Dishonesty is something we consider evil and malicious but at the same time we can all admit

we have all been dishonest. We all want to succeed and the reason we dont cheat all the time is
because of our moral compass. But what happens when someone wants something so badly that
they begin to lose their moral compass? Holmes is the story of a successful con artist who
manages to deceive us all but eventually felt to the magnitude of her own lies. When these
elaborate lies are uncovered by the world the biggest questions are always how and why. How?
By creating a compelling story and selling her vision of a better world to our naive and hopeful
minds. Why? For fame and wanting to become the next Thomas Edison of the world as well as
feeling the pressure of the world to succeed and become something great.

Why did people believe her?

Compelling Story

The first question we need to ask ourselves is why did we believe her? How was she able to
create such an elaborate lie that we all fell for? One driving factor in her success to deceive us
was her compelling story or lie. In the Documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon
Valley Ariely mentions, “So the reality is that data just doesn't sit in our mind as much as stories
do” (Ariely 33:34). As Ariely stated, stories have emotions that people can connect to unlike
numbers and Holmes knew this. She constantly brought up the story of her uncle that died from
skin cancer and how that motivated her to create Theranos. In press conferences and ted talks she
made sure the story of her never being able to say goodbye to her uncle got heard. This story
certainly connected to a huge portion of the American audience because many of us have similar
experiences where we have lost someone we loved too soon. This made many people trust her a
little more. “The right to protect the health and well-being of every person, of those we love, is a
basic human right” (Holmes 6:13). Who wouldn't agree with this statement and vision of the
future?

Another factor that made her story so easy to believe was her use of ethos. Her ability to
create a future we all dream of. She prayed on our desires of a machine that could diagnose
disease with a simple blood sample. She knew what we wanted and created a future where we
could have it if only she had the resources to make it happen. On top of that her board meeting
was full of powerful respected men that boosted her credibility.

Special Touch

Her story and vision were not just exciting but she also had that special touch, that charisma,
to make anyone excited about her project. Shultz describes this special tough as he experienced it
first hand. “I would go have one conversation with Elizabeth...and I would be so motivated to go
back and work, and I felt like I was changing the world again” (Shultz 1:23:52). He describes his
experience at Theranos as two different worlds. The carparted world (fake reality) and the tile
world (reality). He mentions how Holmes used to talk to him about Theranos and how they are
changing the world and he would believe her because he himself wanted the carpeted world to be
real. She was a master at playing with our emotions and using our own wishes against us.
Another example of this is her promises of a device that only needed one drop of blood. Many
Americans and people around the world are scared of needles especially when they are suking
tons of blood out of our bodies. Holmes promised this would no longer be necessary. She used
our literal fears of needles to gather support for her company. This is evident in the fact that she
brought up her fears of needles countless times in interviews and Ted Talks. When someone
promises you that your fears would no longer exist. Who wouldn't want to believe that?

Peculiar Way of Speaking

She also had a very peculiar way of speaking that helped her captivate masses. First of all, she
talks with many pauses. If you hear her speeches you would notice that she pauses every 5 to 10
words. Even though this seems insignificant, this way of talking is very important. It allows the
audience to fully take in what she is saying since she is giving the audience time to listen. This
way of slower speaking also allows her to empathize on certain phrases or words like “we are
changing the world”. This ensures that her point gets across very smoothly. The pauses also
make her words/phrases more dramatic which is always helpful in speeches. Second of all, she
speaks with conviction. She never once mentioned concerns with her project and always made it
clear that she was 110% sure her machine was going to revolutionaries the world. This gave
people confidence in her company since she spoke with such passion. If there's one thing I learn
from debate in high school is that as long as you speak with conviction you can fool anyone. Last
of all she had a very deep voice. This deep voice gave her a sense of order and strength. She also
was in a field dominated by men so she knew she had to sound like them for people to take her
seriously. People expect ground breaking discoveries to only come from men so she made her
voice sound like a male. She used this misogynistic way of thinking to help her succeed.

People were Incompetent and Naive.

But if she was able to so easily deceive the common audience how did she deceive those with
more experience like her investors. The reality is that even they were too naive and incompentent
to uncover her lies. One investor stated, “I invest when I see the vision, I see the opportunity and
I see the person who I think can make it there” (Draper 32:40). This might be a good way to
approach investing but at the end of the day Draper was not a scientist nor an engineer. He was
simply unqualified to really judge the likelihood of this project ever working. Just like Draper,
many investors look at a person and ask themselves if they believe in them but are truly unaware
of the project itself. Holmes had lots of passion and ambition, which is everything many
investors need to put money on a company. Another group of people she surprisingly deceived
were her board members. These powerful men were well respected in their respective fields but
once again none of them were scientists or engineers. They were secretary of states, military
officials, and government officials. They were all captivated by her vision and story but we're
clueless to the actual project: The Edisons. It also helps that she presented herself as the next Bill
Gates or Steve Jobs which they all clearly believed.They were all also most likely captivated by
her charm and believe she was incapable of evil. Whether intentional or not she used the
inexperience of many individuals in the field of medicine and technology to trick them into
believing her lie of a brighter future.

Why did she do it?

Fame and Recognition

She utilized many tactics to keep her biggest secret undercover but why not just tell the truth
and say the project was failing? Why did she lie to such a big extent? First of all, I am not a
psychologist so all of the claims stated from this point on are based purely on speculation from
the evidence we currently have. We can assume the biggest factor for lying was that she wanted
fame. She wanted to be recognized for making a huge medical breakthrough and writing her
name in history. Just like Edison. Many people compare her to Edison and Holmes wanted to
become as important and revolutionary as him. She idolizes him. She wanted the fame that many
entrepreneurs had in the 21st century. People like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Fame is the only
thing she cared about even if her success came at the expense of others. As stated in the
Documentary her company releases inaccurate results of the public’s blood samples putting
many of them in danger. She did not care that many Americans were getting inaccurate test
results as long as she could keep hiding her secret in the hopes that one day The Edisons would
work and she could become a legend. This is also evident by the way she dealt with criticism.
Nugent stated how Holmes operated, “...if you said no then they just went around to find the next
person who would say yes. And generally, they tended to start becoming younger and less
experienced” (Nugent 50:58). Holmes surrounded herself with inexperienced people who would
only agree with her to avoid criticism. Holmes did not listen to criticism at all. She had in mind
what her project would look like and she was not going to change that. Based on this information
we can conclude that fame was Holmes top priority because she got rid of any opposition to her
goal even if they were just trying to help. If she really had good intentions she would pay
attention to suggestions and actively modify her project so it can actually save lives. She would
focus on The Edisons instead of all the events and magazine covers she participated in.
Especially if her project was having trouble working.

Believed Her Own Lies

 All this lying would not have been worth it if she didn't believe her own lie. She hoped that if
she tried hard enough she would succeed. For instance, she once mentioned, “We code named
our product the Edison, because we assumed we'd have to fail 10,000 times to get it to work the
10,001st” (Holmes 9:34). Even though we don't know for sure this quote demonstrates that
Holmes knew such a big project takes time before it comes to fruition. It's likely that she
believed that with enough time her project would work even though at the moment it was failing.
She just needed more time and she bought herself some by lying. As long as she works hard
enough it's just a matter of time. Sadly in this case it was not true because as stated previously
she ignored criticism which is vital in creating anything. Furthermore, from interviews from
previous employees Holmes seemed to embrace the “Fake it till you make it” Mentality. It’s okay
to be dishonest (Fake it) if at the end you would be telling the truth (till you make it). This
mentality made it easier to be dishonest since she was not damaging her self image. As stated by
Ariely dishonesty is all about preserving a good image about yourself and Holmes was doing that
by believing her lie. Auletta also notices this, “She's a zealot...And a zealot is such a believer, a
true believer, in what they’re doing that they’re blind to the reality of what's happening” (Auletta
1:51:33). Holmes was so passionate and believed in trial and error that she failed to see her
project was going downhill. A true believer will never lose faith no matter how the situation
looks. She was blind to her own reality or maybe she chose to ignore the situation/problem.
Willinging turned a blind eye hoping that no one would notice her trickery.

Pressure to Succeed

On top of her believing her own lies and wanting fame she also had pressure from the world
to succeed. She came from Silicon Valley, a city known for its advanced innovation. Many
people from this area have made great success stories and she was one of them. People expected
her to succeed in her vision when they heard about her because she came from an area of
innovation. The exponential growth of her company also put pressure on her to succeed in the
world. As the documentary stated, “The company employed 800 people, and was valued at
nearly $10 billion” (3:48). When you raise so much money in a short amount of time people are
going to think you're a genius. Holmes had created the next great entrepreneur persona which she
wanted but now she couldn’t possibly think of failure. It didn't matter if the Edison were not
working she could not admit to the world she was a fraud. It would be a huge let down for
everyone. When the world expects you to succeed this much all you can think of is how do I live
up to this expectation. I cannot imagine the magnitude of that amount of pressure. At this point
she did not want her project to succeed; she needed her project to succeed.

Conclusion

The story of Holmes is fascinating and interesting to investigate but it also has real life
consequences that are still felt today. According to an Elle magazine the story of Holmes has set
women back in a world where women already have a hard time being believed. Now everyone is
aware and scared of the next Elizabeth Holmes and this has put women entrepreneurs in a tough
position. We all can learn from the story of Elzibeth Holmes about the power of storytelling and
deception but we also need to realize that Holmes does not represent all women. I think the
biggest lesson we can all gain from this story is that we must always rely on the facts rather than
speculation or stereotypes.