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Yes, going to and excelling at Stanford was absolutely essential. It allowed him to go work in a prestigious firm in finance and another in law which provided
by foobarqux 12y ago
Yes, going to and excelling at Stanford was absolutely essential.
It allowed him to go work in a prestigious firm in finance and another in law which provided him with personal capital and also connected him with investors which allowed him to start an investment fund, move back to the Bay area and gave him the time to search for and evaluate investments. Presumably this is how he met Max Levchin and invested in his company.
It also allowed him to be confident and respected by others, both of which were extremely important to his success.
- ElComradio 12y agoSo what is going on, then, do you think? Is he oblivious or in denial about it? Is he lying? Or something else?
- foobarqux 12y agoI think he believes, like most successful people, that he had inherent skill and talent and those qualities pre-destined him for success.
- waterlesscloud 12y agoWhich doesn't exclude the value of a Stanford degree.
- yummyfajitas 12y agoInteresting - the main value of school is signalling and networking. The actual (expensive) education isn't really needed. If Thiel recognized this, he might try to give people a way to get the signal/network without college, thereby saving lots of money and cutting out the middleman. If he wanted to be arrogant, he might name it the Thiel Fellowship.
- foobarqux 12y agoThere are important signals that come out of academic success, like the ability to do something hard over a long period of time, that are difficult to easily replicate without doing something that is essentially school-like.