no business acumen get to be the richest person in the world?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 14, 2022, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903 "2022-11-14T19:46:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 263

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**Author:** ![nate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nate/32/13085_2.png) [@nate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nate)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2022, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-someone-with-no-business-acumen-get-to-be-the-richest-person-in-the-world/974903/263 "2022-11-27T04:23:43Z")

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> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> I’m going to bet that the Elon who got involved in SpaceX in 2002 is a very different guy than the one who got involved in Twitter in 2022.

This is my thought as well. I think his success coupled with being on the spectrum, the hubris that arises from upending the launch and electric car markets becoming the richest man in the world, gives him too much confidence in the way he runs his businesses. I mean, I get why, I think anyone that was a integral part of the success of PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX would have unwavering confidence in oneself for taking on the next business.

But something changed about the guy during the Covid period and his latest venture with Twitter has been a disaster. I don’t think the guy gets that you shouldn’t piss off half the country when you are trying to sell things, especially if one of those things is an advertising platform, and it seems like he’s doubling down on that.

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