Peter+Thiel+105

**PETER THIEL**



__Introduction__ Age: 43 Residence: San Francisco, CA Marital Status: Single Net Worth: $1.5 Billion

Peter Thiel was the Co-Founder of PayPal an online money payment organization that has grown into a multi-million dollar company. Pay-Pal's main focus is on the market of eBay, where purchasers have the option to pay through credit card or Paypal. Thiel has donated millions of dollars to help expand companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Quantcast.

In terms of education, Peter Thiel has two very impressive degrees. Thiel graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelors of Arts in Philosophy. Following graduation he attended Stanford Law School where he received a Juris Doctorate in Law.

After completing college, Thiel worked on numerous business ventures. His resume boasts experience at numerous high profile corporations and he holds many titles that people wish to achieve. The current titles that Thiel has under his belt are as follows: Co-Founder of PayPal, Investor and Board of Directors to Facebook, Managing Partner at the Founders Fund, Investor at LinkedIn, Founder and President of Clarium Capital Management.

__Why Peter Thiel?__ Peter Thiel has been known as a very successful and opportunistic entrepreneur who has done multitudes for the business world. It is his accomplishments and progressions that drew our group to him as a Business Leader. His growth in the world-renowned PayPal created a connection that not many people had seen before. This connection added to the already progressing market and drew many options for people's purchases. Peter Thiel's mentality has made him a significant business leader in our group's eyes. His business savvy is what most people associate Thiel with, but his philanthropic efforts are what set him apart from many other CEO's. To our group, he's more than just a business leader; he's a leader in the community. To us, we associate his willingness to give as a value to succeed and motivate others to succeed. For these reasons, we came to find Peter Thiel as a man of good character and someone that we wanted to explore more deeply.

__Personality__ Peter Thiel is a self professed libertarian; this political philosophy means that he values individual liberties as the most basic moral principle of society. By decreasing government activity, the liberty and political freedom of the individual can be maximized. This philosophy portrays Thiel's internal locus of control and internal attribution in others. In limiting government involvement, the individual is held more responsible for his or her actions. He believes that the individual should be able to do as he or she wishes, as long as his or her actions do not infringe upon the freedom of others. Furthermore, it promotes an ethical value and a focus on respecting and protecting the rights of individuals.

He cares deeply about his independence, which is apparent as he constantly refers to himself as being self-made. He considers courage, belief in one's self, and commitment to one's opinion to be the most important personality traits. Thus, he is a low self monitor as he is unwilling to adjust his beliefs and opinions to appease others. Further, his steadfast commitment to his ideals has earned him great success in the business world, as he has famously observed and predicted profoundly significant and accurate views on management, displaying a great deal of self efficacy. This also adheres to his successful investments in companies such as Facebook, and his belief that great fortunes can be made if one is willing to gamble big. Thus, he is very high risk, possesses a need for power that makes him a great leader in his business ventures, and anti-benevolent in his thoughts on equity.

His personal life is rather vague. He is very introverted, confining most social events to business related affairs. He does not date because he feels that his money and power lead him to untrustworthy partners with ill intentions. He is dedicated to his work, which seems to be his family. Guests at his homes have often commented that there are no personal items like photos or collectibles. However, as cold and standoffish as he may seem, he is loyal to his beliefs and causes despite what others may have to say. He is a significant investor in research on anti-aging, believing that death does not have to be inevitable, as well as the creation of the Seasteading Institute, a floating colony to be located on international waters. This colony will be an oasis for believers in libertarian ideals such as Thiel. He continues to contribute to both causes.

__Values; Attitude and Behavior__ First and foremost, Peter Thiel values imagination and its ability to shape and improve the world in ways that few could have ever imagined; this instrumental value is evident in the creation of his innovative company PayPal, as well as his early investments in revolutionary technological companies including Facebook. His value on imagination is also apparent in how he tries to, for lack of a better expression, think outside the box. In thinking outside of the box, Thiel has made a fortune from PayPal as well as being one of the earliest investors in several other tech giants. He has been described as being outspoken against certain issues including federal student loans and the housing bubble, which he correctly predicted would occur well before it did. He recently encouraged entrepreneurial college students to risk their college careers by dropping out of school. He went on the record as saying, "University is a tremendously valuable experience, but when entrepreneurs are ready to launch, they should do so immediately." His value of ambition, another instrumental value, is shown in his founding of the Thiel Fellowship: 20 Under 20, which provided twenty entrepreneurial students with funds to begin startup companies which they design and manage. Thiel puts a great deal of value on philanthropy; this is a prime example of Thiel's terminal value of social respect. Last year at an event Thiel encouraged wealthy investors to donate money to eight nonprofit science organizations and even offered to match the donations dollar for dollar. The organizations that Thiel asked the investors to support are Foresight Institute, Humanity Plus, the Santa Fe Institute, the Seasteading Institute, the SNES Foundation, the Singularity Institute, Singularity University and the X Prize Foundation. Each organization is researching different scientific solutions to improve the quality of life, such as a way to reverse aging or establish cities on top of oceans. Thiel is also an advocate for gay rights which is a good example of his belief in equality, another terminal value.

__Motivational Effectiveness__ After assessing several personality traits of the forty-something billionaire, we believe that he is an amazing source of motivation to any and all current and future entrepreneurs. The capitalist turned tech mogul has invested millions into up and coming programs, and worked together with founders and creators to bring into existence several strong and profitable companies we know today. In addition to managing Clarium a venture capital firm, Peter is active in a variety of philanthropic and educational pursuits; he sits on the Board of Directors of the Pacific Research Institute and on the Board at Stanford Law School.

Entrepreneurs critique his ‘Thiel Fellowship’ program, which donates $100,000 to twenty college students to drop out and start their own company. Some say that this is a self centered philosophy where Thiel attempts to ‘clone’ himself and essentially beat the system by having his students drop out of college before graduation. Others bring up the deceit that comes with the ‘Thiel Fellowship’. After graduating with his doctorate, it is clear that he values the education that can be gained from college. The recipients of his grants cannot be promised the same amount of success as he has found without the proper education.

He motivates his recipients by personally helping them begin their ventures. Though success is not absolute, Thiel is obviously doing something right. In relation to theories by McGregor, Thiel would be categorized as a Theory Y motivator; for him it's all about achievement of the highest goals. Self-actualization, self-esteem needs and social needs are held in high regard for Thiel. It is clear that motivation is of utmost importance to Thiel who uses internal needs to first inspire his coworkers. His imagination, ambition, and philanthropic tendencies, lead both employees and coworkers to integrate external incentives into their daily work, creating interest of his personal projects with peers. Of his many goals, Thiel aims to improve the lives of others by incorporating anti-aging campaigns, the creation of floating micro-countries, and the promotion of social networking- into everyday life.

__Links__ Peter Thiel is known worldwide for telling students to [|drop out of college] in order to start their own business. This has caused much controversy within the business world as there is great concern on Thiel's motives for college students. As well funding for these students to leave college Thiel has also invested about 1.25 Million dollars into the creation of [|floating micro-countries]. These countries are located off the coast of San Francisco and are viewed as something that will be very important to the future. The worldwide phenomenon of Facebook has been something expanding everyday before our very eyes. However, many people do not know that Peter Thiel was one of the main funders of Facebook by donating millions of dollars. > = **[|Video Project Part 1]** =
 * [|The Thiel Foundation]
 * [|Peter Thiel Article- TechCrunch (April 2011)]
 * [|Peter Thiel Article- Nonprofit News]
 * [|Peter Thiel Interview - CNet News]
 * [|Peter Thiel on Nightline]

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**Works Cited Final Video Section** [|Final Video Section]