To a lot of the comments going with some variation of "His business aren't that successful and/or he is propped up by government contracts" I would say that it is really easy to look back in hindsight and say Tesla/SpaceX aren't a big deal but I think Tesla did for the electric car what the iPhone did for the smartphone. Also maybe it is just PR but I really see many other private companies launching/developing rockets.

As the public face of these companies that are so awesomely nerdy Elon Musk gets the public credit for their success just like he will take the blame for their possible failures.