Lightly mentioned in the article, but I think a key part of Musk's success comes down to two traits: he's willing to take large risks if he thinks the "right answer" requires it and he's willing to put significant capital up to do so. For Tesla, things like the aluminum bodies mentioned in the article or the "gigacasting" later took the kind of significant investment that most companies aren't comfortable making; SpaceX, for its part, blew up enough rockets to have put most companies off their lunches. There's shades of Jobs, who would not accept an inferior product made for expediency, and of Bezos, who's one of the few other company leaders with a history of gambling like that, but really, I think the willingness to aggressively deploy the capital required to achieve the answer he thinks is the right one is the core trait underpinning his success.<p>(I think the article's also broadly correct in the diagnosis of his failings, too - the gods don't give with both hands, as they say.)