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Peter Thiel: Always Value Substance Over Status. I Escaped Alcatraz to Learn That.

By Peter Thiel · Mindset & Career · 1 min read

From the outside, everybody wanted to get in. From the inside, everybody wanted to get out. I lasted 7 months and 3 days. When I left, someone said — it's so reassuring to see you leave. I had no idea it was possible to escape from Alcatraz.

Key Points

His resolution: always value substance over status, substance over prestige
He lasted 7 months and 3 days at a big New York law firm — 'Alcatraz'
Too much of his early career was driven by prestige, not by what he really wanted to do

From the outside, everybody wanted to get in. From the inside, everybody wanted to get out.

Substance Over Status

Thiel: One of the resolutions I came up with a number of years ago was to always value substance over status. Substance over prestige. If I was giving my younger self advice, I'd probably still go to Stanford, might still go to law school — but I'd ask a lot more questions about why I was doing these things.

Too much of it was driven by prestige and status. Not quite enough about really the substance of trying to learn things.

Always value substance over status. Too much of what I did was driven by prestige.

Escaping from Alcatraz

Thiel: I had this sort of crazy rolling quarter-life crisis that culminated at this big New York law firm. From the outside, everybody wanted to get in. From the inside, everybody wanted to get out.

I lasted 7 months and 3 days. When I left, one of the people down the hall said — it's so reassuring to see you leave, Peter. I had no idea it was possible to escape from Alcatraz. And all you had to do was go through the front door.

From the outside, everybody wanted in. From the inside, everybody wanted out. I lasted 7 months.

People's Identities Get Wrapped Up

Thiel: People's identities get so wrapped up in the things they compete for that it was inconceivable for people to actually leave. The question was — how had I ended up there? Why had I not thought about it more?

I had taken too many shortcuts of valuing what was prestigious, what was conventional, over what I really wanted to do. Always substance over status.

People's identities get so wrapped up in what they compete for that leaving seems inconceivable.