I used to read INC magazine. When I was looking for a competitive edge in the business world, I scoured sources to see what I could find and ways to emulate them. A funny thing I noticed, even back then, however, was that they people the often featured on their covers were…interesting.
Specifically, Sophia Amoruso, and Elizabeth Holmes (Not just females but I noticed these two at the time)
Amoruso interested me not because she was a #girlboss or whatever she used to pump up her brand-or the blatant pandering she was doing-but because her business seemed to be based solely on the fact that it was an ebay resale business. Touting an ebay business as a game changer or something more was very intriguing to me because there’s lots of people in the resale business. They even have a special name for it, it’s call arbitration. You buy something out of production/stock/on sale, and then sell it for a higher margin. It’s not much different than wholesale except that you have mismatched goods most times, and volumes that aren’t reliable (Marshalls, Big Lots, Home Goods, T.J Maxx). It confused me to see how they could pump up someone who’s model wasn’t exactly…different. I get it, she worked hard for it, and made the brand, but it wasn’t groundbreaking? It was fine until 2016, when she “mismanaged” the business into bankruptcy and had to sell out.
Holmes was interesting in the way they pumped her up. Her magical blood machine was solving problems. I took the magazine at their word, it seemed like a game changing product and it probably would have been if it had actually worked. But she bought her own hype, and her ultimate downfall was a dogged reporter who caught the way she said something and took to it like a pitbull. As of now she’s still in the legal fight of her life, I’m sure, but it’s been a long downfall for her as well being hyped and valued at over $1 billion, to a life running from court room to court room.
I’m not here to shit on either one of them, actually. I’m sure they had an opportunity, took to riding it as far as they could go, and got tossed off when they had to show the actual products. It happens every day in America, and some are so good at it that they never actually make anything of value, just the promise of it makes them plenty of money.
What I do take offense with, is the magazines. Inc, like Forbes, have a duty to sell magazines. And when they put someone on the cover one month, and then the next month that person is being indicted for fraud, you do have to wonder who the cover is really for. Is it for the small businesses that actually produce something, or for the suckers who buy the hype, the stock, the narrative, and then enjoy the pulp? Hint: if you really have to ask…
I was looking for things to help transform myself, not necessarily just the story. There’s not much to take from those examples other than, “take it as far as you can go and then hope you don’t get indicted for it”. I stopped reading those things shortly after that. I realized that they’re really not much more help than the lessons I learn myself, or the lessons of history that are important to study. And the actual shock and awe campaigns they try to produce to get you to like or buy aren’t much different than advertising campaigns.
Even now they’re still doing it. Forbes removed a Kardashian from the “billionaire” list because she forged tax returns provided to them. Oh heavens, let’s not let the “billionaire reality tv show princess” get away with forging her returns to a magazine! Think of the children! Or the investors that bought her brand!
Lesson here is: Don’t believe the hype. That is a lesson that shouldn’t have to be said.