They are living in a different world.
When I first watched the video titled competition is for losers on YouTube, I was deeply impressed by the speaker’s perspective about creating stuff, a very special viewpoint compared to others.
Being curious about him, I googled the speaker named Peter Thiel, it turned out that he was once regarded as the Godfather of Silicon Valley, and also a leading role of the famous PayPal Mafia.
Wow, I was just lucky enough to have watched a superstar’s video.
Besides, this superstar also wrote a book titled zero to one to share his thoughts about startups generously.
Undoubtably, reading his book is an enjoyable journey.
Just as the author said in chapter 1, “this book is about questions you must ask and answer to succeed in the business of doing new things”, the business of doing new things is not just about startup business, every new stuff you created is included.
So is this article I created : P
I decided to finish it in three parts.
- Summary of the whole book
- Thoughts that impressive
- Things I learned from this book
summary
Peter Thiel spent fifty minutes to express his book’s main points on his talk Competition is for Losers.
In this video, he explained why competition is for losers and the necessity of being a creative monopolist for every successful company.
Here are the key conditions of every successful business:
Technology
At least 10x better than your closest substitute in some important dimension.
Only being 10x better, can a company have a real monopolistic advantage.
「Google is awesome.」
Monopoly
Being a creative monopolist, start with a big share of a small market.
Plus, creating value is not enough—you also need to capture some of the value you create.
A good example for this point is Google VS U.S. airline companies.
「in this book, monopoly means the kind of company that’s so good at what it does that no other firm can offer a close substitute.」
Team
Find the right person.
You’re either on the bus or off the bus.
Distribution
Sales is important, which nerds often miss.
Sales works best when hidden.
Whoever is first to dominate the most important segment of a market with viral potential will be the last mover in the whole market.
The power law of distribution: if you can get just one distribution channel to work, you have a great business. If you try for several but don’t nail one, you’re finished.
Plus, everybody has a product to sell.
Secret
Creativity lies in the secret.
There are many more secrets left to find, but they will yield only to relentless searchers.
When you find a secret, it’s rarely a good idea to tell everyone.
impressive thoughts
There are some thoughts I found cool when reading the book.
The power law
Exponential equations.
For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.
Exponential equations describe severely unequal distributions [20/80]
It only becomes clear over time, but the majority often live in the present.
Luck
Luck was something to be mastered, dominated, and controlled.
Prior generations believed in making their own luck by working hard.
Long-item planning
Long-term planning is often undervalued by our indefinite short-term world.
「Remember how Jobs changed Apple through careful planning?」
Work
Since time is your most valuable asset, it’s odd to spend it working with people who don’t envision any long-term future together. If you can’t count durable relationships among the fruits of your time at work, you haven’t invested your time well—even in purely financial terms.
things I learn
struggle to be a definite optimism.
more
It’s my first time writing book notes in English, a little special and a lot of fun.
There might be some grammar mistakes in this article, but I know I was enjoying the process when I tried to express what I wanted to say using these simple English words. That’s enough.
Maybe years later, when I reread it, I would be embarrassed about it. : P