Zero to One
By Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel is a big deal in Silicon Valley. While his name might not get immediate recognition like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg he is equally as instrumental to some of the most world defining companies. Thiel argues that 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. In this fascinating approach to building the future of America through technology, the legendary entrepreneur and investor encourages us to break away from competition and create something entirely original.
“The most valuable businesses of coming decades will be built by entrepreneurs who seek to empower people rather than try to make them obsolete.”
Thoughts
Easily one of the most refreshing perspectives on the current state of startups and the technology arena in general. I’ll be honest I was not familiar with Peter Thiel before reading up on him when this book popped up as a top business book to read. He was an early investor in Facebook, co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, and is worth $2.5 billion dollars. With a B. He’s been around the block once or twice which makes this even that more impactful of a book. His views are honestly really inspiring in Zero to One. Not all business books allow you to expand your mind both creatively and logically, but Zero to One is able to. Thiel argues that the next big thing will be nothing like what we already have. If you are working on something that already exists (think Uber and Lyft both doing ridesharing) you are doing the business community a disservice and just throwing more wood onto the capitalism fire. Thiel wants the next Google and Facebook to be nothing like them. He wants more from us, and to be honest I wish I could give it to him. Zero to One drips with a passion for technology, but more importantly moving the world forward through innovation. Definitely a must read if you have ever thought of starting something of your own or want to know how others did it.
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