????本文與《創業者》雜志（Entrepreneur）合作。下文最初發表于Entrepreneur.com。

????貝寶公司(PayPal)聯合創始人彼得?泰爾深知如何成功經營一家公司，并且因許多特立獨行的觀點而聞名于創投界。2002年將PayPal出售給易趣公司(eBay)之后，泰爾創建了全球對沖基金克萊瑞姆資本管理公司（Clarium Capital Management）、科技公司Palantir和風險投資公司創業者基金（Founders Fund），該基金投資的公司包括音樂平臺Spotify、虛擬現實公司Oculus和太空探索技術公司（SpaceX）。此外，泰爾也是Facebook第一位外部投資者，目前為Facebook董事會成員。通過其泰爾基金會（Thiel Foundation），他在4年前設立了針對20歲以下優秀創業者的泰爾獎學金（Thiel Fellowship），有前途的創業者不用接受高等教育，即可獲得10萬美元和兩年的時間，從事自己選擇的事業。

????泰爾因其對教育、公司文化與競爭等熱門話題的強烈觀點而名聲在外，近期，他的新書《從零到一：對創業，以及如何構筑未來的一點思考》（Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future）使他再次成為媒體熱點。該書由泰爾和他之前的學生布萊克?馬斯特斯共同創作，主要內容為馬斯特斯在斯坦福大學（Stanford）上泰爾的計算機科學課時記錄的筆記。兩位作者并不認同“創新已死”的觀點，他們在書中探討了創業者如何開發新技術，在當前領域和“未知的前沿”創造發明。我們對泰爾進行了采訪，邀請他談論了天真的價值，以及如何獨辟蹊徑，尋找靈感。

????問：如果你具備現在的經驗和見識，你的第一次創業會有哪些不同？你是如何收獲這一經驗教訓的？

????答：最開始，我的成長道路似乎早已注定——從高中到大學，再到法學院，然后開始職業生涯。我在紐約一家律師事務所工作的時候，這條道路陷入了死胡同。外面有抱負的律師都想進來，但我的同事們卻都想逃離這里。那里就像是惡魔島，要想逃離這里，你只需走出那扇門。所以我離開了。這次的經歷讓我意識到，這個世界上有許多事情是可行的、有價值的，但卻被大多數人忽視，只是因為你根本不可能在任何傳統的軌道上發現它們。

????問：如果你當時便有了這樣的感悟，你認為會發生什么？

????答：如果我能意識到職業道路是如此變幻莫測，我可能會更早離開那里。我知道我肯定會更謹慎地考慮這個問題。但人生不可能重來。

????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 na?ve 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.