Elon Musk Already Wanted Tesla to Succeed

Elon Musk has a new compensation plan with Tesla Inc. that will give him a lot of shares for hitting some ambitious goals for Tesla's market capitalization, revenue and profit, or nothing if he fails to meet them. Andrew Ross Sorkin calls his comp plan "perhaps the most radical in corporate history," and quotes Musk:

Ehhhhh. If Tesla's value grows by 80 percent (from $50 billion) over the next 10 years -- a growth rate of about 6 percent per year, a bit less than the S&P 500 Index's growth rate over the last 10 years -- then Musk's current 21.9 percent stake will be worth an extra $8.8 billion. Seen in one light, his "compensation" -- the amount of additional wealth he will receive if he grows Tesla at a slightly below-average rate -- would work out to about $2.4 million per day over those 10 years. It's not the worst possible outcome for him.