I see how tesla looses, but how does Musk win?

If he does not get his payout?

And if I were a shareholder in a company worth $54B and musk came in and say, I will get you to $650B and when I do I get 10% of it. I would vote yes!

Even if I knew he was connected up with the board -- who cares? A 10x share price bump is never a guaranteed thing, if it were then all the hedge funds in the world would bid that stock up 10x right now.

So I would pay musk as a pure salesman to get those kinds of numbers... sure I would gave away 10% of my profit, I would be crying all the way to the bank.

It was a good deal for those shareholders, how could you disagree with that?

Now does Musk deserve blame for Tesla's failure in batteries? (which is presently crushing Tesla...) sure at least some of the blame.