“I do everything I say—word for word. I am never a minute late. I show no excitement,” wrote Elizabeth Holmes. The line is part of an extensive handwritten note the former Theranos CEO wrote to herself when she was leading the company.
Holmes took the stand in 2021 during the criminal fraud trial against her, and testified in court her former boyfriend and business partner Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani emotionally and sexually abused her. Part of the evidence her lawyers submitted, multiple outlets reported, included a note drawn up by Holmes detailing her schedule for the day, which began before sunrise. It appears to have been written on stationery for Raffles, a Singapore-based hotel.
Balwani’s lawyer Jeffrey Coopersmith denied Holmes’ allegations of abuse, multiple outlets reported. Coopersmith did not return Fortune’s request in 2021 for comment after Holmes’ testimony.
In 2022, a jury ultimately convicted Holmes on four counts of wire fraud and conspiracy, and she is currently serving a roughly decade-long sentence in prison. In 2025, she reportedly asked President Donald Trump for clemency to shorten her prison stay.
A new documentary is bringing renewed attention to Holmes. You Can See Everything, directed by comedian and Canadian filmmaker Nathan Fielder and American filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, premiered as a surprise screening at the Telluride Film Festival over Labor Day weekend and will be released in theaters by A24 on Oct. 16.
Filmed over about a month before Holmes reported to prison in 2023 at a beachside home in Del Mar, Calif., and continuing over three years, the nearly three-hour film follows the former Theranos CEO as she granted the crew extensive access in an apparent effort to clear her name. In it, Holmes maintains she did nothing wrong.
In some scenes, she and her partner, Billy Evans—a California hotel heir with whom she has two children—are reportedly shown making calls to prospective partners about launching a “Theranos 2.0” venture that Evans said he intended to build while Holmes served her sentence. Fielder has reportedly said Evans tried to exert significant control over the filming near the end—a dynamic some reviewers have compared to Holmes’s account of Balwani’s control over her.
Elizabeth Holmes’ mantra as a CEO
The schedule begins with a 4:00 a.m. wake up time to “rise & thank God” and ends with her lunch and dinner menus, which included broccoli, quinoa and a green drink. But what may be most notable about the schedule is what’s written below it.
“ALL ABOUT BUSINESS.”
“I am not impulsive.”
“I do not react.”
“I am always proactive.”
“I know the outcome of every encounter.”
“I do not hesitate.”
“I speak rarely. When I do—CRISP and CONCISE. I call bullshit immediately. My hands are always in my pockets or gesturing,” the last few lines of the note read.
Elizabeth Holmes’s daily schedule
Circa 2005–2009 pic.twitter.com/hhWUBHhpbe
— Internal Tech Emails (@TechEmails) November 30, 2021
Holmes said they were Balwani’s rules and advice, The Verge reported.
“He told me that I didn’t know what I was doing in business, that my convictions were wrong, that he was astonished by my mediocrity and that if I followed my instincts I was going to fail,” Holmes testified, according to The New York Times.
A version of this story was originally published on Fortune.com on Dec. 2, 2021. Felicia Hou contributed reporting to an earlier version of this story.
