科技改變人生：31歲美女富豪煉成記

Kimberly+Weisul

傳統的驗血方式總是很不舒服：扎前心情緊張，扎后胳膊疼，采血量大，花的銀子多。很多人在抽血時都暢想：若能有更舒適的檢測手段該多好！美國一位年輕女性不僅將之化為現實，發明出一種更舒適、更方便、更廉價的血檢方式，更借此成為全球最年輕的女富豪，她就是伊麗莎白·霍姆斯。與其他富豪不同，霍姆斯并不急于追求公司的快速擴張，反而更專注于科學，因為在她心里，挽救人類生命才是終極目標。

Youd have to look really hard not to see Steve Jobs in Elizabeth Holmes. Both Holmes and Jobs were loners as kids. Both dropped out of college， in part， because they didnt see the virtue in an education they believed wouldnt make a difference in their futures. Like the Apple creator， Holmes has kept her company Theranos shrouded1） in secrecy. Jobs became a billionaire by the time he was 40. For Holmes， that moment came sooner. When Theranos was valued at $9 billion， she was not yet 31.

Of course， one obvious difference between them is that Holmes is a young woman in an environment that has long favored young men. But there are few entrepreneurs—of either gender—with Holmess record of accomplishment. Holmes didnt set out to become a role model； she set out to save lives. But now， as the worlds youngest female self-made billionaire， shes stumbled into this rarefied2） position and is beginning to own it.

Then there are the black turtlenecks. Most have assumed that Holmess sartorial3） choice is an eerie homage to Jobs. But it turns out， the black turtlenecks were inspired by Sharon Stone4）， who wore one to the 1996 Oscar ceremonies. As with many things in Holmess life， shes stayed with the look solely for reasons of efficiency： The turtlenecks eliminate early-morning decision making. Holmes has taken a similar life-hack5） approach to every aspect of her existence outside of her lab test company， which is minimal， given that the 31-year-old works seven days a week. She says she “doesnt really hang out with anyone anymore，” aside from her younger brother. She didnt take a vacation during the entire decade of her 20s and doesnt date. “I literally designed my whole life for this，” says Holmes in a strikingly baritone6） voice， her shoulders curled inward and hands clasped， the body language of someone who is fiercely protective and on guard. Talking to Holmes is a bit like talking to a politician—shes politely impenetrable7）， unspooling8） a stream of words without actually revealing very much.

Steve Jobs had massive ambition， but Holmess is arguably larger. While revolutionizing consumer technology is formidable9）， Holmes believes her company will actually save lives. Her diagnostic lab test upstart is aiming to disrupt a $75 billion industry， and to help grow it by another $125 billion. Theres the revolutionary nature of its science， as well as the transformational vision of its model. Theranos， now valued at $10 billion， has developed blood tests that detect hundreds of conditions and diseases from a couple of drops of blood from the finger， instead of tubes of blood from a vein in the arm. Holmes aims to enable anyone to get lab tests—for anything from cholesterol to cancer—on his or her own at a local pharmacy for no more than half of what Medicare10） would pay. Holmes believes that providing faster， more convenient， and less expensive access to lab tests will transform preventive medicine.

To get there， Holmes has taken the road less traveled， and what an exceptionally long road that is. Shes already spent a third of her life building an organization that is still in its early days. From its inception11） in 2003， she operated Theranos in stealth mode， bringing it out into the light only a year and a half ago. She thinks another 20 years is a reasonable time frame for her company to impact the masses worldwide. In many ways， she is the opposite of a serial entrepreneur12）. Shes a devoutly monogamous13） entrepreneur： For better or worse， in sickness and in health， she sees herself as having only one existential purpose. “Youre talking to someone who wants to do this her whole lifetime，” she says.

Holmes has come a long way14） since ditching Stanford at 20. At the time， there was no model for her to follow； it was 2004， years before dropping out of college and going westward was in vogue， and Holmes was hardly a coder raising money for the next big app. Most biotech founders had PhDs and years of experience； Holmes had neither. She hadnt even stuck around Stanford long enough to get her undergrad degree in chemical engineering.

From a young age， Holmes has always exhibited confidence. She led a solitary childhood， her family moving from Washington， D.C.， to Houston， where instead of forging friendships， shed sketch designs for time machines and collect insects. By the time she was a 15-year-old high school sophomore， she was spending her summers in California and had successfully pestered15） Stanfords administrators into allowing her to take a college-level Mandarin class. During her freshman year at Stanford， she nagged Channing Robertson， at the time a dean of engineering， until he let her into his lab， which was populated mostly with PhD students. “She would just stand in my doorway every day and say， ‘When are you going to let me into your lab？” says Robertson.

By the time she got in， Holmes knew she wanted to devote her lifes work to health care. Her ingenuity ultimately led her to the field of testing. The summer before her sophomore year， she worked at the Genome Institute of Singapore， doing SARS testing with traditional methods. At Stanford， shed been exploring lab-on-a-chip16） technology， which enables diverse results to be extracted from a minuscule17） amount of liquid on a microchip. By the time she returned to California in 2003， Holmes had developed a novel drug-delivery device—a wearable patch that could adjust dosage18） according to variables in the patients blood and update doctors wirelessly. She filed it for her first patent.

Holmes soon found herself spending more time talking to venture capitalists than in the classroom， and asked the then 59-year-old Robertson to advise her new company. He demurred19）. Hed been involved in about 40 startups， but never， he says， with one run by a 19-year-old. Her parents let her use the money theyd saved for her education as her first seed round of funding. She hired a couple of students from the lab and started building prototypes， and Robertson agreed to become her first adviser.

Even in those early days， it was clear Holmes was designing her company for the long term. She wasnt going to screw it up by building something suitable only for a quick flip， or slapping together20） a company that could be gutted21） by acquirers or investors who didnt share her priorities. Holmes made her task harder by insisting on keeping control of the company， of which she still owns more than half.

Holmess vision is to ultimately have Theranos wellness centers within five miles of every person in the United States—and to provide similar access throughout the world. Although shes a long way from that reality， over the past 18 months the momentum behind Theranos has been building. Theres the recent deal with the prestigious Cleveland Clinic22）， which will use Theranos technology to test its patients. In July 2015， Arizona passed the countrys first bill allowing patients to order blood tests without a prescription. And then theres the massive Walgreens23） deal.

Any of Theranoss advances could potentially transform the lab test industry. But Theranoss black-box approach has led to a slew of criticism. Competitors and some in the medical community complain the startup has revealed too little about how its tests work， and have called for Theranos to publish its studies in peer-reviewed journals. Holmes is unapologetic about not giving in to the critics. “I admit its very intentional，” she says. “We dont call on our competitors and explain how our technology works.” Instead， she says， Theranos is asking the Food and Drug Administration24） to approve each of its tests， something no other lab test company has done. In July 2015， it received its first FDA approval， for its herpes simplex25） 1 test.

For a scientist， Holmes has a notable relationship with her faith， drawing on it26） when the weeks in the lab are long and the criticism is loud. “My belief in God has played a huge role in everything that Ive done，” says Holmes. “When you dont have anybody to talk to and when youre going through something thats hard and believing that youre doing that because theres something greater thats going to come from it—that you cant even understand—that gives you the strength to keep going.” Board member Bill Frist says the way Holmes sees it， Theranos is her deeper calling. “Her purpose in life is very much on a different plane，” he says. “For her， its a tunnel. She knows right where she is in the tunnel， and she is dedicated to running through it and not paying much attention to the rest of the world.”

More recently， Holmes has tried dabbling27） with life outside the tunnel. Shes been speaking to groups of girls， encouraging them to excel academically. “This is just one of those areas where a glass ceiling28） shouldnt exist，” she says of entrepreneurship. “We change this for the next generation by our actions.” “It was a long time after I started this company that I realized that there had not been a sole female founder-CEO of a multibillion-dollar health care or technology company，” Holmes says， incredulous. “I didnt believe it. I still dont believe it.”

When it is noted that being “the only woman” can make for a very lonely career， Holmes， who typically has a long， winding answer for everything， replies with just a single word： “Yes.”

你不用仔細觀察，就會發現伊麗莎白·霍姆斯身上有史蒂夫·喬布斯的影子?；裟匪购蛦滩妓剐r候都不合群。他們都從大學輟學，部分原因是他們認為大學教育不會對他們的未來產生影響，他們看不出這種教育有什么益處。像蘋果公司的創始人一樣，霍姆斯也一直讓她的公司Theranos籠罩在神秘之中。喬布斯在40歲時成為億萬富翁。而對霍姆斯來說，這一時刻來得更早一些，當Theranos的估值達到90億美元時，她還未滿31歲。

當然，他們兩人的一個明顯區別是，霍姆斯是一位在一向對年輕男性有利的環境中打拼的年輕女性。不過，無論男性還是女性，很少有企業家達到她這樣的成就?；裟匪沟某霭l點并不是要成為楷模，而是要拯救生命。但如今，作為全球最年輕的白手起家的億萬女富豪，她意外地站在了這個遠超常人的位置上，并開始擁有這一身份。

還有她的黑色高翻領毛衣。大多數人都想當然地認為霍姆斯在著裝上的選擇是在以一種詭異的方式向喬布斯致敬。但實際上，她這樣穿是受莎朗·斯通的啟發，后者曾身著一件黑色高翻領毛衣出席1996年的奧斯卡頒獎禮。跟她生活中的很多事一樣，霍姆斯之所以保持著這樣的裝束僅僅是出于效率上的考慮：有了高翻領毛衣，早上就不必花時間決定穿什么衣服了。在她實驗室檢測公司的工作之外，霍姆斯對自己生活的各個方面采取的都是類似的簡單省時的方式?？紤]到31歲的她每周工作七天，這種工作之外的生活其實微乎其微。她說，除了弟弟之外，她“基本上不再和任何人一起消磨時光”。在二字頭的年齡，她整整十年沒有休過一次假，也從不約會?！拔艺娴拇蛩阋惠呑佣甲鲞@件事?！被裟匪沟纳ひ舢惓５统?，她肩膀略向內收，雙手緊握，這樣的肢體語言表明她的防護意識和戒備心非常強。同霍姆斯交談有點像跟政治家談話—她雖然禮貌，但很難讓人看透，滔滔不絕能講一連串的話，但其實沒有透露太多信息。

史蒂夫·喬布斯雄心勃勃，而霍姆斯的志向可以說更為遠大。雖然徹底變革消費類技術這項工作艱巨得讓人望而生畏，但霍姆斯認為她的公司真的能夠挽救生命。作為診斷實驗室檢測行業的業界新貴，她的公司旨在打破這個有著750億美元規模的行業的現狀，并幫助其再增長1250億美元。不僅Theranos實驗室檢測的模式具有變革性的前景，而且其所用的科技也具有革命性特點。Theranos公司如今的估值為100億美元。該公司開發的驗血技術不必從手臂靜脈抽取好幾試管的血液，只需從手指上采集幾滴血就能進行成百上千種健康狀況及疾病的檢測。霍姆斯的目標是使人人都能夠以不超過醫保支付額一半的費用在當地藥店自行進行檢測，檢測涵蓋從膽固醇水平到癌癥的各個項目?；裟匪瓜嘈?，提供更為快速、便捷和廉價的檢測方式將會改變預防醫學的面貌。

為了達到這一目標，霍姆斯選擇了一條少有人走的路，那是一條極其漫長的路。她用人生三分之一的時間創建的這家公司仍處于起步階段。從2003年Theranos成立伊始，她一直秘密地經營著這家公司，直到一年半以前，才將它帶入公眾的視野?；裟匪拐J為，她的公司要想在全世界范圍內影響民眾生活，還需要20年時間—這是一個合理的時間預期。她在很多方面都與那些連續創業者截然不同。她是個一心一意要從一而終的企業家：無論順境還是逆境，無論健康還是疾病，她都認為自己生存于世只有一個目的?！罢诤湍阏勗挼氖且粋€想把一生都獻給這項事業的人?！被裟匪拐f道。

自20歲從斯坦福大學退學后，霍姆斯的事業取得了很大進展。當時并沒有可讓她效仿的榜樣。那是2004年，從大學退學去西部創業還要有幾年才會流行起來，而霍姆斯也不是那種為下一個大熱的app籌集資金的程序員。大多數生物科技公司的創始人都有博士學位和數年從業經歷，而霍姆斯兩者皆無。她在斯坦福求學的時間不夠長，連化學工程專業的本科學位都沒拿到。

霍姆斯從小就一直表現得很自信。她的童年很孤獨。她和家人從華盛頓特區搬到休斯頓后，她沒有去結交朋友，反而把時間花在畫時光機的設計草圖和收集昆蟲上。在她15歲讀到高二時，她有幾個夏天是在加州度過的，并且軟磨硬泡地成功說服斯坦福校方準許她修讀一門大學水平的中文課程。在斯坦福讀大一時，她沒完沒了地纏著當時工程學院的院長錢寧·羅伯遜，直到他讓她進入他的實驗室，而當時實驗室里基本上都是博士生。“她每天就站在門口問我：‘什么時候讓我進您的實驗室？”羅伯遜說。

一進入實驗室，霍姆斯就知道，她想把自己畢生之力奉獻給醫療保健事業。她的聰明才智最終指引她來到了檢測這一領域。大二前的那個夏天，她去了新加坡基因組研究所工作，利用傳統方法進行非典檢測。在斯坦福時，她已經在探索芯片實驗室技術，這種技術能夠利用一塊微芯片從極少量的液體中獲得多項檢測結果。2003年，霍姆斯回到加州時，她已經開發出一種新型給藥裝置—一塊能夠根據患者血液指標的變化調整藥量并向醫生無線發送最新情況的貼片。她為這項發明申請了她的第一項專利。

霍姆斯很快就發現她與風險投資人談合作的時間比她上課的時間還要多。她邀請時年59歲的羅伯遜當她新公司的顧問。他拒絕了。他說他參與了大約40家創業公司的工作，但是沒有哪一家是由一個19歲的年輕人掌舵的。霍姆斯的父母同意把他們為她積攢的教育資金作為她的第一輪種子融資。她從實驗室雇了幾個學生，開始制作產品原型。羅伯遜最終同意當她的首位顧問。

即使在創業初期也能明顯看出，霍姆斯對她的公司是有長遠規劃的。她不想開一個只適合短期發展的公司，或者草草拼湊一個公司，讓那些和她沒有共同首要目標的收購者和投資人把公司掏空，那樣的話就搞砸了。她堅持掌握公司的控制權，目前她的持股比例仍然超過50%，這讓她的任務變得更加艱巨。

霍姆斯的愿景是最終將Theranos健康中心開到距離每個美國人不到五英里的地方，并在全球范圍內達到相似的普及程度。盡管離實現這個目標還有很長一段路要走，但在過去的18個月中，Theranos的發展勢頭一直在增長。該公司最近與享有盛名的克利夫蘭醫學中心達成協議，后者將使用Theranos的技術為患者做檢測。2015年7月，亞利桑那州通過了全美第一個允許患者無需處方即可要求驗血的法案。此外還有與沃爾格林公司達成的巨額交易。

Theranos取得的每一步進展都有可能改變醫學檢測行業。但其秘而不宣的做法卻招致了大量批評。Theranos的競爭對手以及部分醫療從業人員抗議說，這家創業公司對于其檢測方式的工作原理透露得太少，他們要求Theranos將其研究發表在同行評審的期刊上。霍姆斯沒有向批評者讓步，也不為此感到抱歉?！拔页姓J這樣做是有意為之，”她說，“我們不會去拜訪我們的競爭對手，向他們解釋我們的技術如何起作用?！迸c此相反，她表示，Theranos正在請美國食品藥品監督管理局（FDA）對公司的每一項檢測技術進行認證，這是其他醫學檢測公司從未做過的。2015年7月，Theranos的單純皰疹病毒一型的檢測產品獲得了首個FDA認證。

作為一名科學家，霍姆斯與其信仰的關系值得關注。實驗室的工作漫長，外界的批評聲響亮，每當這時她都會訴諸信仰。“我對上帝的信仰在我所做的每一件事中都起到了巨大的作用，”霍姆斯說，“當你無人可以傾訴，當你正在經歷困難，并相信自己之所以這樣做是因為從中會產生更偉大的事物（即使你無法理解），那么這種信仰會給你堅持下去的力量?！惫径聲蓡T比爾·弗里斯特表示，在霍姆斯看來，Theranos代表著她內心更深層次的使命感?！八娜松繕伺c常人大不相同，”他說，“對她而言，人生就是一條隧道。她知道自己在這條隧道中的確切位置，她一心想穿過這條隧道，不太在意世界上的其他事?！?/p>

最近，霍姆斯開始嘗試涉足“隧道”之外的生活了。她為女生團體演講，鼓勵她們在學術上出類拔萃?！皩W術領域不過是不應該存在‘玻璃天花板的領域之一，”談及創業時她這樣表示，“我們要通過自己的行動為下一代改變這種現狀?！薄皠撧k這家公司很久之后我才發現，在估值超過10億美元的醫療保健或科技公司中，從未有過一位女性創始人兼CEO?！被裟匪拐f道，覺得不可思議，“當時我不相信，現在依然無法相信?！?/p>

當被指出作為這“唯一的女性”意味著她的職業道路會十分孤獨時，通常以冗長迂回的方式回答所有問題的霍姆斯只用了一個詞作答：“是的。”

1. shroud [?ra?d] vt. 掩蓋；掩飾；掩藏

2. rarefied [?re?r?fa?d] adj. 脫離普通人和現實生活的

3. sartorial [sɑ?（r）?t??ri?l] adj. 服裝的；衣著的

4. Sharon Stone：莎朗·斯通（1958～），美國演員，代表作為《本能》（Basic Instinct）。

5. life-hack：能提高效率的；簡單省時的

6. baritone [?b?r??t??n] adj. 男中音的

7. impenetrable [?m?pen?tr?b（?）l] adj. 費解的；難以理解的

8. unspool [??n?spu?l] vt. （從線軸上）解開

9. formidable [?f??（r）m?d?b（?）l] adj. 令人望而生畏的；艱巨的

10. Medicare：（美國的）老年醫療保險制度（指政府為65歲以上老人設置的醫療費減免制度）

11. inception [?n?sep?（?）n] n. 開端；初期

12. serial entrepreneur：連續創業者（接二連三創立新公司的企業家）

13. monogamous [m??n?ɡ?m?s] adj. 一夫一妻（制）的

14. have come a long way：取得進步，取得進展

15. pester [?pest?（r）] vt. 不斷煩擾；糾纏

16. lab-on-a-chip：芯片實驗室，是一種在芯片上完成不同反應并對其產物進行分析的技術。

17. minuscule [?m?n??skju?l] adj. 極小的，微小的

18. dosage [?d??s?d?] n. （藥的）劑量，用量

19. demur [d??m??（r）] vi. 提出異議；拒絕

20. slap together：草草拼湊

21. gut [ɡ?t] vt. 搶劫；劫掠

22. Cleveland Clinic：克利夫蘭醫學中心，美國頂尖的綜合醫療機構，其心臟和心血管外科專業連續18年位列全美第一。

23. Walgreens：沃爾格林公司，美國一家食品、藥品零售連鎖企業

24. Food and Drug Administration：美國食品藥品監督管理局（簡稱FDA）

25. herpes simplex：[醫]單純皰疹

26. draw on sth.：利用，依賴（信息或知識）

27. dabble [?d?b（?）l] vi. 涉獵；淺嘗

28. glass ceiling：玻璃天花板（喻指職務晉升中無法逾越的隱形限制）