Here's why PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel is glad he was rejected from clerking for Justice Scalia
But one of the biggest turning points in Thiel's early career was actually a rejection, as Above the Law noted today.
Specifically, Thiel was turned down for clerkship positions under the Justice Anthony Kennedy and the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Thiel discusses the missed opportunity (and the opportunity that it created) in his book, "Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future," as highlighted by Above the Law:
Naturally, Thiel did end up doing pretty well for himself. A Q&A in the "Stanford Lawyer" reveals that Thiel's year of apellate clerkship followed his graduation from Stanford Law in 1992.
"Then I came back to California to start a business and basically do something other than the professional legal track," Thiel said.
After spending some time as a derivatives trader, he started his own investment fund in 1996 and co-founded PayPal shortly thereafter in 1998.
Unsurprisingly, Thiel doesn't look back too sadly at missing out on the clerk position. He elaborates in "Zero to One," saying that, in hindsight, "winning that ultimate competition [for the clerkship] would have changed my life for the worse."
A position in the court, Thiel speculated, would have brought a "career taking depositions and drafting other people's business deals instead of creating anything new."