Every CEO likes to say she runs a great company. It’s hard to tell whether the claim is true until the company or the CEO has to do something really difficult.

Great companies have secrets: specific reasons for success that other people don’t see.

Often, the best companies are ones where the product is an extension of the founder’s personality, which shouldn’t be a big surprise, since everyone is passionate about themselves.

EVERY GREAT COMPANY is unique, but there are a few things that every business must get right at the beginning. I stress this so often that friends have teasingly nicknamed it “Thiel’s law”: a startup messed up at its foundation cannot be fixed.

I see an entrepreneur as the chief designer of a business that works better than any other.

A great company is a conspiracy to change the world; when you share your secret, the recipient becomes a fellow conspirator.

Perhaps great companies emerge more out of insight than out of desire.

A great company is a conspiracy to change the world;

Often, the best companies are ones where the product is an extension of the founder’s personality.

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.

Great businesses have a point of view, not just a product or service. You have to believe in something. You need to have a backbone. You need to know what you’re willing to fight for. And then you need to show the world.

Every excellent company we studied is clear on what it stands for, and takes the process of value shaping seriously. In fact, we wonder whether it is possible to be an excellent company without clarity on values and without having the right sorts of values.

People at a successful startup are fanatically right about something those outside it have missed.

The real lesson is: When companies — and people — show you who they truly are, believe them.