A startup is the largest endeavor over which you can have definite mastery. You can have agency not just over your own life, but over a small and important part of the world. It begins by rejecting the unjust tyranny of Chance. You are not a lottery ticket.
Peter ThielEvery tech story is different. Every moment in history happens only once. All successful companies are successful in their own unique way. It's your task to figure out what that future history will be.
Peter ThielConsider the trivial but revealing hallmarks of urban hipsterdom: faux vintage photography, the handlebar mustache, and vinyl record players all hark back to an earlier time when people were still optimistic about the future. If everything worth doing has already been done, you may as well feign an allergy to achievement and become a barista.
Peter ThielEVERY MOMENT IN business happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin wonโt make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg wonโt create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you arenโt learning from them.
Peter ThielEvery universityโฆseem[s] to reassure you that โit doesnโt matter what you do, as long as you do it well.โ That is completely false. It does matter what you do. You should focus relentlessly at something youโre good at doing, but before that you must think hard about whether it will be valuable in the future.
Peter Thiel