I'm a bit late to the whole Theranos party, given everything that I've been occupied with over the last couple of years.
I had seen the occasional news article here and there, something about a Silicon Valley startup and it's CEO being in trouble with the law. It seemed rather passe and par for the course, given other similar and high-profile stories that were devouring the Oxygen in the room at the time.
But then I read this book.
I had picked up Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies In A Silicon Valley Startup on the recommendation of a friend of mine, who works in the tech sector, with the intention of casually reading a chapter or two during a weekend. Instead, I started on a late Friday evening and read throughout the night into the early hours of Saturday morning, devouring the entire book cover to cover.
They say truth is stranger than fiction, but even then, I couldn't believe what I was actually seeing printed in black letters on white pages. More than once, I had to put the book down in a state of incredulity to do an online search for some of the data, articles, people or information being documented as real events. It had all the incredible setup worthy of a Michael Crichton novel. But time and time again, Google's search engine came back with the evidence that someone hadn't spiked my tea with a hallucinogen. This had all actually happened.
There are words lacking to describe the impact of a book like this and the events behind it on the psyche of the reader. None other than Bill Gates himself noted on his blog just before last Christmas that it was "...full
of bizarre details that will make you gasp out loud. The story almost
feels too ridiculous to be real at points (no wonder Hollywood is
already planning to turn it into a movie)." [1] Indeed, just this week, the trailer for a documentary by HBO that premiers next month [2]:
With reality like this, who needs television?
But this post is about the book and my thoughts on what it contains. The actors involved range from the Stanford dropout with vision of grandeur, new graduates fresh out of university to some of the most recognized names on the world stage in the financial, political, military and government arenas.
If there was one sobering thought that remained entrenched in my mind after putting this book down and contemplating the implications of what this journalist had documented, it would be:
Be careful of who you work for.
The friend who recommended that I read Bad Blood had raised a number of interesting thoughts in a conversation after I had finished reading it. He noted the number of workers involved in this debacle, the rank and file employees who found themselves laid off at the end of this roller coaster of delusion, quite possibly feeling duped and the ensuing trauma. That number is in addition to the high turnover and firings of the earlier years before the cracks began to show and the whole house of cards came down. The theme of trauma runs deep through the account of the fiasco and the ensuing fallout, both in Bad Blood and the numerous articles chronicling this fiasco from all quarters.
That theme of trauma is important here. A recent article by Vanity Fair [3] noted that "The young founder, who was once compared to Steve Jobs, had recently been dubbed a “millennial Madoff” by the New York Post". Coming to terms with the fact that one may have been conned into working for the Silicon Valley CEO equivalent of a Ponzi scheme huckster does not make for tranquil contemplation. This is of importance because of another theme that emerges from the book which dovetails as a precursor of sorts - the idea of working for a grand and noble vision, for the betterment of humanity.
During his numerous interviews and compilation of evidence that led to his expose and Bad Blood, John Carreyrou often mentions the altruistic vision laid out by Elizabeth Holmes to those who would later become company board members, employees, investors, liaisons, public relations agents, lawyers, business partners and supporters of all kinds. I noted that it was often cited as the reason that a number of the former employees (including former engineers who had left jobs at Apple) decided to join Theranos - the lofty and inspirational idea of changing and saving lives, the revolutionizing and betterment of health care for the average person and loved ones. This pitch and idea emerges as a major motivating factor for many, that later describe the experience of being recruited into Holmes' universe as being sucked into a "reality distortion field". Carreyrou notes that as the story unfolded, although questions were raised internally from various quarters at Theranos as differences emerged between the data and the anecdote peddled by Holmes and her COO Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, they were overridden through obfuscation, secrecy, information hiding and manipulation, diversion, coercion and outright intimidation.
The sad consequences of the implosion are now beginning to emerge.
The aforementioned article [3] from Vanity Fair, that was published just three days ago, raised the following questions and contained this sobering paragraph (emphasis and highlighting are mine):
"Was she just a young person who got in over her head? Or, more
dramatically, is something more serious afoot. Is she a sociopath? “I’ll
leave it to the psychologists to decide whether Holmes fits the
clinical profile,” he writes, “but there’s no question that her moral
compass was badly askew.” Was she a hustler or a con artist, or merely a staggering Mr. Ripley?...
Holmes is currently living in San Francisco in a luxury apartment. She’s
engaged to a younger hospitality heir, who also works in tech. She
wears his M.I.T. signet ring on a necklace and the couple regularly post
stories on Instagram professing their love for each other. She reliably
looks “chirpy” and “chipper.” She’s also abandoned the black-turtleneck
look and now dresses in athleisure, the regrettable attire of our age.
Notably, she is far from a hermit. She tells former colleagues,
according to the two executives, that she is greeted by well-wishers on
the street who are rooting for her resurrection. It’s a stark contrast
to many of her old colleagues. Former Theranos employees I have spoken
to have relayed horror stories about their inability to find work after
leaving the company, now with a permanent stain on their résumé."
That last sentence should give us all pause for thought and reflection. It ties back to my earlier note of an important observation that I've been mulling over: be careful of who you work for.
Performing the utmost due diligence into both competence and character of someone that we plan to work for is of maximal importance, and cannot be overstated. I've both read and heard it said that "finding a good boss is more important than finding a good
company". A trusted mentor of mine notes that "you join a company, but you leave a
manager". Some of the most inspiring, valuable and fulfilling
relationships can be with the managers and colleagues one works for, some of which can turn into lifelong partnerships, associations and friendships. The consequences of lack of discernment
or bad intuition in this matter can be personally and
professionally devastating, as the paragraph above and the account of Bad Blood shows.
The phrase "Caveat emptor" (buyer beware) is often used in the context of the sale and purchase of goods and services, but as "Bad Blood" depicts, it is also applicable to the realm of the workplace. Bill Gates in his book review [1] notes towards the end that "Bad Blood tackles some serious ethical questions, but it is ultimately a thriller with a tragic ending". It's the "tragic ending" part and it's life lessons that I've taken note of in this post, particularly as the details of the fallout for those involved keep emerging.
I would highly recommend that you read and digest this fascinating account for yourself.
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