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I largely agree with you, though I think they were both fraudsters and in over their head. McFarland seemed to buy in too much to the "fake it 'til you make it"

I largely agree with you, though I think they were both fraudsters and in over their head. McFarland seemed to buy in too much to the "fake it 'til you make it" startup ethos and desperately wanted to be a part of that. The Hulu documentary, especially, gave me the impression that McFarland just wanted to be successful and though he could turn it around at the last minute. What I liked most about that one is that we've all had situations where we overstated our prowess, or put off a project that we committed to doing, etc. and then realized way too late that everything would have to go perfectly for us not to fail. It was that, but on a larger scale and impacting significantly more people. (Not at all to excuse what McFarland, JaRule, etc. were doing.)

rossdavidh 6y ago
This, exactly. I think the Theranos scheme was somewhat similar, albeit not as far along the "fraud" spectrum as Fyre. I have the impression that most successful startups involve someone overstating what they've got already done, in order to rally a bunch of people around the imagined upcoming success. In some cases, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the people around McFarland had somehow pulled it off, we might be seeing his picture on business magazines. Of course, none of this means McFarland was in any way innocent. But the difference between "scam artist" and "successful startup entrepreneur", while not at all illusionary, might be one more of degree than kind.