Peter Thiel on Creativity Quotes

"If your goal is to never make a mistake in your life, you shouldn't try to create anything new."

"The creative process begins with a rejection of the status quo."

"All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. In business, the opposite is true. All happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem."

"A great founder is someone who can take a vision and turn it into a reality through sheer force of will."

"A business with a great cash flow today but no future is a bad investment."

"If you're the first to do something, you might not do it right. But if you're the last to do something, you might not do it at all."

"If you do what has never been done and you can do it better than anybody else, you have a monopoly."

"Winning is better than losing, but everybody loses when the war isn't one worth fighting."

"Technology is miraculous because it allows us to do more with less, ratcheting up our fundamental capabilities to a higher level."

"The most creative people are those who are willing to look where others are afraid to look."

"The most successful companies make the world a better place by doing something for the first time."

"Prophets are people who see things that are already there, but that no one else sees."

"The value of a business is the sum of all the money it will make in the future. To create value, you must create something that lasts."

"The goal of a creative business is to become a monopoly of one."

"The future is a place where everything is better, and that requires us to create things that do not yet exist."

"Sales is best when hidden."

"Competition is for losers. If you want to create and capture lasting value, look to build a monopoly."

"You can't create a great company on a foundation of incrementalism."

"To believe that the future is just a random series of events is to deny the power of human agency."

"The best way to predict the future is to create it, but you must do so with a definite vision."

"The world is still full of secrets. There are many things that are true but that people have not yet discovered."

"A startup is the largest group of people you can convince of a plan to build a different future."

"We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters."

"Every great creator has a definite plan for the future. They don't just wait for things to happen."

"You should focus on the things you are uniquely good at, and create a world where those things are valued."

"Indefinite optimism—the belief that the future will be better but we don't know how—is the enemy of true creation."

"Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius."

"The best entrepreneurs know this: every great business is built around a secret that’s hidden from the outside. A great company is a conspiracy to change the world."

"The act of creation is the act of going from 0 to 1. This is the essence of technology: doing more with less."

"What important truth do very few people agree with you on?"

"Every moment in business happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won't make a search engine."

"If you think your life is a matter of luck, you've already given up on the act of creation."

"Sales is the hidden art of persuasion that every creator must master to bring their vision to the world."