彼得•泰尔：打破束缚，一个人的人生应该由他自己去规划

    本文与《创业者》杂志（Entrepreneur）合作。下文最初发表于Entrepreneur.com。

    贝宝公司(PayPal)联合创始人彼得•泰尔深知如何成功经营一家公司，并且因许多特立独行的观点而闻名于创投界。2002年将PayPal出售给易趣公司(eBay)之后，泰尔创建了全球对冲基金克莱瑞姆资本管理公司（Clarium Capital Management）、科技公司Palantir和风险投资公司创业者基金（Founders Fund），该基金投资的公司包括音乐平台Spotify、虚拟现实公司Oculus和太空探索技术公司（SpaceX）。此外，泰尔也是Facebook第一位外部投资者，目前为Facebook董事会成员。通过其泰尔基金会（Thiel Foundation），他在4年前设立了针对20岁以下优秀创业者的泰尔奖学金（Thiel Fellowship），有前途的创业者不用接受高等教育，即可获得10万美元和两年的时间，从事自己选择的事业。

    泰尔因其对教育、公司文化与竞争等热门话题的强烈观点而名声在外，近期，他的新书《从零到一：对创业，以及如何构筑未来的一点思考》（Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future）使他再次成为媒体热点。该书由泰尔和他之前的学生布莱克•马斯特斯共同创作，主要内容为马斯特斯在斯坦福大学（Stanford）上泰尔的计算机科学课时记录的笔记。两位作者并不认同“创新已死”的观点，他们在书中探讨了创业者如何开发新技术，在当前领域和“未知的前沿”创造发明。我们对泰尔进行了采访，邀请他谈论了天真的价值，以及如何独辟蹊径，寻找灵感。

    问：如果你具备现在的经验和见识，你的第一次创业会有哪些不同？你是如何收获这一经验教训的？

    答：最开始，我的成长道路似乎早已注定——从高中到大学，再到法学院，然后开始职业生涯。我在纽约一家律师事务所工作的时候，这条道路陷入了死胡同。外面有抱负的律师都想进来，但我的同事们却都想逃离这里。那里就像是恶魔岛，要想逃离这里，你只需走出那扇门。所以我离开了。这次的经历让我意识到，这个世界上有许多事情是可行的、有价值的，但却被大多数人忽视，只是因为你根本不可能在任何传统的轨道上发现它们。

    问：如果你当时便有了这样的感悟，你认为会发生什么？

    答：如果我能意识到职业道路是如此变幻莫测，我可能会更早离开那里。我知道我肯定会更谨慎地考虑这个问题。但人生不可能重来。

    This post is in partnership with Entrepreneur. The article below was originally published at Entrepreneur.com.

    PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel is often known for his ability to understand what makes a company successful and for having some contrarian points of view. Following the sale of PayPal to eBay EBAY 0.14% in 2002, Thiel founded global hedge fund Clarium Capital Management, technology company Palantir and venture capital firm Founders Fund, which has invested in companies like Spotify, Oculus and SpaceX. Thiel was also Facebook’s first outside investor and currently sits on its board. Through his Thiel Foundation, four years ago, he created the Thiel Fellowship for up-and-coming entrepreneurs under 20, who are each given $100,000 and two years to eschew higher education and work on a venture of their choosing.

    Known for his strong opinions about hot-button topics like education, company culture and competition, Thiel has been in the news of late promoting his new book Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, which he co-wrote with former student Blake Masters, and was based upon the notes that Masters took while taking Thiel’s computer science course at Stanford. The authors aim to rebuff the notion that innovation is dead and instead delve into how entrepreneurs can explore new technologies and create fresh inventions in current fields and “uncharted frontiers.” We caught up with Thiel to talk about the value of being naïve and finding inspiration off the beaten track.

    Q: Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently when you were first starting up? How did you learn this lesson?

    A:When I was starting out, I followed along the path that seemed to be marked out for me — from high school to college to law school to professional life. When I was working at a New York law firm, that path came to a dead end. All the aspiring lawyers on the outside wanted to get in but all of the people I worked with wanted to get out. It was like Alcatraz but all you had to do to escape was walk through the front door. So I left. And that experience helped me realize how many things in the world might be possible and valuable, yet ignored by most people, simply because they are not found on any conventional track.

    Q: What do you think would have happened if you had had this knowledge then?

    A: If I’d realized how arbitrary it was, I might have gotten off the track a lot sooner. I know I would have thought about it more carefully. But there’s no way to run the experiment twice.