Elon Musk: My father never owned an emerald mine, where's the proof? Errol Musk: ha yeah I owned one. Want to see a picture of one of the bigger emeralds I gave my wife from it?

It appears what's at stake is projecting or maintaining the image of being totally self-made or a genius that did everything on their own (starting from a deficit), without having any help or money from parents. Corporate welfare and government money is yet another wrinkle in the debate. Many people don't have such financial resources poured into them to start them off or to fall back on. So it can be seen how this raises eye brows. A person can do or have done great things, without having to obfuscate their background or pretend to be something they are not.

It's quite interesting when one's own father decides to come out and rein in or at least contradict the myth/fantasy.