The James Altucher Show

Ep. 43 - Peter Thiel: What the Future Looks Like

Episode Summary

If you listen to only one podcast this year than this has to be the one.  James and Peter talk about Peter’s brand new book Zero To One, which James says is the best business book, he’s read in a long long time… But they...

Episode Notes

If you listen to only one podcast this year than this has to be the one. 

James and Peter talk about Peter’s brand new book Zero To One, which James says is the best business book, he’s read in a long long time…

But they cover so much more.

 

Where is the next technological innovation?

How to utilizing the 10x rule

What characteristics of PayPal led to the PayPal mafia?

Why working with your friends OK

What did peter see in Mark Zuckerburg?

What it was like turning down a billion dollars

The Chinese refrigerator rule

Will Über be a success?

Where would Peter put his retirement money?

 

“I think that when people come out of super successful companies like a Google or a Microsoft, they’ve often experienced business as too easy, and then they’re set up to fail, whereas if you come out of a company that’s completely blown up and failed, you often learn to set your sights lower and your expectations lower, and so I think failure is also somewhat overrated in our society because, you know, it actually does damage people.

 So I think PayPal was this intermediate case where people learned that it was hard but possible to build a great business. A lot of great friendships were forged and these were the bases for starting these new companies.”