Zero to One: Notes on Start-ups, or How to Build the Future
Written by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
Narrated by Blake Masters
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
If you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets.
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.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Reviews for Zero to One
816 ratings50 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excellent summary of important points for a successful start-up
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is based on a collection of notes taken by Blake Masters for a class on entrepreneurship thought by Peter Thiel.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Definitively a must read book for “101 Entrepreneur Starting Business from Zero ” !Business Cases are chosen on purpose - Startup spirit is not enough and therefore having kind of modus operandi will be precious help for Startupers ;() Last but not least – it is always a blessing to receive advice from experienced people … Aug, 12 th - 2016
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End:
I eventually waded back, breezed through the rest of the book, and although I still think the book suffers from profound deficiencies, it is an insightful, thought-provoking work.
The Loathsome Period:
Irecently picked this up where I left off, and I found it so loathsome that I reduced the stars from 4 to 1. The arguments are specious and his conclusions either incorrect or woefully inadequate, except as it pushes the conclusion to his decided end. Granted, there is some truth to his arguments, that believers in the definite future often win out, but he is blind to how those planners visit horrors on the planet, i.e., the Nazi's Master Plan, while believing that only good things come from his archetype.
This book will likely play well with people that are fans of his, tend to aggrandize people like Musk and Apple, but that is its problem. It is no better than a Tony Robbins motivational speech, preaching to the converted.
Initial review:
Insightful, but not really contrarian...
I have understood most of these concepts for several years, partially based on an insight provided in a beginning finance course. On the first day of class, the professor asked, "How do you make money?". The first answer was "word hard," the second answer was "provide services," but no one answered the best one, "control it." Now, one could control money, but over time I realized that it was control of a resource, essentially power, similar to monopoly, or simply an especially strong, market position.
Peter is a persuasive writer, but too often his expression of a belief is lopsided, and at least partially untrue. Yes, the companies he lauds are innovators, but later their innovation is often nothing more than market position, like buying up the entire supply chain before rivals. His example of people who believe in definite futures, as part of path to success, suffers from survivor bias; many entrepreneurs have definite concepts about the future and what they want to do, but most fail, we just don't hear about them.
I could go on, but I did enjoy the book, if for no other reason than it clarified my own thoughts about markets, and it is well-written.
As for the question, my answer would have been that inequality is the greatest threat to modern life. Although seemingly common now, since Occupy, I found the statistical negative correlations between inequality and quality of life measures back in 2003, and back then, it might have ruffled a few feathers. Also, it would be the toughest not because people do not believe it, but because the people I know and work with, as well as the people I have my closest relationships with, would see it as a personal attack. I work in finance, and some people I know and love are well-off. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of the most fascinating books I have read in recent months is Peter Thiel's Zero to One. I am not a tech entrepreneur or even starting a new business. But I found Zero to One so thought provoking and interesting, that I bought it after reading a library copy.
I found myself frequently recommending the book (consider this your recommendation. Go read it. Now), and any book hat Good should be on my shelf for easy access, referral, and lending.
Short and succinct, Peter Thiel's tact seems to take any conventional thinking and toss it on its head, reexamine paradigms, and, at its heart, inspire the reader to create, to make something new. As one of the founders of PayPal and Palantir, one of the first outside investors into Facebook, a funder to SpaceX and LinkedIn, Thiel has a track record of finding and funding industry and society changing companies.
Perhaps what I liked most about Thiel, though, is his emphasis on putting learning before university. As a high school drop-out, I've long believed in the importance of not allowing your schooling to get in the way of your education. While he doesn't spend much time talking about this in Zero to One, his focus on out of the box thinking runs throughout the book. It's hard in today's culture to swim against the current. It's one thing to take an idea that someone else has created and to perfect it, or market it, or to improve on it, but it is an entirely different thing to create something totally new. Hence, to go from 0 to 1 is Thiel's focus. As he puts it, the next Bill Gates will not build an operating system, the next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won't make a search engine, and the next Steve Jobs won't invent an iPod. And Thiel's book is about that most difficult of steps, the creation, rather than adding or modifying something familiar.
The book is short, punchy, and far more anecdotal than quantitative, but Thiel's style--and resume--make it a compelling and thought-provoking read, even for non-entrepreneurs. In a sense, we are all entrepreneurs in that it is when we get outside of our paradigms that we begin to truly create our better selves. Perhaps that is why I found it interesting and in a sense inspiring. I'm coming up on my 40th year, and still find myself looking to the future and what I will someday become. But the closer I get to that future the more I realize that it is already here. I'm living in it. Today is as good a day as any to make that future reality. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It seems that most of the business or marketing books that I read lately say pretty much the same thing, almost as if they are regurgitating the same business book with a different author. Peter Thiel gives fresh insight into what it take to build a start up. Really enjoyed the book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I began to listen to the audiobook version of this book, and after 10 minutes it became apparent that I needed to purchase and own a copy of this book. Peter's ideas are in many cases way out of the box and defy convention about business, economics and academia that are held dear to many.
Each sentence is carefully crafted and many short phrases in the book teach profound principles of the Thiel gospel. Given the fact that Thiel does not publish much of his ideas, this book is a rare insight into the mind of a truth seeker, who does not use convention as a shortcut. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book. Brief, to the point with what is possibly an unusual look at what is necessary to create a start up company, a unique new product that is more than a tweaking of what already exists. As an investor and MBA I would put my money with Peter Thiel anytime.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Well worth your time. A wise book full of insights.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book, but the narrator in the audio version is very boring and sad, otherwise, this is one of the best books on buisness.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing book with a fresh perspective on the business landscape, worth listening to.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Niceee book. Really entertaining, itd advanced tho, so read a couple others first
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Must Read for entrepreneurs. This book is a gem full of countless information.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The most useful and insightful book I have read/ listened to for business
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book was amazing because it explains so much about business and entrepreneurship in a captivating and down-to-earth way. “Zero to One” destroys misconceptions people hold about competition and startups, and gives potent evidence for each of its claims. It was written by Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal. He has a lot of experience as well as an excellent way of communicating. Read this enlightening book to find out the 7 item checklist you must fulfill to start a successful startup.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A message to think differently about our business world. Good lessons from the author’s working life.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Great book with helpful insights, however in my opinion the author is too positive and optimistic about Tesla as a company and the choices it made
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing perspective on people, business and the world. Great read
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5a good book, many interesting ideas to consider, recommend with confidence.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thank you Thiel and Masters for giving these start-up lessons, including a lot of context on dogma or currently held beliefs on success, and also sharing experiences close to your heart. The book explained a marketing tool (STP or segmentation, targeting, and positioning) in such a direct and simple manner that I finally understood how it should be applied to a business (compared to how it's usually applied in business school).
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life changing book. So many ideas that are not conventional presented by Peter. This will really change your perspective to business, technology and everything else.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Short and sweet. Packed with fantastic advice for an entrepreneur.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The book provides a complete summarised insight on the current trends of the business domain. Loved the journey of reading it and made a lot of notes to incorporate the experiences and strategies in my forthcoming startup.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A book about how technology is the way to create the world better than ever and the only way to survive the future of human race.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Not bad, but far from great. I prefer books with actionable takeaways. While I found some of the stories interesting, it didn't leave me with any new insights or strategies to apply to my business.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5this is one of the best books I have ever read it was written by a man with issues but parse that out
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5full of really great insights and advice regarding the pitfalls of startups and business culture.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just great if you have so much questions about starting a business or even about life after college
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book! Full of knowledge and insight. Really enjoyed it
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Peter Thiel is one that understands how to provoke thought. The concepts in the book are interesting and make for a good read throughout.