Podcast: ShowUp, When Business Gets Messy

In the fourth episode of ShowUp: When Business Gets Messy, Leigh and Jameson explore the "fake it 'til you make it" tipping point by sharing unique vignettes from the failures of Enron, Theranos, and Benja.

When they asked if I would participate, it was an easy "yes."

My motivation is simple: stories where "fake it 'til you make it" goes wrong must become more widely disseminated.

I'm tired of stories like the FedEx CEO who gambled the company's last $5,000 to keep the company afloat. These stories - and the way we all laugh about them - fuel an unhealthy appetite for risk that has become core to the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

If we want to create a healthier culture in entrepreneurship, we need to stop celebrating the rare moments when blind risk pays off and instead spend time thinking through the real consequences of reckless ambition.

That's why, as a person who lived the consequences of one such story, I feel a responsibility to seize these opportunities to share what went wrong at Benja.

At its core, Benja's failure is the story of my hubris and denial.

As I share in the episode, my story is about how ambition and ego, left unchecked, overtook the responsibilities I had to employees, shareholders, and to myself.

I was forced to confront these ugly truths when the company imploded but these truths existed for years before I crossed ethical or legal lines. And they're truths that exist (in some way, shape, or form) in the majority of early-stage startups. "Entrepreneurial vision" pushes startup founders closer to the edge of fraud than most realize or want to admit.

I hope that sharing my point of view might lead some startup operators to look in the mirror and consider how close they are to the line.

That's sorely needed.

The episode is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.