"He who is not busy being born is busy dying.&

Money makes money. "For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them."
　　
Peter Thiel set the tone of the book from the very beginning, he makes money and he is one of the less than 20% who owns the 80% wealth, yet he seems humble and genuine in talking about the his analytic skills on creating and founding startups.
　　
To create a successful startup and build a bright future, you need to step down a notch, or several notches, including stop making grand vision, being flexible, avoiding competitions, hiring the right people, don't take sales for granted, etc. He offers some interesting tips like don't invest in the tech companies where CEOs wear suit and tie and a good startup is slightly similar to a cult.
　　
Here are some tips I found particularly valuable:
　　
1. Planning is more important than business itself.
Grand vision is not necessary and could be risky to the company, so we should always have a plan. Even bad plan is better than no plan at all. "Anyone who claims to be able to do something great is suspect, and anyone who wants to change the world should be more humble." One interesting example is about Gladwell. As a Gladwell fan, I relished reading his pattern of the analysis on reasons and chances behind historical events, and it's even more entertaining to see my favorite author being put under the microscope. "You can't understand Malcolm Gladwell without understanding his historical context as a Boomer(born in 1963)" He went on explaining how Gladwell made a career on his books: “Baby Boomers is a whole generation learned from childhood to overrate the power of chance and underrate the importance of planning. ”
　　
2.Don't try to break into a competitive market.
It is quite obvious why, but ambitious entrepreneurs keep tripping on it. Or in another word, curelessly ambitious. “If you want to create and capture lasting value, don't build an undifferentiated commodity business,” as Thiel put it. Pessimists tend to think the market is saturated, whatever you’ve thought of or about to think of have already been created. But if you “really look into it”, you will find that nitch that will bloom into a monopoly.
　　
3. If you look hard enough, you'll discover the virgin area.
Not long before, a friend of mine shared with me a story she heard on a startup seminar. A banker found people in a small village near Beijing always purchasing motorbike on loans because they can't afford it but they need them for daily commute. They usually do it by taking small loans (around 5000 RMB) from loan shark and it takes a couple of years to clean the debt. The banker saw the opportunity behind the market and started a business to provide the village people small loans with the help of the Bank of Beijing. His business was successful and it also proves that if you try harder, you will see the virgin area, that's monopoly.
　　
4. Monopolists can afford to think about things other than making money; non-monopolists can’t. This idea is contradictory to the traditional concept that startups are usually the fearless ones to think up innovative ideas and try them out, while the monopolist are considered as laying back in their comfort zone and not bothering making any changes. After reading about Google’s 20% and 80% theory (engineers spend 80% of their time working on main tasks and 20% on their own projects), I come to a deeper understanding of the point. Startups cultivate novelty ideas cos they expect immediate profits. Whatever ideas pay back effectively is the correct one. On the other hand, the monopolists are the ones who can afford set aside enough capital for the ideas who might not bring the immediate dollar figures, but in the long run, will benefit the monopolists.
　　 　　
5. The Power Law. Aka, would you rather be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond. What’s the difference? It’s not about gaining confidence and feeling good about yourself. As a business man, Thiel refers to a more pragmatic matter—the $$$. You could have 100% of the equity if you fully fund your own venture, but if it fails you'll have 100% of nothing. Owning just 0.01% of Google, by contrast, is incredibly valuable (more than $35 million as of this writing). Therefore, it leads to a more talented people who’d rather work for a bigger companies with all the security and perks. For the startups, the question to ponder on is “why would someone join your company when he/she could work at a monopolist?”

6. Time is your most valuable asset, it's odd to spend it working with people who don’t envision any long-term future together. This I have to say has been one of the primary issues in my career path. When you found yourself out of place, you A. Suck it up and pretend to be one of them. B. Be the office loner, you got enough friends anyway. C. Quit and keep looking till you find your own crowd. I have been between B and C for most of my career and I wish I have an answer to the question by now, but the truth is… I may agree with Thiel theoretically, but I simply can’t afford “looking for other options.” Always be hopeful and give your personal best, as long as the team leader has the similar long-term future, you are all set till your next big thing.
　　
7. You are either on the bus or off the bus. Thiel said that everyone should be full time employee, otherwise they can’t play their accurate roles. This is the red flag I didn’t spot back to 2011 and 2012 when both the magazine and the startup online magazine I worked for hired interns and parttimers to finish the majority of the content. If the whole magazine is created by people who are not paid(enough), why did we expect it to be high-quality at all? Both companies deteriorated soon after.

8. Poor sales rather than bad product is the most common cause of failure. No matter how much we don’t want to admit it, it’s all about marketing and sales. In Chinese, there is an old saying “If the wine is good enough, it doesn’t matter how deep in the alley it was hidden.” Products have been spoken highly rather than the sales skill, however, according to Thiel, the good sales are hidden. The person who is persuasive and convincing is a good sales in nature, such as Tom Sawyer who managed to persuade his neighborhood friends to whitewash the fence for him-a masterful move.
　　　　
9. Why computers can’t replace human beings. Whether or not the computer will replace human being has been a constant discussion, and Thiel’s assumption gave us some solace. The doctors who’ve studied for years know how to combine the clinical understanding with an ability to communicate it to non-expert patients. Good teachers can tailor the instruction to different individuals. Computers might be better at collecting data and doing research, but it will never beat professionals in flexibility and further analysis.

10. Don't overestimate your own power as an individual. Steve Job’s stories, the Google Story, Facebook Founder stories, all of the bestsellers are trying to tell us that you need to be egocentric and weird to be the top business leader. While the rest of the world are trying to create mythological and relentless leader figures, Thiel believes “founders are important not because they are the only ones whose work has value, but rather because a great founder can bring out the best work from everybody at his company. ”

Last but not the least, I used Bob Dylan’s famous words as the ending: he who is not busy being born is busy dying. For I am now entering a new chapter of my life, facing much doubt about changing a career path from media to marketing in fashion retail, and planning on taking an academic journey for a master degree, I need the strength and power more than any time in my life.