Zero to One by Peter Thiel
Something you can’t live without today was probably created by a Tech Startup. In this book Thiel explains why a few of these Startups become so successful.
He goes into detail on a variety of crucial factors, such as the importance of a good founding team, making sure what you’re creating is 10x superior to others, not worrying about competition and the importance of sales. All the things that seem like common sense, but once you read the book you’ll really understand how important they can be. This book also made me understand why some Startups manage to raise so much money without having done much.
It was a good book to read, practical and enjoyable. If you have an idea or are thinking about this space then this is a great book for you. If you’re in a startup or have started one it’s probably better to skim it because you would have learnt similar things through an accelerator or something similar. But even then you’ll still be able to take something away.
Another thing about Zero to One was that it gave opposing views on two things I’m fond of, that is Economics and Outliers (the book). In Econ, Monopolies are said to be wrong, Thiel does not think so and thinks Monopolies are a good thing that all companies should want to become. I agree.
Thiel then comes for my boy Malcolm Gladwell in the chapter “You are not a lottery ticket”. He claims Outliers is wrong in saying that success has a lot to do with luck. He claims this thinking is what’s wrong with the Western world. He thinks that we are in a state of “indefinite pessimism” because we don’t create clear visions anymore and we just hope things will work out. This is a wrong assumption and a massive generalisation. I don’t think people have stopped having clear visions, more so that we are in fear of what’s next. Plus I doubt being aware that some luck is involved in becoming successful would ever stop any ambitious person from trying to achieve a goal.
As you can tell from that last paragraph, the book isn’t just on Startups. Thiel also gives his philosophical outlook on the world, which is thought-provoking but also quite scary in a similar way to Sapiens.
What did you think of the “You are not a lottery ticket chapter” do you agree with his views?
