Last year, I got a chance to sit in on a speaker session with Peter Thiel. He spoke of his new book, Zero to One. Rather than wait in the long line to get it signed by him I just took a copy and went home to read it cover to cover in one sitting.

Sure, that book had the usual billionaire pontificator language in it as one would expect, but I was able to take away a few things which I truly needed to hear at that time. It was mid 2014 when I had heard Thiel speak, and I had just freshly negotiated my layoff from Amgen. With the severance and my life savings, I was ready to invest in a business, and I didn’t know what I should get into. I was gung ho about trying to start my own restaurant business. You see, I had this “brilliant” idea of bringing Korean BBQ to the west side of LA, izakaya style, ya know?

Little did I know what I was about to get myself into. As I was gathering all the requirements for starting such a business to the best of my ability, I started to realize more and more the insurmountable challenges a typical restaurant owner has. Never mind the administrative tasks of ensuring the business is setup appropriately– there were so many considerations – legal, city permits, suppliers, employees, and so much more that it was starting to look like a bleak venture with the sheer amount of manpower, stress, money, and time it would take just to get it setup.

But then, I took the time to cool my head and check out Thiel’s speaking engagement. It was the best decision I probably made in my career, unbeknownst to me at the time. I never forgot his insights, as he even referred to the idea of a budding entrepreneur trying to open a fancy restaurant on El Camino Real in San Jose. He emphasized the fundamental concept of a restaurant – how just like any brick and mortar store, they are limited by the very nature of their physical existence. You can be the best restaurant in the world, and be operating at 100% capacity and utilization, but therein lies your limit. You’ll never be able to serve more than 100%. Never mind that your costs and liabilities increase as you maximize your business- and you’re one lawsuit away from becoming ruined (it happened to my old sushi restaurant boss – a pesky California employee 15-minute break law that put the onus of proving a past employee had taken their breaks on the owner). Thiel proffered that most brick and mortar businesses these days are by and large vocations of pleasure at best. For example, if you were running a restaurant, you’d better love making and serving food while creating a positive customer experience, because you’re not in it to make substantial money at the end of the day. In fact, you’re setting yourself up to have a lot of capacity that must be filled every day or you will be losing money on any unutilized space. It made complete sense – running a restaurant is truly a labor of love, and one better already have their cash flow coming from somewhere else if they are to open a restaurant.

Thiel saved me from making a grave mistake last year, for which I am eternally grateful. I switched my focus back then to other opportunities. I actually still have my dream of opening up my little Korean style izakaya in Santa Monica someday, but until I’ve got my financial engines firing elsewhere, it’s on the shelf.