In a 2016 Y Combinator interview, Zuckerberg was asked for the best advice Thiel ever gave him. Zuckerberg said of the self-made billionaire, “Peter was the person who told me this really pithy quote, ‘In a world that’s changing so quickly, the biggest risk you can take is not taking any risk.’ I really think that that’s true.”

Zuckerberg was trying to get across that when it comes to decision-making or shifting direction within a company, there is inevitably some risk involved.

“People are going to point to the downside risks of that decision. And locally, they may be right,” Zuckerberg said. “For any given decision that you’re going to make, there’s upside and downside. But in aggregate, if you are stagnant and you don’t make those changes, then I think you’re guaranteed to fail and not catch up.”

While leaders cannot be afraid to introduce new ideas and innovate to stay ahead of the curve, Zuckerberg cautioned against making dramatic changes, noting that if a company is performing well, big moves may not be necessary.

Beyond high-level strategy, Zuckerberg credited Thiel with a critical structural lesson during Facebook’s first $500,000 investment round in 2004, when Thiel demanded all co-founders be placed on vesting schedules. At the time, Zuckerberg did not know what a vesting schedule was.

Many of the world’s most successful business leaders and entrepreneurs completely align with the philosophy that stagnation is the ultimate risk. In rapidly evolving industries, playing it safe is viewed by top innovators as a guaranteed path to obsolescence.