Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
by Peter Thiel
July 11, 2020 — July 14, 2020
Los Angeles, CA
Recommended by Ahmed Dulaimy + Read with Kaleendra Malwatta
I read this with Kali when he brought up a project he was working on and I thought this book would give us good ideas, it actually did much more; it presented us with a mentality, a new perspective, and forced us to realize aspects of our own actions and thoughts, all while presenting to us history, examples, and ideas from great startups and entrepreneurs. A few key points that were highlighted or starred:
Scaling technology only scales the problems it brings, while innovating and revolutionizing technology advances us while deleting the problems. We should provide something familiar to people in the beginning so they won’t shut us off due to it being too new or different for them. I’ve shifted my entire mind when it comes to competition and monopolies. I’ve come to realize that the general idea of monopolies being hated is because they’ve made it to the top. One should aspire to do the same, by being so great and unique that no one can really compete against you and without any competition, you will be stress-free. But one needs to make a monopoly that is ambitious and sustainable as it is powerful, if a monopoly can be replaced due to changing times it will eventually lose its power. Keep evolving to survive with strength.
The book also has helped me reflect on and improve my nonprofit organization, Oazis, I need to realize that social need isn’t always an opportunity nor is it an entity that people will automatically give to because its doing good for the world. I’ve been integrating technology and fintech to make it into something superior, while figuring out how I will have the fintech management under my own wing in the future (5 years from now). I have to realize while I jumped in and participated in a rise of high demand and popularity of nonprofits due to the recent ongoing events that seems to escalate, it doesn’t mean that I will be successful as a nonprofit manager. I have to be uniquely great and fulfill the demand with a superior supply, by giving donors the best nonprofit; as Kali put it “you have to be on top of the wave to surf it.”
Destroy competition. But do so by focusing on the greatness of yourself and your own entity, if your ambition to scale up or become the premier force overtakes your vision and initial purpose, then you are on the path of self-destruction. Focus on your vision, not your competitors or the reviews, if you focus on the vision then you’ll be fine. I’ve come to realize this applies to me, I’m very competitive, and I’m glad I have very admirable competitors. However, I should enforce upon myself that winning the vision is far more important than beating my rivals.
Invest in the future concepts that will replace current or existing ones if you want to invest right, if you’re creating something make sure it can be scaled without requiring more to be put into it. I agree with Thiel, in the sense that I don’t believe in luck, while I do strongly believe in the concept of privilege; if we use a controlled variable of privilege for success amongst a sample of competitors, then I think luck is what you make out of it, working harder. As for the 80/20 rule he applied in venture capital, I found it interesting how each investment I’m making from now on will be faced with a question to myself before initiating the deal: “Can this give me enough returns to make up for all my other investments put together?”