Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos and 'faking it until you make it'
After watching the documentary on Elizabeth Holmes and learning about the thoughts of those that worked with her and interviewed her, one can say that her attitude towards 'fake it till you make it' really worked against her in the end. However, at the beginning of her road to becoming a well-known entrepreneur like Steve Jobs, someone she idolized very much, her blind attitude to win the support and followership of others through her speeches and karma led her to garner such a huge follower base and following. I had prior knowledge of both Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos and their so called revolutionary technology in blood testing and the medical industry. What they were trying to do, both Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, was very important and pretty much affected everyone around the world because if their Edison machine could work it could not only save lives but change the way we detect diseases through blood. Just like those who were interviewed in the movie said, every step needed to closely monitored because what they were doing was essentially playing with people's lives. The 'fake it till you make it' mindset should have never been used in this area of research because you can't fake the results of testing diseases in human blood. This was an unethical approach to something as important as health care because even though she gained the attention of many, she was affecting the lives of many more without them even knowing. It seems to be a common value in the tech culture because I think to first get a project off the ground in tech you need a large viewer base behind it to do things like fund it, belive in it and so on. The focus is first put on garnering a large following before making sure the product actually works because that can be done later. In other words hype is better for a emerging product over the actual product itself because that can be fixed and will stay forever but something like hype is a once in a life time opportunity. Just look at things like the Nikola hydrogen truck or mundane things like stocks in the stock market. If people believe in it they will support it.
Spencer I totally agree with how badly the idea of “fake it till you make it” was used in the medical product that Elizabeth Holmes was advertising. I think that mindset is a natural thing for many people who want to be an entrepreneur, it might even be a necessary way of thinking. I’m sure many entrepreneurs would think their new business is the next big thing, or going to be successful, otherwise they would give up easily or wouldn’t have bothered starting something. The issue is that Holmes took it too far, she involved the lives of people and because her product was health related, it should’ve been monitored closely, rather than taking her word for it.
ReplyDeleteHi Spencer, great post!
ReplyDeleteIn regard to the mentality of fake it till you make it, especially in the sense of entrepreneurship and Silicon Valley many of these start-ups push that mentality onto its companies as creating companies from the ground up requires this to some extent. I agree that this mentality should never have been used in regard to Holmes and her invention of Theranos as it is an invention that is based up people's lives and their physical health- and putting this into the idea of faking it till you make it is wrong. Theranos itself was seemingly a very complex creation that was questioned by many from the start, leading us to think if Holmes had actually planned on creating the device that would ultimately help people or if she knew from the start she would not be able to create what she originally set out too. I think the idea of fake it till you make it is one that is used within almost any business model but in terms of a health related product that would allow individuals to live better lives, Holmes should never have stuck with this mentality.