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The Best Advice Peter Thiel Gave Mark Zuckerberg: The Biggest Risk Is Not Taking Any Risk

By Peter Thiel · Founder Mindset · 1 min read

In a world that's changing so quickly, the biggest risk you can take is not taking any risk. People will always point to the downside of any decision — and locally they may be right. But in aggregate, if you are stagnant, you're guaranteed to fail.

Key Points

Peter Thiel told Zuckerberg: in a world changing this quickly, the biggest risk is not taking any risk
For any given decision there's upside and downside — locally the critics may be right
But in aggregate, if you're stagnant and don't make changes, you're guaranteed to fail

In a world that's changing so quickly, the biggest risk you can take is not taking any risk.

The Biggest Risk Is No Risk

Zuckerberg: Peter was the person who told me this really pithy quote — in a world that's changing so quickly, the biggest risk you can take is not taking any risk. And I really think that's true.

A lot of people think that whenever you have to make some big shift in direction, people are going to point to the downside risks of that decision. And locally they may be right — for any given decision, there's upside and downside.

In a world changing this quickly, the biggest risk is not taking any risk.

Stagnation Is Guaranteed Failure

Zuckerberg: But in aggregate, if you are stagnant and you don't make those changes — then I think you're guaranteed to fail. You're not going to catch up.

To some degree, it's really right that over time, the biggest risk that you can take is to not take any risk.

If you are stagnant and don't make changes, you're guaranteed to fail.