she lied she lied about everything from
the baritone of her voice
to the realism of her technology what
does psychology say about her actions
and how to classify them let's explore
elizabeth holmes started theranos in
2003 as a goal to quote democratize
health care
she had wanted to be a billionaire as
her life goal
and she modeled her life and look after
steve jobs by dressing in a black
turtleneck
and moving her meetings to the days he
scheduled his own her medicine professor
phyllis gardner
told her that her idea wouldn't work
because it was physically impossible
and several of her colleagues agreed
what was that grand idea
holmes wanted to perform blood tests
with only the blood
from pricking the tip of a finger her
own personal fear of needles
was the main inspiration for this idea
the tech was also said to test a range
of health issues
from one blood sample stored in her nano
tainers or
tiny vials for blood collection which
obviously is unbelievable
but could have been genius if true long
story short
she was a fraud all along of course her
ideas would never work and her lying
to cover up her shortcomings was never
ending
according to psychology people with
these actions
display traits of a psychopath not only
is she a pathological liar but she would
stop at nothing to see her own
obsessions through
the top position of power most attracted
to a psychopath as a ceo
the alpha and omega of company the
ability to engage in a thought process
an environment and a group of people to
play leader to who cannot question
or deny you as the perfect role for
woman like holmes
her story is to be betrayed by both
jennifer lawrence and amanda seyfried
lawrence looks more the part and i can
really see her nailing the fake baritone
voice
speaking of on-screen portrayals this is
a lot like her idol steve jobs
who was played by lookalike ashton
kutcher and not-so-look-alike michael
fassbender
even while on trial holmes still pays
homage to jobs without even trying
amazing and that trial is a rather
sticky one
according to the wall street journal the
jury is to hear
from faulty theranose test patients they
apparently received faulty test results
which in some cases can prove to be
life-threatening
individuals with high levels of
psychopathy narcissism and
machiavellianism known as the dark triad
of personality traits do not appear to
have
an impaired ability to empathize
according to the new research published
in the journal personality and
individual differences
but these individuals are not inclined
to use this ability
remember this is the same woman who
wanted to democratize medicine
by making blood testing easier and
faster for everyone by producing faster
and more varied results from one drop
alone
she cared enough to start the vision but
was just greedy enough to disregard the
actual people
she originally sought to help she faces
counts of male fraud for deceiving
investors
patients and doctors about theranos's
blood test tech
holmes was indicted on charges of fraud
in june 2018.
the youngest self-made female
billionaire has thrown everything down
the drain
everything but her lavish lifestyle
which her lawyers claim
should not be taken into account because
it could conjure quote
class prejudice among the jury according
to the proceedings of the national
academy of sciences of the united states
of america
quote psychopathic individuals behave in
callous and antisocial ways
that suggest that these individuals fail
to consider what others are thinking
holmes fired any and everyone around her
who questioned her authority
even when it made them question their
own intelligence by trying to stick to
what they hoped was a brilliant idea
that would just magically work even if
they knew it was far too good to be true
ramesh bowani proved to be no different
in his penchant for perjury naturally
he would make a great ally business
partner lover
and enabler of homes psychopaths are
attracted to each other
and among the breakdown of the events of
theranos it was discovered that bowani
as president of theranos
was just as stubborn as holmes he also
engaged in paranoia about corporate
espionage
basically he worried the jig would be up
and that someone else in the commercial
industry
of medicine would look into the
creations of theranos for a competitive
edge
but would instead find the major flaws
and he
and holmes tried desperately to hide
that
he was even less convincing than his
equally shady counterpart
he believed in speaking the queen's
english of tech without any
understanding of its terminology
he would often misuse and misunderstand
words that he frequently repeated to
sound smarter than he was
for example the phrase end effector
means
the end of a robot's arm that is
designed to interact with an environment
he misheard it as endo factor and it
became a running gag within the company
to include the gaff
in powerpoints during meetings
incompetent and bold
seems to be the running theme with their
nose and co in fact
bold enough to claim 2014 earnings as a
hundred million
when in reality it was just a hundred
thousand
the psychopathic ego leads people like
holmes to stretch the reality
she could not handle the amount so she
changed it to an
m to overcompensate how she really sees
herself
an undeservingly inflated figure
now that we have an understanding of her
mentality let's go through a timeline of
her major mistakes that got her and the
situation she is in now
let's continue in 2013
theranos partnered with walgreens to
reach customers directly
the next year in 2014 holmes does a ted
talk on how she plans to revolutionize
blood testing in the medical industry
all as well into professionals from the
medical field start to question theranos
in 2015.
dr john ionitis wrote a piece for the
journal
of the american medical association and
which he criticized holmes and theranos
for operating in stealth mode
meaning the company was basically
accused of hiding research
and peer-reviewed medical journals by
july of that same year
that there are no blood tests for herpes
simplex virus 1 as approved by the fda
december that same year it came under
scrutiny after two former employees
called the nanotainers or one drop blood
vials
for the company's blood testing machines
inaccurate
the company responded by saying those
employees were quote
disgruntled so holmes volunteered
to have a further inspection by the fda
and was cleared
psychology today states that one thing
psychopaths and heroes have in common
is bravery holmes is indeed the hero of
medicine in her own mind right
bold fearless traits are often
associated with heroic behavior
but callous traits such as meanness and
coldness
are not more puzzling is that people
with a history of antisocial behavior
are more likely to engage in heroic acts
to help others
psychology today a common theme in
medicine
i fear an industry that is built on
helping others
but are just socially disconnected
enough to knock hair
when you are no longer seen as viable i
believe there are a lot of elizabeth
holmes types
in this field they were just smart
enough to not get caught
in such a public way moving on through
2015
former vice president and current
president joe biden actually toured
theranos
talk about inspirational this is
inspirational biden
commenting on soon to be defunct
theranose operations
now here's where things spell absolute
disaster for our medical hero
on october 15th and 16th of 2015 the
wall street journal published a
devastating
article on theranos journalist john
cariu
interviewed ex-employees who claimed
that management was exaggerating the
capabilities of the technology
as well as lying to the public and being
overall pretty incompetent
holmes quickly appeared on mad money
later that day
she claims quote this is what happens
when you work to change things first
they think you're crazy
then they fight you and then all of a
sudden
you change the world end quote
now let's continue to october 16th 2015.
wall street journal reports in a
follow-up piece that theranos has been
forced to stop
all operations with blood testing
equipment and nanotainers except for one
that one being mentioned earlier in the
dock as herpes simplex virus one
november 2015 a steady momentum
and the downfall a 350 million dollar
deal with safeway falls through
also reported by wall street journal in
december 2015
wall street journal releases yet another
report that claims there are no rigged
tests to produce better results
march 2018 theranos is charged with
fraud
by the u.s securities and exchange
commission they accused holmes
and bauwani of quote raising more than
700 million from investors
through an elaborate years-long fraud in
which they exaggerated or made false
statements about the company's
technology
business and financial performance end
quote in the wake of this charge
holmes is stripped of her control of the
company
forced to return millions of shares to
therados
and is barred from serving as an officer
or director
of any public company for 10 years
what a fall from grace for someone who
was admittedly brilliant
in a way may be brilliant to a fault
in june 2018 a federal grand jury
indicts holmes
and bowani of two counts of conspiracy
and nine counts of wire fraud finding
that the pair had
quote engaged in a multi-million dollar
scheme
to defraud investors and a separate
scheme
to defraud doctors and patients end
quote
holmes then stepped down to ceo but
remained on the company's board
by september 5th 2018 theranos is unable
to find a buyer and was forced to close
and pay all remaining cash back to
creditors
theranos alerted investors of this
closing via email
theranos website also shut down and the
wall street journal reported that
equity investments in the company were
practically worthless
now that leads us to today
as of friday may 28th homes and lawyers
have requested that jurors should
refrain from widespread
negative coverage upon selection always
needing control
in the wake of punishment is a very
homes thing to do
mind you this was after the trial was
already delayed
for her surprise pregnancy announcement
on may 17th
she also married her husband billy evans
in 2019
when paparazzi caught up with her she
seemed so nonchalant
she displays zero ability to reconcile
with the consequences
of her own doing and how to reflect on
them
humbly it's as if life
did not stop just theranose
let's see if this is an obstacle she can
overcome without an innovative lie
in the face of truth and law and order
this is what happens when you work to
change things and
first they think you're crazy then they
fight you and then all of a sudden you
change the world