Fake It Till You Make It — Or Maybe Don’t

Felix Manford
Nov 2 · 6 min read

The ‘fake it till you make it’ mantra is rarely the genesis of any great idea. In most cases, visionary leaders have revolutionary, futuristic ideas and usually have a seemingly viable roadmap to execute — albeit imaginative. The ‘fake it till you make it’ mindset kicks in midway when things begin to go south; when the initial assumptions don’t hold up; when obstacles begin to look insurmountable. This is when the delusional temptation of ‘faking it’ to employees, investors and worst of all customers kicks in.

I watched the Netflix documentary which showed how a young entrepreneur, Billy McFarland who founded a luxury music festival dubbed Fyre. The grand idea was to throw a mega party on an island somewhere in the Bahamas. The end result was, however, a nightmare situation where people who had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy exclusive tickets ended up being stranded halfway across the world with very poor living conditions. Billy McFarland also ended up being sentenced to six years in prison and a $26 million forfeiture order. After watching this intriguing documentary, I couldn’t help but outline the startling similarities between Billy and another interesting character, Elizabeth Holmes.

Poster for Netflix documentary — Fyre

Elizabeth Holmes also founded a company called Theranos which sought to invent a revolutionary diagnostic machine called The Edison. This vision skyrocketed the company into a multi-billion dollar enterprise and its founder (who started the company when she was 19 years) into a wealthy and influential woman who was adored by many including former US president Bill Clinton. The problem however was, The Edison did not work and now Elizabeth Holmes has been indicted on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and could face up to 20 years in prison. I have outlined a few similarities I identified and some lessons drawn:

Holmes posing with what is supposed to be the amount of blood needed to run a test in the Edison

1. Their vision, if successfully executed could revolutionize industries

Envision this experiment narrated by behavioural economist, Dan Ariely.

You are given a six-sided die and are instructed to throw the die. But, before you throw, you need to choose either the top or bottom of the die and keep that a secret. If you choose top and it’s six you get $6 and if you choose bottom and it’s one you get $1. So let’s say you toss and end up with 5 at the top and 1 at the bottom. Now I ask you, what did you pick — top or bottom? (Remember, no one knows what you chose but you). Most people would say they picked top and get the $5. The lie-detector connected to the people showed that many of them lied.

But…

The same experiment was done again and this time, they were told that whatever money they earn will be given to a charity of their choice. Guess what happened — the lie detector detected no lies when they were asked which side they chose. How so? Lie detectors function by identifying the tension that is associated with telling a lie. The caveat however is, if people feel the lie they tell is for a ‘good cause’, that tension becomes virtually non-existent.

This human behaviour underlines the Fake It Till You Make It movement. We mostly feel our lies don’t matter if it achieves a greater good in the end — the end justifies the means. Sounds familiar? Billy’s party was supposed to be the genesis of a bigger idea which was an app that allowed anyone to book celebrities through the Fyre App. The Edison from Theranos could have saved millions of lives if it ever materialized (I hope it does one day). The ability to conduct cheaper diagnostic tests with drops of blood within minutes would have been a game-changer.

“Focusing too much on what could be without any consideration for what is, pushes us to try to ‘fake it’ till we get there.”

2. They both surrounded themselves with fewer people who challenged them and more of those who idolized them

One trait of visionary leaders is their ability to garner respect and admiration from all kinds of people — young and old. Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Elon Musk and many other leaders of well-known corporations are mostly idolized by people for their charisma, intelligence or seemingly brave traits. This is a given in my opinion and not wrong in itself. The problem, however, is when these leaders surround themselves with people who only sing their praise. In the Fyre documentary, it was quite apparent that Billy only wanted to be in the room with people who agreed with his opinions. Anyone who found him or herself on the other side of the track was either side-lined or kicked out completely. A good example was Keith van der Linde, a pilot who flew Billy to the island and was asked to help with the planning. He raised some very important questions about living conditions on the island including insufficiency of toilet facilities to cater for the volume of people coming in. He was asked to take a ‘step back’ by Billy.

In the case of Elizabeth Holmes, there was certainly some degree of structure in the way Theranos was set up. It was a billion-dollar company and had certain governance requirements like a Board of Directors. Nonetheless, the Board of Directors were people who Elizabeth Holmes specifically selected and had a great influence on. She was also in a romantic relationship with Sunny Balwani, the Chief Operating Officer of the company and the one who was supposed to provide some kind of objective advice.

You see the problem with having this kind of leadership is that, in the absence of people who will bring objectivity to the table, leaders are likely to justify their actions, ethical or unethical, with the delusion that it achieves some greater good.

3. Their actions and inactions hurt real people

Finally, a major similarity was that the things both of them did or did not do hurt real-life people. For me, this was the biggest eye-opener. Our decisions have real-life implications on the people connected to us directly or indirectly. In the case of Billy, the Netflix documentary told the story of a Bahamian woman called Maryann Rolle who spent $50,000 of her savings to cater for the unpaid debt Billy and his team owed the locals for work they had done for the Fyre Festival. This money was never refunded and she tells the story with so much pain in her voice. Also, let’s not forget the hundreds of people who spent tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars to be part of a fantasy that was never realized. They lost a lot!

Theranos presented an even more sensitive situation. The industry they wanted to disrupt, healthcare, was one where trial and error could literally be deadly. But beyond the negative effect the product could have had on its users if released, the culture in the company was very toxic as well. The documentary shows people who left their jobs in big companies including Apple to work in Theranos and at some point were so side-lined that they did not even know the progress of the project. One employee named Ian Gibbons was hired by Theranos because of his expertise in blood testing. He was an extremely intelligent and talented scientist who did much of the work involved in registering some of the Theranos’ key patents. When key data started to make less sense to Ian, he raised objections but was subsequently asked to stay at home. This and a series of events sent him into a deep depression until he killed himself.

In summary…

Companies, startups in particular, are mostly faced with so many challenges that often threaten their existence. Businesses will often need to pull off last minute stunts to give an extra timeline. It is very important that companies never fake competence and the ability of a product or service to deliver its purpose

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