Peter Thiel co-founded PayPal, was the first outside investor in Facebook, and went on to build Palantir Technologies and the venture capital firm Founders Fund, establishing himself as one of Silicon Valley's most influential, and most contrarian, thinkers. In his 2014 book Zero to One, co-authored with Blake Masters, Thiel lays out a set of ideas about how to build lasting value in business and career, several of which directly challenge conventional wisdom about hard work, passion and talent.