Amazon Link to Book: [ Ссылка ]
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About 8 or 10 months ago, I read Peter Thiel's book, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future.
If you don't know who Peter Thiel is, he's one of Paypal's cofounders along with Max Levchin and Elon Musk. Yes, he goes way back.
First of all, you should definitely go grab a copy of his book.
Zero to One is one of the seminal works of last year (published in September 2014). In it, he describes his view on startups and entrepreneurship.
The entire concept is that although we have really shiny objects, like new iPhones (eg. next week's iPhone 6S), we -- as a society -- are only incrementally evolving our tech. We're not actually creating something new, something revolutionary.
And that forms the basis of Zero to One. Starting with nothing and ending up with one of something.
But the book is more than simply a philosophical expose of what it means to start a startup.
Thiel asks the questions anyone who's ever dreamed of starting the next Microsoft, Google, Facebook... (insert any company) should ask themselves.
For example, "Do you have a way to not just create but deliver your product?" and "Are you starting with a big share of a small market?"
In a world where we see a bunch of funded companies which are nothing more than dressed up softwares as a service, I wonder how many founders nowadays try to start something that truly can go from zero to one. It seems that most are simply creating an iterative version of something which already exists.
It seems that most startups now are simply creating an iterative version of something which already exists.
I think for those of us who have never had a mentor on the level of Thiel, a book such as this allows us to pick a top tiered thinker's brain for how he views the world knowing what he knows, and having made the mistakes which he's made.
The book isn't without its criticism if you've read the Amazon reviews. For instance, one reviewer called his points of view "arbitrary". But isn't that the whole point of reading a book by one of Paypal's founder -- that is, to get a glimpse of how he sees the world?
Personally I found the whole experience quite enlightening and brought to my attention some new views as well as confirmed a few of my own personal beliefs aligned with those of someone who is much more experienced than me.
Zero to One is a fantastic book to read if you haven't read it already, and I definitely think it's one of the first books anyone who's thinking of starting a start up should read.
Amazon Link to Book: [ Ссылка ]
