$185 billion to $264 billion.
In merely 2 years, Elon Musk’s net worth grew by $79 billion, more money than any one person could fathom. But, there is a dark side to this number. How did he do this? Was it his companies? Was it “devil mode”? Or was it just out of pure luck?
The Curse of the Midas Touch
On October 27, 2022, Elon acquired Twitter, now known as “X”, marking the beginning of the end of a multi-billion dollar company. From its acquisition, the net worth of Twitter has dropped more than 50%, from being valued at $44 billion to about $15 billion.
Why? Well, Musk isn’t necessarily the most reliable leader to have, largely because of his rash and unpredictable decisions. After becoming the head of the company, he changed the branding from the iconic bird to the generic and boring “𝕏”, and even laid off over 6,000 employees, cutting as much as 50% of the workforce.
Since then, he has introduced a subscription-based model which has been faced with significant resentment from the public, and has even posted controversial tweets that could be classified as misinformation, saying, “what happens on Earth’s surface (eg farming) has no meaningful impact on climate change.”
However, the blunders aren’t limited to Twitter, with SpaceX facing numerous issues.
On April 20, 2023, SpaceX’s rocket, the Starship, exploded 24 miles above the Gulf of Mexico, only four minutes after its launch. This was one of SpaceX’s most notable rocket explosions, and had occurred due to multiple engine failures. It is speculated that these issues were overlooked because the launch was rushed, not giving enough time to check all the metrics. Consequently, the Federal Aviation Administration identified the root causes, highlighting 63 corrections that should be made to prevent this in the future. But, this incident was not only about the spaceship, as many environmental and heritage nonprofit organizations like the Carrizo-Comecrudo Nation of Texas, sued the FAA for violation of the National Environment Policy Act by allowing the launch of the Starship from the site without assessment of the environmental impact.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, biographer Walter Isaacson, who lived with Musk for 2 years, showcased him as a “disruptive figure, but also a difficult leader.” There have been several cases of workers reporting a chaotic work environment and most say it is a challenge to work with him on a daily basis. Notorious for losing his temper, one Friday night in the SpaceX launch site in South Texas, Musk sent out a “surge,” calling in “100 people to come in from different parts of SpaceX, from Florida, California” because he saw only 2 people working on a project. “Devil mode” had kicked in, a version of Elon Musk that most are afraid of experiencing.
According to Musk’s former girlfriend, Claire Elise Boucher, who coined the term “devil mode,” this mindset is how he “gets [stuff] done.” In that mental state, his unpredictability is amplified, he becomes extremely unreliable, and no one knows what will happen next. His level of fame, wealth, and impact can cause even one of his tweets to make significant changes in stock prices. But this is not necessarily a good thing. In November 2021, Musk posted a tweet indicating that Tesla did not sign a contract with Hertz, after Hertz had already announced plans to buy over 100,000 vehicles from Tesla by the end of 2022. This one tweet caused Tesla’s stock to fall 4%, which may seem insignificant, but was a hit of $42 billion.
A Blessing in Disguise
Despite all of this, Musk isn’t all that bad. After all, the Midas touch is also a blessing. And this was exactly the case with Tesla.
In today’s time, Tesla has not only become a highly regarded EV brand, but also one of the most popular automotive companies in the world. Worth over $842 billion, Tesla has sold over 1.3 million cars in 2022, and close to 1 million in 2021, all under the leadership of Elon Musk.
Even SpaceX has had its share of glory with Musk, launching and landing the first orbital-class rocket, sending the first commercial crew to the International Space Station, and launching the world's most powerful rocket, the Falcon Heavy. His other companies like Neuralink and Starlink have also been extremely successful, innovating technologies like brain-computer interfaces that have not been mass produced yet.
But, do all these “goods” really cover up the notoriously bad work environment in Musk’s companies and his reckless attitude? And do they overshadow the harsh treatment that follows with having such an erratic leader? No.
So now, only time can tell if his “Midas touch” will build him a golden staircase to the top, or one to the bottom.