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Plenty of people with more money have tried and failed at the exact same purpose. The majority of the NASA expert class has repeatedly made an ass of themselves claiming that this or that is never going to be cost-effective or not even physically possible, only to be disproven a year or two later. I have no problem saying Musk is an asshole, or that he is clearly abusing substances that fuck with his mind, but you could have given ten times as much money to any other rich guy or even an established subject expert and they would have not even come close to accomplish what he did.
Otherwise, strong agree with @pusher_robot. The rational behaviour for a self-centered person with 100 million dollars is to take no risks whatsoever and make no enemies, just coasting for life. And this is what most of them do. Anyone in that position who instead risks it all and tries to create something new should be highly respected.
I think you and @pusher_robot are misunderstanding my argument. I'm not trying to take anything away from the guy or say he shouldn't be lauded. What I'm saying is that when you have a billion-dollar idea that takes millions to implement, it's a lot easier to do so when you already have those millions. There are plenty of smart, hardworking people with good ideas that may have the potential to make them billionaires, but most aren't in a position to just walk away from well-paying jobs when they have mortgages, families, and leaking dishwashers. For most people, risking a good life to pursue what is effectively a lottery ticket is irresponsible to the point of reckless. It's not reckless, however, when failure means your net worth will be whittled down from $175 million to $75 million. I'm not trying to take away from anyone's accomplishments here, just making the point that you can't state categorically that billionaires are better than the rest of us.
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