blog.newhaircut.com<\/p>\n
1. If you didn\u2019t create Google, you aren\u2019t going to<\/span>Today\u2019s Larry Page isn\u2019t working on a search engine and Steve Job\u2019s counterpart isn\u2019t working on personal computer, says Thiel, who writes about huge, singular achievements and what we can learn from them, rather than how we can copy them, to become as successful as possible. Thiel doesn\u2019t sugarcoat the process to success and he doesn\u2019t think there\u2019s a formula.
2. Monopolize the market for true success (Teddy Roosevelt\u2019s shaking in his grave at this one)<\/span>Thiel says it\u2019s OK to start as a big fish in a small pond and become a monopoly in a small market. Just look at Facebook \u2026 wait, not pics of your drunk friends, but the company itself. Investors in Boston wouldn\u2019t invest in Facebook, he said, which had a majority share of the college market, probably because they weren\u2019t familiar with the whole college thing anymore. But it worked and became successful because it was scalable.
3. Be original<\/span>Entrepreneurs aren\u2019t the type of people to follow the beaten path \u2013 you, your concerned family and the baristas next door to your apartment already know this. Thiel gives this notion 2 thumbs up. He believes conformity is crowded and stagnant.
OK, but let\u2019s back up a sec. Before becoming a billionaire entrepreneur and investor, Thiel played it safe. \u2026
\u2026 One is that he thinks the fact that many CEOs have Asperger\u2019s tendencies<\/a>, says something about our society. Because they don\u2019t have natural social cues, they don\u2019t think twice about pursuing crazy ideas. People who are socially adapted would be discouraged and uncomfortable to go off-roading; opting instead for a safer path.
4. Work on something no one understands or something no one else is working on<\/span>He likes to ask, \u201cWhat great company is nobody starting?\u201d Better yet, \u201cTell me something that\u2019s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.\u201d \u2026
Instead, he said we need to answer life\u2019s \u201cmysteries\u201d \u2013 things we write off as unsolvable or figure someone else will solve for us.
So one takeaway here is to work on something new, difficult and seemingly unsolvable that can be a life-changing idea. And then Thiel might invest.
Thiel also expects you to answer the problem better (read: differently) than anyone else, that is, if you want to monopolize your market.
5. Technology + Globalization = The Future<\/span>Thiel says technology accounts for vertical growth and would be on the y-axis because it is taking an idea from zero to one<\/span> (This is that moment when you listen to an entire album and get to the line where you realize why that\u2019s the album\u2019s title. Satisfying, right?). Globalization is the process of replicating something that works, and belongs on the x-axis for growth, and growth is \u201cn\u201d because there\u2019s no limit.
6. Thiel wants you to stop getting older<\/span>Well, he just wants people to research aging. His interests are in energy and biomedical research. He also doesn\u2019t approve of all those restrictions.
\u201cThe polio vacation wouldn\u2019t be approved today,\u201d he said at Columbia.
7. Every good speaker ends with relationship advice<\/span>Thiel likes to hire friends or people he could see as potential pals. He also suggests
working with someone you\u2019ve known for a long time that shares your vision. When he
hears that the co-founders of a business just met a few weeks ago at a coffee shop, he commented, \u201cSounds like, \u2018I just got married to the first person I met in Vegas.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n