Knowledge Project

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways

• Why was no one aware of Enron’s failure earlier?
  • “Skepticism about business tends to travel in a very small circle, companies won’t speak ill of their competitors…employees can’t speak publicly…so there’s this odd veil over the information you most want to know” – Bethany McLean
• Many people have a simplistic view that companies that end up doing illegal activities are run by bad apples who are deliberately making bad decisions, but that’s often not the case
  • “I’ve really come to believe that very few white-collar crimes or stories of business gone wrong, are done by people who deliberately set out to deceive other people” – Bethany McLean
• There’s a thin line between visionary and fraud
  • Perhaps Elizabeth Holmes could’ve succeed in creating a breakthrough medical product if she had another billion dollars
    • “I think for some fraudsters it maybe would’ve worked if they had just gotten more time and been able  to keep getting money” – Bethany McLean
• How could companies prevent this type of bad behavior?
  • Provide stock options for top executives with the goal of the company being around for the next 100 years
    • “As long as you have a system of incentives where people can get paid even if the company ends up bankrupt, I think it’s going to be problematic” – Bethany McLean
• If you’re thinking of writing a story and you’re reading about something you don’t understand, that’s often where a good story is hidden
  • “That’s the place where everybody else is skipping over too” – Bethany McLean
• Writing is just work, that’s it
  • “The more you do it, the better you get at it but it’s really hard” – Bethany McLean

Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org

Best-selling author of The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils are here, Bethany McLean, discusses how to write a story, the behaviors of CEO’s, visionaries and fraudsters and so much more.

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