There is perhaps no specific time that is necessarily right to start your company or start your life. But sometimes and some moments seem more auspicious than others. Now is such a moment. If we don't take charge and usher in the future - if you don't take charge of your life - there is the sense that no one else will.

Peter Thiel, the popular venture capitalist and entrepreneur shared his business wisdom with a Stanford University class in a lecture called Computer Science 183: Start-up. He started off by claiming "If I do my job right, this is the last class you'll ever have to take." 

I stumbled upon a few of these lecture notes, shared by Blake Masters who was a law student on the verge of passing out at the time of Thiel's lecture. Blake recollects Theil's words "I'm not dropping out - something, that more entrepreneurially-minded young people should consider".

After graduating, Blake founded his own legal tech start-up - Judicata. He has since then been blogging his class notes for others to be inspired.

I call these useful pointers Theil's laws. For one they are simple, to-the-point and relevant to the present start-up culture.

Read these awesome Theil-isms:

1. Globalization detrimental to progress

This is probably a over bloated concept of economics. There is so much talk of global development and the inter-dependence of world markets; a ready reference to the nature of capitalism here. But Theil believes that globalization is the ability of making things work.

"Technology, to our great detriment, is the forgotten side of the coin. People focus too much on the 1 to n of globalization and not enough on technology. But to be great, you have to do something new and important. All great companies solved the 0 to 1 problem in unique ways. All failed companies somehow botched it".

The common notion about capitalism is about wealth creation but competition is quite over-rated.

"In practice it is quite destructive and should be avoided wherever possible. Much better than fighting for scraps in existing markets is to create and own new ones. It is worthwhile to think about how to run away from the fighting and build a monopoly business instead."

2. Power of Secrecy

The business niche is full of street smart secrets and tricks. As Theil believes secret truths are necessary to help people break out of existing molds. This notion of self delusion exists specially in marketing and sales. Most people hold extreme views - either things happen all of their own or they need magic people to make-do-it! Now that's a dangerous thought.

"Most companies fail because of distribution problems, not technology problems. And to understand distribution, one must understand the theatre that is sales."

"Risk aversion and complacency discourage people from thinking about secrets. The question of how many secrets exist in our world is roughly equivalent to how many start-up people should start. From a business perspective, then, there are many great companies that could still be—indeed, are waiting to be—started."

3. Any plan is a good plan

The thing with planning is that it is always thought off as preparing for the future. Most companies thus loose out on the present perspective. In other words, indeterminacy reigns.

"Young people take a portfolio approach to their resumes, adding new lines each year but never taking a meaningful swing at something big. But playing it safe has serious costs (and, apart from those, it may not be as safe as it is perceived to be). To be great, you must take a swing at something. You must have a plan."

4. Beginnings matter

This is the prime law for start-ups. Beginnings have to be special and strong. Having long term goals should not be the focus until some establishment has been made. Unless the foundation is strong, you basically have no future.

"A start-up messed up at its foundation cannot be fixed. Companies usually fail when some internal conflict blows up. From the outside, it may appear that external competitive forces were the cause. But very often, mismanagement or a founding mistake is the true culprit."

5. Founder's temperament

Every start-up is the baby of its founder, their vision for themselves and for those going to be involved with it. But each founder is different. But as is the common view, founders come in two varied brands - "they are extreme insiders and extreme outsiders, disagreeable and charismatic, infamous and famous. People victimize founders. A founder’s primary task is, in some sense, to perpetually extend the founding moment and thereby indefinitely delay his executive


We hope there will be a lot more start-ups on the business scene after reading these pointers. So if you are one of them, what are you waiting for still!

Leave us your thoughts and comments in the section below.

For more useful tips and business ideas, follow us regularly on Twitter.