Seriously, Musk came into a ton of money in the dot-com era, knew how to maintain that money because of his background, seems to be a capable hands-on project manager and natural self-marketing. You surely know people smarter than him who didn't acquire the mass amounts of money required to do what he does; I certainly do.
No 10-year olds are talking about how to become a savvy financial engineer like Jack Welch at GE, but they are talking about rockets and electric cars thanks to Musk.
LOL. C'mon, Musk builds rockets, electric cars, robot trucks, and tunnel boring machines. How much more Tom Swift can one get? Ok, Ok, I admit he hasn't yet built a Jetmarine or an Atomic Earth Blaster.
> You surely know people smarter than him who didn't acquire the mass amounts of money
I've never met Musk, so cannot attest personally to his smarts. But I've met plenty of very smart people.
But smarts alone simply isn't good enough to do what Musk does. You'll also need:
1. excitement
2. interest
3. drive
4. willingness to try impossible things
5. perseverance in the face of enormous obstacles
6. a thick skin for being laughed at
7. a willingness to continue in spite of withering criticism and vomit
Besides, although Musk was born into wealth, there's no evidence on his wikipedia page that he had access to it:
"working odd jobs at a farm and lumber-mill" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
"Musk says that before the company became successful, he could not afford an apartment and instead rented an office and slept on the couch and showered at the YMCA, and shared one computer with his brother."
He made his initial money on an internet startup. Nothing wrong with that.
I never went to college to get a STEM degree to be a resource for anybody. I went because I imagined myself being Tom Swift.
Of course, Elon Musk turned into a real life Tom Swift!