378 Quotes by Peter Thiel

The business model piece is we’re always talking about competing more effectively. If you’re starting a company or career you don’t want to compete. You want to create a monopoly. We want to invest in a company that has a good plan to create a monopoly.

Paradoxically, then, network effects businesses must start with especially small markets. Facebook started with just Harvard students – Mark Zuckerberg’s first product was designed to get all his classmates signed up, not to attract all people of Earth. This is why successful network businesses rarely get started by MBA types: the initial markets are so small that they often don’t even appear to be business opportunities at.

Simply stated, the value of a business today is the sum of all the money it will make in the future.

People don’t want to believe that technology is broken. Pharmaceuticals, robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology – all these areas where the progress has been a lot more limited than people think. And the question is why.

You should focus relentlessly on something you’re good at doing, but before that you must think hard about whether it will be valuable in the future.

CREATIVE MONOPOLY means new products that benefit everybody and sustainable profits for the creator. Competition means no profits for anybody, no meaningful differentiation, and a struggle for survival.

Technology is probably the single biggest driver of productivity gains for the developed countries. For example, I think it’s much more important than free trade.

We teach every young person the same subjects in mostly the same ways, irrespective of individual talents and preferences.

People are scared of secrets because they are scared of being wrong. By definition, a secret hasn’t been vetted by the mainstream. If your goal is to never make a mistake in your life, you shouldn’t look for secrets. The prospect of being lonely but right – dedicating your life to something that no one else believes in – is already hard. The prospect of being lonely and wrong can be unbearable.