When Elon Musk was asked to rate how important money is to him from 0 to 10, he said:
“Maybe a 2.”
“The reason I guess I have what’s called wealth or really just shares in the companies, is that I’ve created these companies. Tesla has about 140,000 direct employees worldwide, and probably five times that number in the broader ecosystem, maybe almost a million jobs when you look at the whole supply chain that Tesla has created. And then SpaceX has about 15,000 people, and perhaps around 50,000 people when you include the full supply chain.
So, with the help of many talented people, I built these companies. The so-called wealth statistics simply add up what my ownership stake in those companies is worth. But I don’t actually have that in cash. I have it in stock. It’s really just that the companies have succeeded.”