Uh-oh, Forbes want to put you on their cover. What did you do wrong?

Is this an honour or a warning? If Forbes thinks you’re doing a great job, it probably means you are in the middle of committing some type of crime. Don’t worry. Nobody snitched on you. They do not have any inside information. There are no moles in your company. They have no idea that you’re a duplicitous crook. They’re just naturally drawn to certain types of people. Liars.

Forbes love liars who parade themselves around as entrepreneurs. A plucky individual with an ambitious business idea is catnip to them. But it’s important to remember the two types of entrepreneurs. First, there are those with a very flimsy premise for an idea that crumbles at the first sign of scrutiny. They generally have the decency to move on to stronger ideas. The second are the ones who don a black turtleneck and lie through their teeth about their failure. These are the ones Forbes put on their cover.

When you got that call, you probably felt a bit of pride. A respected organisation like Forbes think you are impressive. They think you are one to watch. In a way they’re right. In the same way as when Time magazine named Putin their Person of the Year. One to watch? More like one to watch out for.

A quick rundown of the faces to grace their cover includes Elizabeth Holmes, Sam Bankman-Fried, Adam Neumann, and Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Holmes is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence, Bankman-Fried got 25 years, Neumann was made to resign from the company he founded, and SVB collapsed. It’s a wide array of disasters of their own making. Which brings us back to you. Forbes wishes to put you in these people’s company. What did you do wrong?

Think hard about it. There are a lot of details that people tend to overlook. Did you briefly lie about a minor detail? Or did you lie about the entire premise of your business? Was there some technology you said you developed, when in reality, you just wrote an undoable idea on a piece of paper and said to yourself that you would find out how to make it work later? Well, it is later now. If you haven’t cured cancer yet, you’re screwed.