Value investors look at cash flows. If a company can maintain present cash flows for 5 or 6 years, it’s a good investment. Investors then just hope that those cash flows - and thus the company’s value - don’t decrease faster than they anticipate. Peter Thiel More Quotes by Peter Thiel More Quotes From Peter Thiel If you focus on near-term growth above all else, you miss the most important question you should be asking: will this business still be around a decade from now? Peter Thiel growth focus missing In our time, the great task for libertarians is to find an escape from politics in all its forms—from the totalitarian and fundamentalist catastrophes to the unthinking demos that guides so-called ‘social democracy.’ . . . We are in a deadly race between politics and technology. . . . The fate of our world may depend on the effort of a single person who builds or propagates the machinery of freedom that makes the world safe for capitalism. Peter Thiel fate our-world technology The most fundamental reason that even businesspeople underestimate the importance of sales is the systematic effort to hide it at every level of every field in a world secretly driven by it. Peter Thiel systematic effort fields Every university…seem[s] to reassure you that ‘it doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you do it well.’ That is completely false. It does matter what you do. You should focus relentlessly at something you’re good at doing, but before that you must think hard about whether it will be valuable in the future. Peter Thiel focus long thinking All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition. Peter Thiel company competition When you are starting a new business you don't want to go after giant markets. You want to go after small markets and take over those markets quickly. Peter Thiel starting giants want Distribution may not matter in fictional worlds, but it matters in most. The Field of Dreams conceit is especially popular in Silicon Valley, where engineers are biased toward building cool stuff rather than selling it. But customers will not come just because you build it. You have to make this happen, and it's harder than it looks. Peter Thiel dream may world 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 Thiel agency over-you important Of the six people who started PayPal, four had built bombs in high school. Peter Thiel bombs people school There's a wide range of sales ability: there are many gradations between novices, experts, and masters. There are even sales grandmasters. If you don't know any grandmasters, it's not because you haven't encountered them, but rather because their art is hidden in plain sight. Peter Thiel novices sight art I do think Bitcoin is the first [encrypted money] that has the potential to do something like change the world. Peter Thiel bitcoin world thinking Customers won’t care about any particular technology unless it solves a particular problem in a superior way. And if you can’t monopolize a unique solution for a small market, you’ll be stuck with vicious competition. Peter Thiel competition technology unique In the '30s, the Keynesian stuff worked at least in the sense that you could print money without inflation because there was all this productivity growth happening. That's not going to work today. Peter Thiel growth stuff today Under perfect competition, in the long run no company makes an economic profit. Peter Thiel perfect running long Higher education is the place where people who had big plans in high school get stuck in fierce rivalries with equally smart peers over conventional careers like management consulting and investment banking. For the privilege of being turned into conformists, students (or their families) pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in skyrocketing tuition that continues to outpace inflation. Why are we doing this to ourselves? Peter Thiel smart careers school The road doesn’t have to be infinite after all. Take the hidden paths. Peter Thiel infinite path Monopoly is the condition of every successful business. Peter Thiel monopoly zero successful People working on bigger ideas on a more protracted timeline will be more on the stealth side. They aren’t releasing new PR announcements every day. The bigger the secret and the likelier it is that you alone have it, the more time you have to execute. There may be far more people going after hard secrets than we think. Peter Thiel people ideas thinking Rivalry causes us to overemphasize old opportunities and slavishly copy what has worked in the past. Peter Thiel causes opportunity past There are only two kinds of businesses in this world: Businesses in crazy competition, and businesses that are one of a kind. Peter Thiel competition crazy two
