{"id":8926,"date":"2026-06-12T09:50:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T09:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/?p=8926"},"modified":"2026-06-12T13:51:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T13:51:32","slug":"musk-the-first-trillionaire-is-the-worst-possible-case-to-learn-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/musk-the-first-trillionaire-is-the-worst-possible-case-to-learn-from\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk, the First Trillionaire, Is \u201cthe Worst Possible Case to Learn from\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

As of Thursday, 11 June 2026, after rocket, satellite, and AI company SpaceX raised a record $75 billion in its initial public offering<\/a>, Elon Musk has officially become the world\u2019s first trillionaire. Did he pull himself up by his own bootstraps? Is he a genius? Does he alone deserve the credit for accumulating such wealth?<\/p>\n

When Elon Musk crossed the trillion-dollar line, many media outlets interpreted it as a verdict on one man\u2019s genius. But it is better to read it as a verdict on us and how badly we attribute success, according to Academy of Management Scholar Chengwei Liu<\/a> of Imperial College London.<\/p>\n

Psychologists call it the \u201cromance of leadership\u201d: When an organization does something extraordinary, we credit the person at the top and discount everything else. \u201cThe more extreme the outcome, the stronger the pull,\u201d Liu said. \u201cA trillion dollars is about as extreme as it gets, so the distortion is at its peak.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at what the number rests on,\u201d he said. \u201cNearly all of it is unrealized equity, not cash, and the bulk now sits in SpaceX, a private company whose value rests on an initial public offering that did raise $75 billion, but stock prices fluctuate. Tesla is down to about a sixth of his fortune.\u201d<\/p>\n

The irony is sharp, Liu noted: Musk\u2019s largest asset is the one that U.S. government seeded most. SpaceX was built on NASA and Pentagon money, part of at least $38 billion in public funding over two decades. Yet we call this \u201cself-made\u201d while the public laid much of the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis makes the world\u2019s richest person the worst possible case to learn from,\u201d Liu said. \u201cHis outcome is so tangled with early advantage, cheap capital, and a decade of asset inflation that you cannot separate the skill from the circumstances. Reverse-engineer him and you copy the luck, not the cause. Worse, you copy the traits that flatter survivors: extreme concentration, defiance, leverage. The same traits sit behind most founders who flamed out, but we never study them.\u201d<\/p>\n

So whom should we study instead? Research by Liu and his collaborators points one tier down to people who reached real wealth and influence without the head start: no rich network, no government runway, and no cheap money at the right moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had to convert genuine skill into results against the odds,\u201d Liu said. \u201cTheir success carries signal precisely because it was not handed the same advantages. The outlier teaches you almost nothing. The underdog who arrived anyway teaches you a lot. This is not envy or a takedown of one founder; rather, it is a discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Take Sara Blakely. She started Spanx in 2000 with $5,000 of her own savings from selling fax machines and never took a single outside investor. When hosiery mills asked who was financing her, the answer each time was just her. Ask the same of Musk’s empire and the answer is the U.S. government: NASA, the Pentagon, electric vehicle (EV) subsidies, and years of cheap capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlakely\u2019s company sold for $1.2 billion in 2021, nearly a thousand times smaller than a trillion-dollar fortune,\u201d Liu said. \u201cYet hers is the more instructive case, precisely because it is smaller.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had no advantages to strip out, so what is left is the skill,\u201d he said. \u201cMusk had every advantage, which is why you cannot tell where the luck ends and the talent begins.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same pattern shows up in hard data. A 2023 study in European Sociological Review tracked 59,000 people whose cognitive ability was measured in their youth. Pay tracked ability closely up to about \u20ac60,000 ($69,327.30 USD) a year, then stopped. Beyond that figure, earning more said nothing about ability, and the very top earners scored slightly lower than those just below them. The study runs on a model Liu built: When luck and advantage have fatter tails than skill, the top of any ranking is where the two pull apart, he said.<\/p>\n

Sweden is an illustrative case for skill to show through. It has more equal schooling and far less income concentration than the United States, where the top 1% take about a fifth of all income compared to Sweden\u2019s one-tenth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere advantage weighs more, the gap between success and skill grows wider, not narrower,\u201d Liu said. \u201cThat makes an American fortune like Musk\u2019s the natural place to expect it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next time a single name is held up as the formula for success and wealth, Liu suggested asking a harder question: How much of this outcome would survive if you stripped out the timing, the capital, and the public backing? What is left after you subtract the luck is the only part worth imitating.<\/p>\n

\u201cA trillionaire tells us how generously markets and the public will credit one person for a collective, circumstantial result,\u201d Liu said. \u201cThat is a fact about our psychology, not his merit.<\/p>\n

\u201cTreat it as a mirror, not a verdict,\u201d he said. \u201cThe useful response is not awe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the question worth asking of every superstar: How much of this could anyone have repeated?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher As of Thursday, 11 June 2026, after rocket, satellite, and AI company SpaceX raised a record $75 billion in its initial public offering, Elon Musk has officially become the world\u2019s first trillionaire. Did he pull himself up by his own bootstraps? Is he a genius? Does he alone deserve the credit for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,19,77,76],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-8926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneurship","category-leadership","category-pay","category-performance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMusk, the First Trillionaire, Is \u201cthe Worst Possible Case to Learn from\u201d - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As of Thursday, 11 June 2026, after rocket, satellite, and AI company SpaceX raised a record $75 billion in its initial public offering, Elon Musk has officially become the world\u2019s first trillionaire. Did he pull himself up by his own bootstraps? Is he a genius? 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You can reach him at dbutcher@aom.org or via LinkedIn.","sameAs":["https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/danielbutcher\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":70,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"daniel-butcher","display_name":"Daniel Butcher","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp","url2x":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp"},"author_category":"1","first_name":"Daniel","last_name":"Butcher","user_url":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/","job_title":"Managing Editor, AOM Today, Academy of Management","description":"<span style=\"font-size: 16px\">Daniel Butcher is a writer and the Managing Editor of AOM Today at the Academy of Management (AOM). Previously, he was a writer and the Finance Editor for <\/span><i style=\"font-size: 16px\">Strategic Finance<\/i><span style=\"font-size: 16px\"> magazine and <\/span><i style=\"font-size: 16px\">Management Accounting Quarterly<\/i><span style=\"font-size: 16px\">, a scholarly journal, at the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). Prior to that, he worked as a writer\/editor at <\/span><i style=\"font-size: 16px\">The Financial Times,<\/i><span style=\"font-size: 16px\"> including daily FT sister publications <\/span><i style=\"font-size: 16px\">Ignites<\/i><span style=\"font-size: 16px\"> and <\/span><i style=\"font-size: 16px\">FundFire<\/i><span style=\"font-size: 16px\">, as well as Crain Communications\u2019s <\/span><i style=\"font-size: 16px\">InvestmentNews<\/i><span style=\"font-size: 16px\"> and <\/span><i style=\"font-size: 16px\">Crain\u2019s Wealth<\/i><span style=\"font-size: 16px\">, eFinancialCareers, and Arizent\u2019s <\/span><i style=\"font-size: 16px\">Financial Planning, Re:Invent|Wealth, On Wall Street, Bank Investment Consultant<\/i><span style=\"font-size: 16px\">, and <\/span><i style=\"font-size: 16px\">Money Management Executive<\/i><span style=\"font-size: 16px\">. He earned his bachelor\u2019s degree, Cum Laude, from the University of Colorado Boulder and his master\u2019s degree from New York University. You can reach him at <\/span><a style=\"font-size: 16px\" href=\"mailto:dbutcher@aom.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dbutcher@aom.org<\/a><span style=\"font-size: 16px\"> or via <\/span><a style=\"font-size: 16px\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/danielbutcher\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a><span style=\"font-size: 16px\">.<\/span>"}],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Elon-Musk-folded-hands-thinking_cropped-scaled.jpg",2560,1920,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Elon-Musk-folded-hands-thinking_cropped-scaled.jpg",2560,1920,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Elon-Musk-folded-hands-thinking_cropped-scaled.jpg",2560,1920,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Elon-Musk-folded-hands-thinking_cropped-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Elon-Musk-folded-hands-thinking_cropped-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Elon-Musk-folded-hands-thinking_cropped-1024x768.jpg",800,600,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Elon-Musk-folded-hands-thinking_cropped-1536x1152.jpg",1536,1152,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Elon-Musk-folded-hands-thinking_cropped-2048x1536.jpg",2048,1536,true],"owl_elementor_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Elon-Musk-folded-hands-thinking_cropped-600x450.jpg",600,450,true],"owl_elementor_team":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Elon-Musk-folded-hands-thinking_cropped-350x450.jpg",350,450,true],"owl_elementor_testimonial":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Elon-Musk-folded-hands-thinking_cropped-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Daniel Butcher","author_link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/entrepreneurship\/\" rel=\"category tag\">ENTREPRENEURSHIP<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/leadership\/\" rel=\"category tag\">LEADERSHIP<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/pay\/\" rel=\"category tag\">PAY<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/performance\/\" rel=\"category tag\">PERFORMANCE<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Daniel Butcher As of Thursday, 11 June 2026, after rocket, satellite, and AI company SpaceX raised a record $75 billion in its initial public offering, Elon Musk has officially become the world\u2019s first trillionaire. Did he pull himself up by his own bootstraps? Is he a genius? Does he alone deserve the credit for…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8926"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8934,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8926\/revisions\/8934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8926"},{"taxonomy":"sp_smart_badges","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sp_smart_badges?post=8926"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=8926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}