something I really need people to understand is that if the market demands it, it will get built. who builds what to satisfy that demand is largely irrelevant. what's important is that it will be satisfied. I can assure you that.

another, more direct point to make here is that you shouldn’t put too much faith in your favorite entrepreneurial “business genius”. if there is a market for something, there is a demand for that thing, and that demand will be satiated in some way, shape, and form, by someone and some product. this is market efficiency. who solves it and with what product is wide open, though. given that it has to be someone, it can be anyone.

all this to say, don’t discount the role of luck. don’t discount the role of accidentally being the right guy at the right place in the right time with the right idea and the right network.

if it wasn’t Elon building popularizing EVs and building rockets it would eventually be someone. this is what is meant by “market efficiency”. the demand will be met, I can tell you that. the rest is just a question of…

…culture?

…popularity?

…galvanizing?

important to note that there is something to be said for one’s ability to galvanize people around a topic. to give business leaders some credit, they do a good job of making things popular. anyone would have eventually come along and popularized EVs and rockets, yes, but credit to Elon for making it cool in the here and now.

leaders are not leaders because they’re world-class thinkers with a constant flow of genius-level ideas. they’re leaders because they know how to lead. and there’s something to be said for that, but only something, certainly not everything.