A lot of the elite business communities are entirely extended social groups. Lots of nephews. Lots of professional self-promotionists. Lots of gurus, promising to deliver quasi-spiritualist business secrets. The system they’re attached to is swimming in surplus revenue, so doing relatively simple arbitrage with a big enough line of credit can enrich these well-connected individuals quickly. And putting someone with connections to easy credit onto your board is a great way to grow your company.

MBAs get to operate at the kindergarten level because they’re playing with billions of dollars in a game that is designed to guarantee they (mostly) walk away winners.

Trump is a classic example. Lose a billion dollars, go out and find another line of credit, gamble on double or nothing, market goes up so you win it all back again. Nobody asks where this credit is coming from or why The Donald is uniquely positioned to draw on it. Elon has a similar story. He just keeps spinning the wheel and doubling down, confident that the game has a positive ROI, so he’ll always come out ahead in the end.