The cult of an Elon Musk or a Jack Ma has its perks—but also perils

“I AM BECOME meme, Destroyer of shorts.” This recent tweet by Elon Musk struck a messianic tone that his disciples lap up. The past month has boosted the cult status of the uber-entrepreneur. The GameStop saga gave him ammunition in his long-running battle with short-sellers, while also positioning him as a champion of the little guy taking on Wall Street. This week fans were spellbound by the announcement that Mr Musk’s electric-car maker, Tesla, had invested $1.5bn in bitcoin and would start accepting the cryptocurrency as a form of payment. Earlier, a barrage of cheeky tweets from Mr Musk about dogecoin (“the people’s crypto”) had sent serious investors scrambling to learn more about a digital currency that started as a joke.