Yesterday there was a big courtroom drama in San Jose, California. The disgraced founder of the high-tech start-up Theranos was sentenced to 11.25 years in Federal prison for defrauding investors out of $1 billion US dollars. Elizabeth has a 1-year-old child and is pregnant with a second child. Massive numbers of letters from celebrities begged the judge to give her a shorter sentence. The probation officers recommended a sentence of 9 years. The sentencing judge was US District Judge Edward Davila. He normally gives lenient sentences.
The real tragedy of this case is an incredible opportunity lost. Holmes and her partner claimed that they had invented the machine that would make the very unpleasant blood tests we all have to endure obsolete (You know the routine of rolling up your sleeve and getting needles put in your arm, etc.). A patient would have gone into the doctor's office. A medical assistant would prick the patient's finger. In a few seconds or minutes, the doctor would have a detailed blood report. Medicine would have been revolutionized. All of our lives would be improved.
As I have indicated before, I truly knew Elon Musk before he was rich and famous. When Elon was working to make a start-up company a reality in 1996, he lived in a run-down two-bedroom apartment with his first wife Justine, and his brother Kimbal. He drove a 20-year-old Jaguar that ran half the time. He wore blue jeans and old sports shirts. When he got the payments app that became Pay Pal launched and he got $160,000,000 US dollars, he started to drive a nicer car and live in a nicer residence.
When Elizabeth Holmes collected some $1 billion she used it to finance a lavish lifestyle including a mansion. She made a half-hearted effort to make her blood testing machine work.
If I had received those $ 1 billion dollars, I would have lived modestly as Elon did. I would have been out there hiring the best scientist and engineers to get my machine to work. Only when I got the working (and I know that using this method I would have pulled it off), would I have begun to live the good life.
Had Elizabeth Holmes done this, she would have been in the same class as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, etc. She would have been honored and revered. She will regret being given this opportunity and not doing it right. Her children will grow up having to go to prison to visit their mother. Her husband will drift away and find a new partner.
No comments:
Post a Comment