PayPal founder and successful start-up investor Peter Thiel urged Yonsei School of Business students in his speech here in February to dare to take risks in searching for business success because the big profits lie in creating monopoly opportunities instead of competing in low-profit duplications of existing businesses.

Thiel spoke in Yonsei University’s Baekyang Concert Hall as a special guest lecturer during Yonsei School of Business’ yearlong celebration of its centennial. Dean Donghoon Kim said, “Because our economy is at the crossroads of a new paradigm, I have invited a global leader, Peter Thiel.” And in concluding his welcoming remarks, he commented that “through Peter Thiel’s lecture, I hope we can all have the opportunity to make new dreams.”

“What is the truth that you know that others disagree with,” Thiel asked the audience early in his address. The question may have reflected his college major in philosophy, but he said that from a business perspective the response is the same as saying “An excellent company that hasn’t yet been started by anyone.” Continuing, he said, “People believe that capitalism and competition are synonyms, but in fact, they are antonyms.” Capitalism and competition do not hold the same meaning, he said, because, if the market had complete competition, then entrepreneurs could not profit.

“Opening a Korean restaurant in Seoul” cannot be considered an excellent start-up, he said, because of the huge number of competitors that would make success difficult. However, people tend to prefer to enter a competitive market because the founders of start-ups feel safer by copying other businesses. But while people are competing against each other for low profits, he said, monopolistic companies are quietly gaining high revenue. “This is the blind spot of competition,” he said. He told his audience that the “courage” to choose “a truth that no one agrees with” is far more important than the safe feeling to be found in competing. “Uniqueness,” he said, is the secret he has identified as the way to have an excellent company.

Speaking briefly after Thiel’s talk, Congressman Ahn Cheol-soo recalled having ties with the Yonsei School of Business during his years as a professor at KAIST University and said, “There are many cases where people do not know their own talents. Instead of prejudicially judging your own talents, I hope that during your student years you will take the opportunity to attempt diverse things that will help you find out who you are.”

Thiel’s rise toward recognition as a global business leader began in 1998 when he established an electronic payment system company (PayPal) and led the firm as a CEO in opening a new era of fast and safe online transactions. He was the first outside investor in Facebook, where he also served as director. In 2004, he launched a software company called Palantir Technologies. In addition, he became the first investor in numerous successful technology start-ups, such as LinkedIn and Yelp.