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Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. ...except when it involves investor's money. Some takeaways after reading Bad Blood: 1. Listen

Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. ...except when it involves investor's money. Some takeaways after reading Bad Blood: 1. Listen to people. 2. If you're 19 with a great idea and investors willing to support it, ask for help. 3. Cumulative moral lapses will become a slippery slope. 4. If you're building something to sell to the medical industry, for goodness sake get some medical professionals in there. 5. Don't learn your leadership techniques from a Steve Jobs biography. 6. Don't sleep with someone and make them president of the company (or vice-versa). 7. Strive for diverse opinions instead of some yes men (and groupthink). 8. Fabricating results that can impact human lives will bring on the free press, the FDA, the SEC, and the FBI like a sack of bricks.

TeMPOraL 8y ago
Yeah, I'd much prefer: Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. Especially investor's money, because that's what it's there for. Except when it comes to lives and health of other people. Make no compromises there, no sacrifices.
- consumer451 8y ago
  > Except when it comes to lives and health of other people. Make no compromises there, no sacrifices. I have not read the book, but based on the author’s interviews I have to agree with the idea that fake it ‘till you make it should never be applied to the medical space. When Theranos went live in Walgreens they crossed a line where limitless ambition should never be an excuse for vaporware. If accountability is at all an American standard, then Holmes should be prevented from ever being an executive in the health space. People’s lives were endangered. There is no excuse. Blood tests are not some b2b SaaS customer dev experiment.
  - InitialLastName 8y ago
    > If accountability is at all an American standard That's your problem right there. I see no evidence (from the perspectives of politics, business, religion or any other angle I can think of) that Americans actually care even a tiny bit about accountability. They're perfectly happy to say they do, but when push comes to shove its a thin sheen over tribalism ("My opponents are obviously not being held to account").
  - 76 8y ago
    "Fake it till you make it" was about confidence not building a business.
    - corvallis 8y ago
      It was. Then at some point it became about building a business. Remember the Lily drone?
- alsetmusic 8y ago
  > Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. Especially investor's money, because that's what it's there for. So long as your belief is justified (even if mistaken). Some people think that they can believe hard enough to make fiction a reality. It’s not always easy to tell when this is thinking outside the box vs self-delusion. From what I have read, this is a third case. It seems to have crossed from belief, to delusion, to deliberate fraud.
- alanh 8y ago
  > Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. I can't believe no one has caught on to the fact you are apparently making some sort of joke based on the just-now-launched Nike ad campaign with the same exact text.
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    Looks like I didn't catch on to that either; I have no knowledge of this, or any other Nike ad campaign.
user982 8y ago
My takeaway from the book differs somewhat: 1. Don't be a psychopath.
- coldtea 8y ago
  Yeah, because it hasn't worked well with other CEOs... http://uk.businessinsider.com/ceos-often-have-psychopathic-traits-2017-7 http://uk.businessinsider.com/ceos-often-have-psychopathic-t... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/15/silicon-valley-psychopath-ceo-sxsw-panel https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/15/silicon-v... https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/21/apparently-psychopaths-make-good-ceos.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/21/apparently-psychopaths-make-...
- pacuna 8y ago
  I don't think people choose to be psychopaths, they just are.
godelmachine 8y ago
More on point no 6. Don’t get into a relationship with someone twice your age just because he was successful at one point of time in his life. Especially if he’s not humble. At Ramesh Balwani’s age, if he were really that experienced, a person learns to run a company without shouting madly at his employees.

TeMPOraL 8y ago

Yeah, I'd much prefer: Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. Especially investor's money, because that's what it's there for. Except when it comes to lives and health of other people. Make no compromises there, no sacrifices.

consumer451 8y ago
> Except when it comes to lives and health of other people. Make no compromises there, no sacrifices. I have not read the book, but based on the author’s interviews I have to agree with the idea that fake it ‘till you make it should never be applied to the medical space. When Theranos went live in Walgreens they crossed a line where limitless ambition should never be an excuse for vaporware. If accountability is at all an American standard, then Holmes should be prevented from ever being an executive in the health space. People’s lives were endangered. There is no excuse. Blood tests are not some b2b SaaS customer dev experiment.
- InitialLastName 8y ago
  > If accountability is at all an American standard That's your problem right there. I see no evidence (from the perspectives of politics, business, religion or any other angle I can think of) that Americans actually care even a tiny bit about accountability. They're perfectly happy to say they do, but when push comes to shove its a thin sheen over tribalism ("My opponents are obviously not being held to account").
- 76 8y ago
  "Fake it till you make it" was about confidence not building a business.
  - corvallis 8y ago
    It was. Then at some point it became about building a business. Remember the Lily drone?
alsetmusic 8y ago
> Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. Especially investor's money, because that's what it's there for. So long as your belief is justified (even if mistaken). Some people think that they can believe hard enough to make fiction a reality. It’s not always easy to tell when this is thinking outside the box vs self-delusion. From what I have read, this is a third case. It seems to have crossed from belief, to delusion, to deliberate fraud.
alanh 8y ago
> Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. I can't believe no one has caught on to the fact you are apparently making some sort of joke based on the just-now-launched Nike ad campaign with the same exact text.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  Looks like I didn't catch on to that either; I have no knowledge of this, or any other Nike ad campaign.

user982 8y ago

My takeaway from the book differs somewhat: 1. Don't be a psychopath.

coldtea 8y ago
Yeah, because it hasn't worked well with other CEOs... http://uk.businessinsider.com/ceos-often-have-psychopathic-traits-2017-7 http://uk.businessinsider.com/ceos-often-have-psychopathic-t... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/15/silicon-valley-psychopath-ceo-sxsw-panel https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/15/silicon-v... https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/21/apparently-psychopaths-make-good-ceos.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/21/apparently-psychopaths-make-...
pacuna 8y ago
I don't think people choose to be psychopaths, they just are.

godelmachine 8y ago

More on point no 6. Don’t get into a relationship with someone twice your age just because he was successful at one point of time in his life. Especially if he’s not humble. At Ramesh Balwani’s age, if he were really that experienced, a person learns to run a company without shouting madly at his employees.