Perhaps he has some talent somewhere that helped those companies be successful (though we can't discount engineers and scientists working there).

And perhaps the success and people calling him a genius went to his head and he believed it that he could do no wrong, so he started making increasingly dumb moves and failing harder and harder, but because he's been successful he's incapable of seeing his own failures and so he just gets more and more out of control.

In the end he's remembered more for his failings than his successes.

At least that's the trajectory I see.