How to Start Your Own Cult in 6 Easy Steps

Peter Thiel says you should run your startup like a cult. Here’s how you get started.

The other day, Peter Thiel wrote that founders should run their startups like cults. It was a controversial statement, but he was trying to drum up interest for his new book, so you can forgive him for that.

Point remains, cults are effective — terribly effective — at generating loyal support from thousands, even millions of followers. Cults also tend to be fanatical, scary and completely out of touch with reality.

But we won’t focus on that. Instead, we’ll talk about how startups (and future cult creators) can create their own cult-like following.

1. Wear Long Robes

As a future cult leader, you should pay special attention to your clothes. They’re more than your identity; they’re the tools you use to set yourself apart from the rest – the average folks.

To be more specific, as a future cult leader, your clothes serve two purposes:

A. Your clothes are your visual leitmotif.

Your followers can spot you in a sea of a thousand bodies because you always wear the same clothes. Loose robes if you’re a religious guru. Turtlenecks and sweatshirts if you’re a tech genius. Cult leaders are usually the best or the worst dressed people in a room. Since the former is hard, strive for the latter.

B. Your clothes state your un-ordinariness.

Your followers will seek you to the ends of this Earth if you can convince them you’re extraordinary. There are lots of ways you can do that. One way is to wear un-ordinary people clothes. No ordinary person walks around in black turtlenecks and New Balance sneakers 365 days a year, or greets guests at his party in red smoking robes and a Captain’s hat 200 miles inland. 90% will think you’re crazy. 10% will think you’re not. These 10% will be your staunchest followers.

Lesson Learned

Wear unordinary clothing. Turn your body into an external display of extraordinariness. Your body affords you limited physical real estate. Use it wisely.

2. Cultivate Your Symbols

Let’s play a game.

I’ll say a word. You describe the picture that pops in your head.

Ready?

Go: “Christianity”

What did you see?

Something like this?

Let’s play another round:

“Peace”

This?

Okay, one more: “Judaism”

This?

These are all symbols. Primitive imagery repeated so often that it’s become a part of our collective conscious. The imagery has weight. It has meaning. It isn’t just a collection of squiggly lines. It has a mythology of its own, and to believers and followers, it is a talisman of great hope.

Cults need their symbols. It’s how they spread their ideas and share the values the symbols represent (a symbol without any values is just an empty placeholder). A well-constructed symbol has tremendous power – the power of authority and the power of rebellion.

Early Christians carving the cross in their prison cells was rebellion; present day Christians carving the cross in their churches is authority.

Your symbol should have three elements:

A. It should be easily reproducible.

Your followers should be able to reproduce it over and over again. Forget elegance. Embrace simplicity. Think of the Star of David (two triangles), the Cross of Christianity (two intersecting lines) or the Crescent Moon of Islam. Primitive stuff, but simple enough that a two year old could reproduce them with his eyes closed.

B. It should have a mythology

A symbol without a mythology is an empty placeholder. For a symbol to have real power, it must represent something – to your followers at least. The Cross isn’t just two intersecting lines; it is a symbol of Christ’s suffering. The Star of David symbolizes the three knots between Torah, Israel and God.

There are stories attached to every effective symbol. Make sure yours has one as well.

C. It should be repeated.

Symbols derive their true power from repetition. The most powerful symbols in our world are nearly omnipresent. They’re all around us. Watching. Observing. Signs of comfort. Of hope to the believers. A symbol in isolation doesn’t work. It needs to be repeated – as often and as widely as possible.

Lesson Learned

Create a symbol. Give it a myth, a story. Then propagate the hell out of it.

3. Manufacture an Origin Myth

As a cult founder, you are a leader of people. You tread difficult terrain. You aren’t ordinary; ordinary doesn’t understand you. You are surrounded by people, but you’re alone, distant, solitary…

You’re a superhero, and like every superhero, you need an origin myth.

Your origin myth is the story of your birth, of your precocious early years, of struggles, tests and triumphs. It is a story of your failures and your dedication and your eventual success.

The narrative arc is familiar – early promise – failures – a profound revelation – eventual triumph. If you’ve seen a Rocky movie, you know the story.

Your origin myth is important because it will sustain you and your followers during your wilderness years (and every cult must spend a few years in the wilderness). It will be their source of comfort and pride.

But most importantly, it will help your followers believe that you were destined to lead them.

Lesson Learned

Change the word ‘cult’ to ‘startup’ in the above section and everything will make sense.

4. Don’t be Cool

Cool is good. Cool is great. Cool is half the battle and two steps to victory.

Being cool will make people like you, admire you, even follow you.

What being cool won’t do is make you a cult leader.

Cool is indifference. It is the lack of great and volatile emotion. Cool is a man chewing bubble gum and wearing dark shades and mouthing “I don’t give a shit”.

Because cool doesn’t care, it ultimately has no great meaning.

All cults have one thing in common: they aspire to give you meaning. They talk of bringing you salvation and making dents in the Universe, not shrugging their shoulders and not giving a single f*ck.

Lesson Learned

Be cool if you want to be loved.

Be intense and passionate if you want cult-like following.

Think Michael Corleone, not Fonzie.

5. Be audacious

Average people and ordinary founders speak of doing good enough.

Cult leaders and extraordinary founders speak of moonshots and changing the world.

Audacious goals are daunting because they seem almost unachievable (the keyword is almost – we’ll get to that later). But because they seem almost unachievable, they are also almost achievable.

It’s just a matter of how you look at it.

When you stand upon a stage and point towards Mars (never underestimate the power of visual spectacle) and vow to land a man on it, most people will look at the 99% chance of failure and call you crazy. But a few will look at the 1% chance of success and they’ll join you.

These will be your most loyal followers.

Lesson Learned

Pick an audacious goal and announce it to everyone.

Just make sure that your audacity is within reason. Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars, a planet we’ve already sent a robot to. If he wanted to colonize Neptune, we’d throw him in the loon bin.

6. Create a Nemesis

When I was fifteen, I decided to run for class president. It was a useless position with no real power and a lot of work and responsibility. I hated work and responsibility. But since the last class President dated the hottest girl in class, I decided to go for it anyway.

So I gathered my friends and we told everyone about all the good things we would do. No one really cared.

Then another guy declared that he wanted to be class President as well. We now told people about all the bad things he would do. Everyone started listening.

I won that election by 60 votes. I never did date the hottest girl in class, but that’s another matter.

The point is: every leader needs a nemesis. More so if you’re leading a cult. Just as God needs Satan, Mac needs PC and Harry needs Voldemort, a cult needs a distinct and identifiable nemesis to rally against.

This works for three reasons:

1. Having a nemesis saves you time and effort. You don’t have to pronounce your values. You just have to figure out the values of your nemesis and position yourself as the opposite of that. See: Mac vs. PC.

2. Sympathy points. Everyone loves an underdog. Paint yourself as David and your nemesis as Goliath, and the sympathy will follow.

3. Your nemesis will invite the ire of your followers. It’ll be a way to direct their hate and anger. These are powerful catalysts for action. Channel them effectively.

There are a lot of other things you can do to start a cult (or create a cult-like following for your startup). You can create awe-inspiring visual spectacles. You can enforce (or break) uniformity. You can sell meaning. But these six steps should be enough to do what Peter Thiel says and run your startup like a cult.