Better known as the chief executive of Tesla and the richest man on earth, Elon Musk has established has a new norm beyond normal. As a social media-savvy top guy, he is the greatest PR guy in the automotive world. He is next to being unstoppable, and his influence is hard to deny. Thus, it is hardly surprising that Time magazine has picked Musk as the publication's Person of the Year for 2021.
Person With Most Influence On Earth In 2021
The main criterion for the Person of the Year award is simply that the individual is a marker of influence. As Time puts it, few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially off Earth too. The magazine noted that Musk became not just as the world’s richest person in 2021, but also as the richest example of a huge shift in the society of today. Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal noted that Musk “really speaks to the moment we’re in.”
Time's description of Musk is quite formidable; the magazine called him a "clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad." Time also described Musk as a “madcap hybrid” of Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, P.T. Barnum, and Doctor Manhattan from Watchmen. This current portrayal of Musk is far off from how people regarded him a several years ago: a crazy con artist who was on the verge of going broke.
Musk Moves The World With A Tweet
Moving forward to 2021, Musk has defied his haters. He is now worth more than $250 billion, and his ventures are going beyond borders. This year, his rocket startup company SpaceX won an exclusive contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to transport U.S. astronauts to the moon. Tesla is still the largest electric-vehicle maker in the world. Musk also hosted Saturday Night Live in May.
Interestingly, Musk’s influence is so massive that a single tweet could send stock prices to rise or fall, or make people invest in cryptocurrencies. He announces new products, makes updates and even answers questions using savvy yet savage phrases. Twitter only has a limit of 280 characters, and yet he does not need to use them to assert influence. By the way, Musk has more than 66.2 million followers on Twitter.
Other Time Awardees For 2021
Time also handed out a couple of other awards. The magazine picked Simone Biles as the Athlete of the Year, Olivia Rodrigo as Entertainer of the Year and Vaccine Scientists as Heroes of the Year.
Source: Time