I always thought that Theranos was the perfect embodiment of this idea. Look, she wears a black turtleneck, just like Steve Jobs! She dropped out of a top university, just like Bill Gates! She started her startup to solve a problem she had (fear of needles), just like the AirBnB guys started their startup because they needed a cheap place to stay!

Except what she didn't have was an actual functional product (oh, and nevermind that teensy detail that the product as envisioned is actually physically impossible).

If I had one but of advice for my younger self, it would be to get very good at sniffing out who is the real deal vs. who is cosplaying. And to be fair to myself, all I really had to do was trust my instincts - in the few instances where I got taken in by bullshit I definitely sensed some red flags in the beginning, but I ignored them because I thought "well, hey, look at all these bigwigs who think this is such a great idea". Bullshit is actually really easy to spot (usually), it's just that for social reasons we're often conditioned to nod and smile in the face of obvious bullshit.