I don't see why Elon should be in the category of strong men created by hard times who produce good times. It seems like all he did was fail upwards until he was rich enough to provide funding to, yes, some good projects. But nothing he's actually had a direct hand has really been successful.
If anything, now that he's (seemingly) an incompetent president of the US, he's likely to create bad times.
You can say many things about Elon and I’d probably agree with lots of them, especially regarding the near past, but he did build at least two organizations which have changed or are actively and visibly changing the world for the better. Funding came because of his resilience and perseverance, not in spite of his other traits.
Or, to quote a classic, he was smart and got shit done, for about two decades.
Which ones are those? PayPal (he didn't run it)? Tesla (it turned to shit when he ran it)? SpaceX (he didn't run it)? Twitter (it turned to shit when he ran it)?
What period in Tesla’s history are you identifying as “turned to shit”? Seems like they’ve been on a continuous upward trajectory and he’s been at the helm nearly the whole time. When he took over, they had no products, no sales, no manufacturing. He’s been in charge since then, during which they built several factories, launched several models, and sold several million cars.
He’s obviously not running the place day to day all the time, but I don’t see a period of decline where you could point and say “that’s when Elon came in and screwed it up.”
If anything, now that he's (seemingly) an incompetent president of the US, he's likely to create bad times.