It is pitch black. All you can hear is the heavy breathing of eleven other boys, yearning for rescue, as the driving force that is hope starts to quickly fade. It has been nine days since you ventured into the Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex, the water is rising, and the air is getting heavier as every breath consumes yet more oxygen. You think of your parents, your friends, your future that could have been. You have slowly come to accept the reality that this is how you will meet your demise. Suddenly out of the murky waters below shines a blinding light. “Ah the reaper has come to collect his spoils” you think to yourself, accepting your final moments of consciousness. But then, the water breaks. A smooth, metallic pen-like object crashes out of the blackened depths, shining its rays of hope upon you and your friends. It floats, angelically, in the water for a few moments until it starts to gurgle and rumble. A small hatch on top starts to unscrew. Out pops an eccentric maverick with a marvellous grin on his face. An ill-fitting sailor hat sits tilted slightly to one side and he tightly grips a half drank bottle of Pol Roger. Elon Musk has come to the rescue! “C’mon kids, lets get you out of here before that pedo guy gets you”, exclaims Elon as he whisks you and your teammates off to safety in his (surprisingly not yellow) submarine, all accompanied to the sounds of soothing whale songs.

Ah what could have been for Elon. Had this been the case there would be no need for this article. Elon’s reputation would have still been intact, having single-handedly saved nine Thai boys from certain death, he would have surely been hailed a hero. Instead they were assisted to their safety by a group of divers including Vernon Unsworth, a man Elon Musk would later denounce as a ‘pedo guy’ for criticising his idea of a one-man submarine as a means of rescuing the Thai boys. Since then, Elon Musk has seen his reputation tarred further after allegations of drug-fuelled tweeting fits, leaving his wife for a woman almost half his age and artificially manipulating the stock price of his ‘jewel in the crown’ Tesla. This surely begs the question; has Elon finally lost it?

Now, I’m not going to argue that Elon Musk has anything but an exceptional brain, and that he is one of our generation’s ideological and technological pioneers. Indeed, I would be lying if I said, even after all the idiotic things he has done, that I did not hold even a slight bit of admiration and respect for the man. But, being such a great thinker and idealist, perhaps Mr Musk should stick to just that: thinking. He has had his successes, co-founding PayPal and making his initial billions from that, Musk went on to found SpaceX and Tesla as well as dabbling in hyperloop technology. It’s even rumoured that Robert Downey Jr. based his character of Iron Man on Elon Musk’s eccentric but brilliant demeanour (let’s hope he didn’t go as far as emulating Musk’s alleged prescription drug habit!). However, after Tesla announced its biggest year in the red ever, SpaceX presumably following a similar patter (as a private company there is no official confirmation that SpaceX is operating at a loss, however most analysts agree that it is, and deeply), and Hyperloop technology no closer to becoming an operational, and most importantly profitable, reality; is Elon Musk really the right person to spearhead these initiatives?

Being a student at the LSE and consequently becoming a bearer of the stereotypes it indulges, I can already hear the calls that profit is not the be all and end all, to think about innovation over money. The reality is, that in our modern neoliberal world, nothing will be done unless it can generate profit. No government will run a service that intentionally loses money (unintentionally is another story, see privatisation of the train networks in Britain), and even less so in regard to private investors with increasing numbers of them turning cold towards investing in Tesla as it looks close to collapse, almost, with dwindling cash reserves and production targets missed again and again. Therefore, Elon Musk can have all the great ideas that he likes, but if he cannot generate a profit from them then they will never be commercially viable, and thus available to the common person, whom technology should (ethically) seek to help the most. Even the cheapest Tesla priced at $35,000 is largely unobtainable to the average person, despite Musk claiming it is a ‘car for the masses’, with most yearly salaries well below that. The only serious interest in Hyperloop seems to be coming from the UAE which then sees it merely as a novelty, rather than a viable alternative to current transportation methods. Perhaps, then, it is time to say to Elon Musk (á la Arsenal fan TV): ‘Elon, Thanks for the memories but it’s time to say goodbye’.

For Elon Musk’s undoubtably fantastic ideas to become a reality, maybe it’s time he handed over the reigns to someone else, someone who could turn them into profitable ventures which don’t just attract interest from oil rich middle eastern states and teenage stock traders, something Elon Musk will never be able to do. The reason he will never be able to do it is simple. Musk will never compromise on his babies, and understandably so. He has risked everything to be where he is now, having almost seen the collapse of both ventures in the past. But for his sake, and to avoid the future collapse of his ventures, perhaps he should hand over control of them over to an experienced business figure and take a step back to focus merely on the creative side of things. Whilst Musk undoubtedly sees himself as a Steve Jobs like figure who can do both, perhaps he can’t. Sure, he founded PayPal, but even that didn’t start making a serious profit until eBay bought it off him and instilled their own people in it. It might be time for Elon Musk to admit to himself that despite his great mind, he isn’t the best businessman. It would be a monumental shame not to see the technology Musk has envisioned help humanity advance merely because he cannot make it profitable.

Perhaps Elon is well and truly out of his depth.