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"What are you doing that nobody else is doing? What ideas do you have that nobody else has? "
Peter Thiel wants to know what sets you apart--and what you'll do to protect that uniqueness from imitators.
The billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist cofounder of PayPal and Palantir shared his thoughts with those gathered at the Pennsylvania Convention Center Monday morning for the inaugural Forbes Under 30 Summit. Known as a vocal proponent of rugged individualism, Thiel made it clear that he believes entrepreneurship is a unique experience to each person and idea--and that it's not right for everyone.
Pressed to find common themes endemic to the entrepreneurial experience, Thiel instead emphasized the singularity of great ideas, declaring, "The substance of what people do is always unique and different."
"Every moment in the history of business only happens once," says Thiel, adding that "the next Mark Zuckerberg" won't found a social network, the next Bill Gates won't found
Thiel also winked at the title of his recently-released startup roadmap Zero to One, explaining that the idea that there's a particular route to success may be part of what dooms so many new ventures to failure.
"What I always push back on is that there’s some kind of straightforward formula," said Thiel. "Science starts with the number two, with things that are repeatable, but great businesses are zero to one."
But there is one issue that Thiel feels is an absolute must for founders: Solve a problem that nobody else is solving, and dominate that space.
"If you’re a founder or an entrepreneur you should always aim to build a monopoly," said Thiel, observing, "There are only two kinds of businesses in this world: Businesses in crazy competition, and businesses that are one of a kind and are monopolies."
As an example, said Thiel, if you want to work endlessly without a great deal of financial success, open a restaurant.
Also on Thiel's enemies-of-inspiration list? Imitation, luck and saying "I want to be an entrepreneur."
"That’s like saying, 'I want to be rich, I want to be famous,'" said Thiel, who says he hates hearing cofounders talk of meeting at a networking event and launching a company after a few weeks of chatting. "We exaggerate the role of luck in our future. Luck is like an atheistic word for 'god.' When we attribute too much to luck we stop thinking."
And while Thiel, who famously founded a foundation that grants promising young entrepreneurs $100,000 and two years to launch a startup in lieu of attending college, is himself a graduate of Stanford University and Stanford Law, he stressed that the enemy is not the higher education system itself, but the rote path towards college that many follow without thinking.
Thiel recalled the end of 8th grade, when a friend wrote "I know you'll get into Stanford!" in his yearbook. Four years later he did just that. Would he repeat that course, given the chance to chart it anew?
"When I give my younger self advice, would I still go to Stanford? Would I still go to Stanford Law? Possibly. But I’d think a lot more about why I was doing it."
Ultimately, he said, the problem is the attempt to replicate someone else's path, instead of forging one that didn't exist before.
"I think," says Thiel, "that fundamentally my view is that there’s no one approach that works for everybody."
Watch: Peter Thiel on how to build the next billion-dollar startup
