Do or do not, there is no try —Lessons from The DropOut
“Do or do not, there is no try.” — a famous quote by Yoda (a Star Wars character) perfectly summarises the tale of Theranos, the story of a once visionary startup. My 2 cents about learning about culture, people and business,
On a weekend, I watched a fascinating series about a visionary startup crippled by its unethical and aggressive culture on Disney Hotstar called “The Drop-Out”. It’s a true story of a young medical student who drops out of college to create a startup with a vision to change the medical industry, only to find that it’s not always the vision that drives results. I rarely enjoy sharing learnings on LinkedIn, but this one resonated so much that it would not hurt my views much.
“What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” This is written on the organisation’s walls, which shows utter disregard for the experimental culture. Experimentation and quickly learning from mistakes bring any startup’s product closer to consumers, thus increasing its chance of success.
Hiring the best talent and letting them lead: No amount of growth and pace can be successful without retaining and trusting your top talent. It seems that Theranos’ leadership did very little to build trust and collaboration among the people who initially believed in the purpose/cause, which led to the business’s downfall.
Integrity and ethics are more than keywords on the wall: Whether your business is at 0–1 or 10–100, integrity and ethics are fundamental blocks of any business and culture, both internally and externally. Theranos built an ambitious product but failed to deliver the technology and, most importantly, needed to be more truthful to their employees, customers, and shareholders.
Gaining fame and a brand is complex but easy to lose: Theranos’s CEO became the valley’s youngest and most successful CEO with all the struggle and hard work, but maintaining the inspiring women-CEO tag is much more than just being a woman. CEOs and leaders must be transparent, trustworthy, and consistent with their stand. Success is not about gender!
“We want to change the world” is a great vision statement, but delivering on that is extremely hard and requires an organisational and leadership culture that earns the brand and trust. The famous case of Theranos, captured in the web series based on the BBC’s podcast series, is close to reality. I would recommend it, especially to business leaders and HR professionals.
