Elizabeth Holmes is a popular name known for her unrealistic failed invention. At the age of 19, Holmes dropped out of Stanford University, ending his journey in pursuit of an engineering degree. This began his journey into the medical field unsolicited. He founded the company called “Theranos” where they supposedly performed blood tests with a simple finger prick. Although many experienced medical experts informed her that her creative and hopeful idea, although intelligent and innovative, was simply impossible, she blindly dove into her unrealistic plan. This plan was perceived as ingenious and useful, but in reality it was the exact opposite. His simple idea grew into a billion-dollar company that, in hindsight, was a seemingly unstoppable scam. Although his idea seemed innocent and hopeful at first, he continued to deceive others by continuing the flawed test for his own gain. Elizabeth Holmes is a flawed idealist who desperately wanted fame and notoriety like many of the inventors and geniuses she managed to resemble. Through her actions, she displayed contempt, narcissistic characteristics, and moral disengagement during her reign as founder and CEO of Theranos. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Elizabeth Anne Holmes always knew at a very young age that she wanted to be an entrepreneur and wanted to be extremely wealthy like her family and the people she admired like Steve Jobs. He did not portray the playful and carefree personality like most children. She was very ambitious and determined about her future goals even in her teenage years and took them seriously. It is believed that this behavior is likely inspired by his family's long track record of success and natural business-oriented family lineage. His father, Christian Holmes, was the vice president of Enron Corporation, a once highly successful energy company. His father was also a descendant of intelligent, prosperous and wealthy individuals. His grandfather, Dr. Christian Holmes, was a physician with many networking benefits through the family of his wife, Bettie Fleischmann. His wife's family had a thriving business and became one of the richest families of that period. Because of this, Dr. Holmes had a significant amount of contacts and had the opportunity to found the Cincinnati General Hospital and the University of Cincinnati Medical School. On the other hand, Holmes' mother, Noel Daousts Holmes, was a congressional committee staffer who came from a military family. All in all, Holmes grew up alongside a driven family with natural entrepreneurial genes and a medical background. Elizabeth was surrounded by success around her, and she too was expected to achieve nothing but success. Elizabeth Holmes was simply a young adult with an idea gone wrong. His plans were innocent at first, but when the Edison machine, his invention that supposedly rapidly analyzes blood samples, turned out to be faulty, instead of recalling the machine and ending all uses on humans, he continued to let that the machine was used to preserve the heightened image he earned at the expense of innocent people, including his employers and consumers. During his reign he displayed several dark factor personality traits. Factor D is defined as “The general tendency to maximize one's own individual utility – ignoring, accepting or maliciously causing disutility for others –, accompaniedby beliefs that serve as justifications." (Moshagen, Hilbig and Zettler). Holmes showed this throughout her tenure as CEO, and seemed to increase these traits as she became embroiled in her scandal. Many factors can influence someone's Factor D personality traits that are similar to normal personality traits. Personality traits are influenced by genes, environment, and human situation, just like Factor D traits. This is helpful because the reader understands how and why they developed these traits. Holmes grew up in an environment surrounded only by very successful people. When she found herself in a situation where she could potentially succeed, she decided to do everything she could to maintain that achievement even at the expense of others. This is where dark factor personality traits become more prevalent. Some of the limitations when using dark factor personality are that some traits are quite broad and may fall into the same category as others. For example, the psychopathic trait is quite broad and can also intertwine with the personality traits of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and the dark factor of self-interest as they all have similar characteristics, but regardless, the D factor is vital in describing Holmes. One One of Holmes's most noticeable characteristics was his disdain. She is a confident woman with an inflated ego. She believes she is equivalent to great inventors like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, so when questioned or challenged, her first response is to retaliate. All Holmes wanted from her employees was quick results, and if they didn't agree with her, they were often quickly fired. For example, Ian Gibbons was one of the main people that Holmes sabotaged. Gibbons was an extremely intelligent biochemist who had a passion for blood testing. He was one of the first expert scientists to work on The Edison. Although he loved what he was doing, he had a problem with the inaccuracy of the management of The Edison and Holmes and Sunny Balwani. He disliked “stealth mode” and his willingness to lie to many of his employers about important information. Gibbons often vented to his employees about these confusing and tiring situations with his colleagues, but the information reached Holmes thanks to his old friend, Channing Robertson. This led to him being fired, rehired and demoted. Gibbons went from being head of the general chemistry department to technical consultant. Gibbons was completely humiliated and belittled only because Holmes felt she had lost her loyalty and trust which, in hindsight, was a threat to her. His disdain is easily in line with his narcissistic personality. Narcissists often see only black and white. If someone supports a narcissist, the narcissist sees them as a friend and supporter of their great ideas or accomplishments. On the other hand, someone who disagrees with a narcissist is automatically seen as a threat or enemy (Stieg 2019). Many times, when narcissists are faced with conflict, they often lie, distract themselves, blame others, develop strong, loyal friendships to gain support, or simply threaten legal action. Holmes did all this to protect his image and ego. He also displayed narcissistic qualities due to his willingness to invent and start this company without medical knowledge. In the book “Bad Blood” by John Carreyrou, it is stated: “…She sat at the computer for five consecutive days, sleeping an hour or two a night and eating from the trays of food her mother had brought her. Drawing on the new technologies learned during the internship." Precisely because of the knowledge gained during his internship, he has.
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