The curious case of Elon Musk

Elon Musk has accomplished some jaw-dropping feats at SpaceX and Tesla. Louis Sarkozy, son of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy asks (via Washington Examiner), "Should he be recognized as a capitalist example, champion of science, and hero of the environment? Yes. Is the media fawning over his countless moral deeds and wishing him success in his progressive endeavors? No. Rather, he is constantly berated, belittled, and criticized for trivial reasons."

Above: Elon Musk and a few of his forward-looking initiatives at Tesla (Source: Money Control / Story and Script: Avinash Mudaliar, Siddartha Bannerjee, Xema Pathek; Art: Harsho Mohan Chattoraj)

Take, for instance, Elon puffing some (ahem) Mary Jane on a recent podcast. "He was barraged by every press outlet and made fun of on social media. Amid this illogical fury, surprisingly coming from the side of the political aisle which usually champions the environment and drug legalization, I was left to wonder: When are we going to realize that in Musk, we have hit pretty close to jackpot?"

Others agree. Ron Baron. Mark Cuban. Richard Branson. Larry Page. And, most recently, Oracle's founder Larry Ellison said (via CNBC), "I loved all the articles about how Elon doesn't know what he is doing, the pictures of him smoking dope, you know, and The Wall Street Journal writing all these articles [saying] he is going to have to go out for money."

Above: A look back at some of Elon's earlier milestones at Tesla (Source: Money Control / Story and Script: Avinash Mudaliar, Siddartha Bannerjee, Xema Pathek; Art: Harsho Mohan Chattoraj)

He continues, "Why should I believe you as opposed to my friend Elon while I am out here watching this rocket land, which I think is really cool, and you are there in front of your Apple Mac typing up an article saying Elon is an idiot?" Ellison, the iconic tech billionaire, says Tesla is his second largest investment.

Meanwhile, another Tesla and SpaceX investor, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper is also befuddled by all the frivolous, petty press coverage. He says (via CNBC), "We have to sort of say, hey look, he's a human being... Every human in the world has made a mistake." After all, "This guy's awesome. Let's do what we can to support him."

Above: Silicon Valley VC Tim Draper comments on Elon Musk (Youtube: CNBC Life)

To that end, Sarkozy reminds us that Tesla's electric vehicles are "fully green exceptional driving machines, and have for the first time outsold Mercedes in the U.S. – relying not on advertisement campaigns, but on the simple idea that if the customer simply tries the car they will be seduced by it."

He concludes that, "Tesla, aims to create a vehicle which in its emissions or production does no harm to the environment, while still being technologically razor-edged and curiously pleasant to drive... One thing that is certain: No matter how many of his projects fail to reach fruition [on time], Musk has already succeeded in his first and most important mission: getting us excited for the future."

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Source: Washington Examiner, CNBC, CNBC; Webcomic: Money Control / Story and Script: Avinash Mudaliar, Siddartha Bannerjee, Xema Pathek; Art: Harsho Mohan Chattoraj; Video: CNBC Life