This Question Made Him the Don of the PayPal Mafia—Here's How

“Why do I sound like every other founder on the internet?”

A question I hear on almost every client discovery call.

“Why do you think that is?”, I ask them instantly.

Today, we’re going to break it down. 

First, let me guess. You’re someone who’s trying to build their personal brand on the internet (as you should).

You quickly look at profiles of legendary thought leaders like Peter Thiel, Naval Ravikant, Grant Cardone, and Richard Branson.

And then you go:

“I wish I was a thought leader like these guys.”

Inspired by them, you think to yourself:

“Let me start posting stuff on my Linkedin” (or X, whatever you prefer.)

And then you post stuff like: “Hard Work breeds success”, or “When you take care of your team, you build a high-functioning company”.

Congratulations! You’ve made the first step to becoming a personal brand. But then?

You start scrolling and find 100,000 similar posts from all sorts of people.

From a 15-year-old girl in Oklahoma to a 55-year-old Grandpa living in Edinburg.

Meanwhile, this founder and VC has established himself as the ‘Don of the PayPal Mafia’.

I am talking about Peter Thiel.

The authority leader in innovation and building startups. (Trust me, it’s not easy to own one of the world's broadest and most competitive niches).

He has built that brand on reputation, extreme political takes, (quite literally) paying young kids to drop out of college, and most importantly, the framework we will discuss today.

Let’s dive in: