The desire to meet expectations can also lead to doubling down on lies and even adding more in the form of “stretch goals” — further escalations of promises to mask the original deceit.
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A deluge of high-profile frauds in recent years has tainted entrepreneurship. There was Theranos, the medtech startup with a groundbreaking new blood test that sounded, and was, too good to be true. Or Sam Bankman-Fried, the darling of the cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, and the future of banking for many — until he was convicted of fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. And then there was the Fyre Festival, the luxury Bahamian answer to Coachella that ended in a fight for survival and a flood of tears.
[This article has been reproduced with permission from IESE Business School. www.iese.edu/ Views expressed are personal.]