Zero to One
Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
-
-
4.4 • 145 Ratings
-
-
- $18.99
Publisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world.”—Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta
“Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.”—Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla
The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.
Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself.
Doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique.
Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation: it starts by learning to ask the questions that lead you to find value in unexpected places.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In his first book, PayPal cofounder Thiel presents a series of musings for example,"Doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But every time we create something new, we go from 0 to 1" rather than a cohesive narrative. He begins with promise, drawing a strict distinction between horizontal progress making more of what already exists in the world and vertical progress creating something entirely new. To accomplish the latter, he proposes, more businesses need to think like startups. From there, the text sprawls wildly from one subject to the next, with periodic references to PayPal's evolution as the main recurring motif. His provocative central premise is that successful businesses should strive to be monopolies that readers should build something singular and exciting enough that it will be the only one of its kind. Though the book is presented as an instructional guide, it gives the reader little to take away. A brief meditation on the lessons of the dot-com bust ("make incremental advances," "stay lean and flexible," "improve on the competition," "focus on product, not sales") offers standard truisms rather than practical insights. Thiel touches on how to build a successful business, but the discussion is too abstract to offer much to the next Steve Jobs or Peter Thiel.
Customer Reviews
Singularity
It’s a deep, well crafted approach to help put the reader in control of understanding the concept of 0 to 1, and the fundamental components of defining our future and how a startup can be part of that big picture. It’s impressive, although too much focus on tech. Good stuff!
Wow, A must read!
I Loved the entire book, an incredible cognitive dive!
A must read for all those concerned with Trumps New World order ambitions!
Better Suited for a Blog
This book reads like a series of thoughts and ideas that would have been better suited towards a blog or newsletter.
While there are interesting topics and ideas brought forth, Thiel, in my opinion, does not sufficiently expand upon them, and does not leave much room for nuance. Indeed, he is very much 0 or 1, with no space in between.