Don't be Elizabeth Holmes...

Formerly heralded as the “next Steve Jobs”, down to her black turtlenecks, and widely awed for her amazingly deep voice, Elizabeth Holmes potentially perpetrated one of the biggest hoaxes of all time, shy of the Devil convincing the world he didn't exist.

But out of the Theranos debacle rise three key lessons (beside the lesson that old white men are still able to be financially seduced by young blond women).

• The first is to avoid the cult of personality. Just because a person is engaging does not necessarily mean the person is honest.

• The second is the importance of transparency. There is a lot to be said for the notion of “put up or shut up.” As Colonel Potter said, “I’m from Missouri — you have to show me.”

• The last is that toxic environments are not good. Toxic, by definition, connotes harmful or malicious activity. How on earth can that be good for a business?

Tonya Echols has written a great article for Forbes that details each of these lessons. Worth the time to read it.