New Delhi, Nov. 17 -- Elon Musk is 55 years old. He is already the world's richest man, with an estimated current net worth of about $480 billion. Contingent on meeting certain performance criteria at Tesla Inc, he could well become the world's first trillionaire.

Depending on your point of view, Musk is enigmatic, mercurial, brash, unfiltered, hyperactive, intensely competitive and vile-or visionary, charismatic, innovative, strategic and boldly disruptive. As the name Tesla implies, the company co-founded by Musk was a pioneer in creating high-quality electric vehicles (EVs) based on electric motors and power systems invented by the Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla.

Unlike Musk, the original Tesla, his hero, had sunk all his mon...