Today everyone is talking about Elon Musk and we can't even accept him if there are some other people unknown to the public that even have some assets more than his achievements, or let me see within a short period of time, some people may still come on both to take over the space of being the richest in terms of assets accumulation, but for now I think what we can see is still what we may work on which is one of the reason why everyone will always consider him when it comes to technology and other innovations.
Life itself is competitive and nothing truly lasts forever. There has been records of people who have won this award over the years and there will always be people coming out as world richest. That Elon musk is the first Trillionaire doesn't imply he would remain the only Trillionaire neither does it imply he will remain the world richest forever. The motivation to compete healthily is the highest power of survival.
Over the years many great men have lived and gone some still living but over thrown. I still remember that Bill Gates resigned for over one decade, a record 18 years in total as the world richest before he started making major donations and the rise of Amazon Jeff Bezos and Elon musk. This would not stop. If you check the history of the Malian
Musa Mansa, he was described as incredibly rich and from the description of his riches in golds, if it was this day, he would probably be richer than Elon musk.
I will liken his achieving the Trillionaire status as a product of inflation just like the world is having more millionaires and Billionaires everyday. Inflation is a huge factor in Economy and assets value. His investments into technology is rewarding and the world is feeling his impact every day.
It isn’t like Elon has a trillion dollars in cash sitting around. People saying he should do this or that are totally ignorant. If he sold his shares it would cause a recession and tons of people would lose their jobs. He should be celebrated for how much value he has created, not demonized because he doesn’t want to gut his company and give away all the money.
Yes you are very correct, Forbes do not record cash money or money in the bank alone, they focus on assets which is why it is called a network. If he decides today to retrieve his entire money and stack in cash, he would probably loose his status as the world richest in a very short time because inflation would cost him a lot. Elon musk has given us something to chase,bthe younger generation and even his counterparts in the Forbes list.