Bad Blood (2018) is a fascinating story of intrigue, power, Machiavellianism, and, most likely, what happens when a sociopath ends up at the helm of a company.
Carreyrou, the author of “Bad Blood“, chronicles the story of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos. When it became clear that Holmes lied about her company’s technical capabilities, she went from the richest woman alive and inspiration for millions of businesswomen to an international pariah.
Takeaways
- Wildly acclaimed media darling Elizabeth Holmes managed a company for over a decade without a functioning product
- Kissinger, Mattis, Murdoch, and plenty of smart men all fell for the lies and charm of Holmes
- Don’t believe the hype
Notes
About the Author:
John Carreyrou is a journalist, and was the first to uncover the lies behind Theranos and her founder Elizabeth Holmes. As it’s often the case, he took a lot of flak for going in first but eventually he was vindicated.
The Big Unicorn That Came Back to Earth
Theranos raised over $700 million of venture capital and at its peak had a valuation of $9 billion, making her founder Elizabeth Holmes a multi-billionaire.
The valuation and money raised were based on false assumptions, optimistic projects, false data, and lots of lies and fabrications.
Elizabeth Holmes’ Great Idea
Elizabeth Holmes, like many others, is scared of the needles that are necessary for blood tests.
And she set out to change the way blood tests are run: with a wearable patch.
Not only would the wearable patch render needles useless, but by keeping it on for a whole day, doctors could receive real-time information about patients.
It was genius.
On paper…
Theranos Never Really Had a Working Product
Of course, the product never really lived up to the hype.
And not even to the most basic expectations that a medical device should meet.
It’s crazy to realize how far Theranos got without ever really having a working product.
It would be laughable… If it weren’t for all the people who personally suffered the consequences.
People Were Mislead By Theranos’ Analysis
Theranos’ test analysis was unreliable.
But that didn’t stop Elizabeth Holmes to guarantee their dependability. And the people who trusted her paid, sometimes, with their own health.
How Elizabeth Misled Kissinger, Murdoch, Mattis & Everyone
Bad Blood is particularly interesting for me as a researcher of human behavior and, particularly, as a researcher and writer on power moves, games people play, and bullies.
Elizabeth Holmes duped a seasoned negotiator like Henry Kissinger General Mattis, who is the same guy who said: “be nice and courteous but always have a plan to kill everyone in the room”.
Obviously, Mattis had no quote to defend against a smart manipulator, because this is what she said of Holmes:
(Holmes has) One of the most mature and well-honed sense of ethics
-General Mattis
But this is no indictment of Mattis or Kissinger.
After all, plenty of professional investors and big pharma companies had been duped into the lie and fraud.
Learn more on manipulation:
Manipulation: Techniques, Strategies, & Ethics
From Bully to Angel
But as Bad Blood shows, Holmes was also a bully.
Just for not everyone to see.
For the public, she was the image of the revolutionary startup founder with a dream.
And she was a female with blue eyes, blonde hair, and a highly charismatic persona.
Here are some key passages of her big lies:
Elizabeth Plays The Fighter for a Better World
Elizabeth Holmes often played the role of the startup founder who is going to make the world a better place.
Listen to her saying:
Elizabeth: We have a belief system that this is not about us or technology, this is about giving people a basic right
LOL.
Stirring Deep Emotions With Storytelling
Holmes often mentioned the pain of sick people as a way of stirring strong emotions in the audience.
In her deleted Ted Talk, which has since been withdrawn, she talks about her uncle, and how depressed she was when he got sick. Then, she would frame herself up as the woman working to solve those problems.
But John Carreyrou explains that she was never in any way close to her uncle.
But that didn’t stop Elizabeth from weaving a tear-jerking story that made it seem as if the two were so close.
Hero framing: the rebel against entrenched interests
Here she is on Mad Money’s show playing the role of the rebel who changes the world in spite of everything:
Elizabeth: First, they think you’re crazy. Then, they fight you. Then you change the world.
LOL, what a lying POS.
These are the people I think of when I started this website. The people we all need to be aware of.
The captivating business narrative
Holmes’s narrative was that of the girl who was afraid of needles and who now fights for a better, cheaper, more inclusive healthcare system.
Look at her showing the letter from her childhood self:
The #GirlPower angle to gain press coverage and supporters
And you must love how she took the “GirlPower” angle to shore up support for her lying and cheating.
Here is what she says as Theranos became more and more embattled:
“Until what happened in the last four weeks, I didn’t understand what it means to be a woman in this space,” she says, shaking her head. “Every article starting with, ‘A young woman.’ Right? Someone came up to me the other day, and they were like, ‘I have never read an article about Mark Zuckerberg that starts with ‘A young man.’ ”
What a conniving b*tch, and I bet many drank the cool aid and sided with her.
Here again, pushing the “female in science” narrative:
If you want to be a successful woman in business, ditch the sociopaths and check out “how to be a successful businesswoman in a male world“.
Tying herself to a myth: Steve Jobs references
Elizabeth Holmes secretly invited parallels with Steve Jobs. Starting with the black turtlenecks to dropping out from Stanford going against the grain.
And, of course, the “reality distortion field” that ended up distorting reality… A bit too much.
In my opinion, she overdid her effort to be charismatic and sometimes ended up being spooky and eery.
She wanted to be charismatic in this video, but it ends up being unnatural and fake.
Since she didn’t understand that, it makes me think that Elizabeth was emotionally challenged and lacking in basic social intelligence.
Should we attempt a clinical diagnosis?
Towards the end, the author John Carreyrou says:
A sociopath is defined as someone with little or no conscience.
I’ll leave it up to the psychologists to define whether Holmes fits the clinical profile, but there is no question that her moral compass was badly askewed
Review
Bad Blood is a wonderful investigative piece of work into the history -and the mind- of a highly ambitious woman.
You can learn a lot from it. But not the way you’d learn from a self-help book: here you need to tease out your own lessons learned.
Do dark triad traits in business help?
It’s a complex question we’ve investigated in ‘the myth of emotional intelligence‘ and our entrepreneurial power model.
But in short: yes, certain dark triad traits can help fuel your rise to the top.
Especially if you can limit the more aggressive and antisocial tendencies and keep the narcissism, drive for power, and Machiavellianism.
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If you’re this interested in winning in life, you may want to check out our training program, where we teach men how to achieve their goals while remaining honorable:
