ZERO TO ONE is an outstanding book and it doesn't just give answers to entrepreneurship questions. It analyses answers having the future of the world in mind.
Peter Thiel writes this in fourteen chapters, with one of his students,
Blake Masters.
THE CHALLENGE OF THE FUTURE
One difficult question for people to answer is the truth they believe in and is difficult for others to accept and, future starts when there's a constant change between the present and indicated the for the future, future starts with progress from today, this progress takes two paths, the horizontal which is based on working on a path created by someone else by doing or improving what the person has done before known as "globalization"(1-n), and also a vertical path which is walking in a path none has ever walked and done that which has never been done is also known as "technology"(0-1).
PARTY LIKE IT'S 1999
To know the answer to what people believe in but it's false is by knowing there believes first, the 1990s was a memorable year where the internet made waves such as mosaic browser in 1993, mosaic also released a navigator browser in 1994 which GRE from 20% to 80% in 1995. Netscape stock and Yahoo also took a big shot in the year 1996. Amazon also boomed in the year 1997. The economy could contain the globalization and something new has to be done.
Dot-com mania was like a hotcake for 18 months that people were rushing it from September 1998 to March 2000 but were not sustainable. Then PayPal mania came up and ended up helping people with money transfer which was her first successful business after been chosen among the 5 unsuccessful business but to get more customers $10 has to be given to anyone that signs up and thousands and millions of customers were gotten and the stock value of the company skyrocketed to millions of dollars.
NASDAQ kept crashing from 2000 to 2002, and people at Silicon valley learned 4 things which were:
1. To take a gradual approach to every success
2. To be ready to adapt and change at every point
3. To work on satisfying the available customers and spread the influence to more
4. To be focused on the product then the expected profit.
But the opposites of these seems to be more right which was:
1. To risk boldness than triviality.
2. To have a bad plan is better than no plan.
3. To be in a Competitive destroy profits.
4. Sales matters just as much as the product
ALL HAPPY COMPANIES ARE DIFFERENT
There's a huge difference between making a valuable product been valuable itself, and this is the difference between perfect and monopoly. Under a perfect competition atmosphere, the profit of different producers lasts for a limited time, but monopoly holds total control of sales and profit of the service provided. It is popularly believed that monopoly and competition but they're very much different.
Monopolies tend to lie to protect the interest of the company and attract attention to their market and conceal the monopoly, by exaggerating the power of the "imaginary" opponent while Competitive lies are independent lies trying to express self-reliance.
When the competition becomes intense the attention is mostly diverted to the profit and the welfare of the workers and so on are left behind while the absence of competition in monopoly gives it chance to cater to the workers and other things including planning for the future and also welcomes innovation. Just like all happy family is alike and unhappy families are unhappy in their own way, all happy businesses are different and all unhappy businesses are the same. So is the relationship between monopoly and competition.
IDEOLOGY OF COMPETITION
Creative productivity means new products that benefit everybody including the producer but competition is totally against this even in the education sector nowadays. Everyone can't have the same gift and method of assimilation, and approaching them, in the same manner, will be a disaster.
LAST MOVER ADVANTAGE
Escape from the competition is simply monopoly and monopoly is reasonable when it can see through the future, and when it has healthy cash flow.
Characteristics of monopoly
Proprietary technology
This is the most substantial advantage of monopoly because it makes your business 10 times impossible to replicate or compete with, hence the domination of the product might be a lasting one.
Network effects
Monopoly's success is dependent on the network and links it's able to establish.
Economics of scales
A monopoly firm or business should have the capacity to grow and expand, cause the more it grows the more it gets stronger.
Branding
This is creating an exceptional standing for your product that makes it stand out and unbeaten amongst others, that's what the product will be known for in terms of value.
Building a monopoly
Start small and monopolize
Every successful enterprise we see today started small and found it's way to the peak because dominating a small market is easier than a large market.
Scaling up
When the enterprise is properly grounded then you start taking it to another level per-time, but this should be a gradual process and not immediate, and the only discipline can help in this process.
Don't disrupt
Don't try to strike a direct competition with an older firm but just be good at the monopoly you're into, of course, disrupters will come and attack, but just be firm at what you do and try as much as possible to improve your product, so as not to be placed at the back, eventually.
Being the first to actualize an idea is a tactic, not a goal, and so it doesn't matter who starts first just have your cash flow set and be sure of your product then it will surprisingly take you to the top irrespective of the opposition.
YOU'RE NOT A LOTTERY TICKET
The issue of success has been a controversial issue with lots of successful people seeing it from different perspectives, but the summary of the relevant ones is success happens when luck meets with diligence.
The way a man approaches a future determines what he gets from it, if he approaches it with uncertainty he might get the uncertain response but if he approaches it with certainty there's a great probability he gets his expectations.
Indefinite Pessimism
An indefinite pessimist does not know what the future entails and chooses to live life one per time(as it comes), mostly just about eating, drinking, and making merry just to hope things better an example forofis are the Europeans.
Definite Pessimism
A definite pessimist takes the future seriously and expects the best from the future but the prevailing present circumstance makes them believe the impending future won't be approached easily and faster than it's supposed to be even when others see them progressing, an example of this is the Chinese economy.
Definite Optimism
A definite optimist believes he can do anything in the future if he puts his mind to it and work towards it he can achieve his goal, an example of this is American inventions.
Indefinite optimism
An indefinite optimist believes there's a great future ahead but he's idle on how to get to that great future ahead i.e he has no plans but believes there's a great future, and an example of this is America in the 1970s, and this has so much eaten deep into this present age in several ways such as finances (no idea of what to do with money), politics (inability to predict political status), philosophy (philosophers are no more exact), and life(unraveled life secrets).
It sounds like it does not correlate for someone to expect a better future without planning towards it but that's real nowadays. A person who has a vision for the company no matter how small will never sell it.
FOLLOW THE MONEY
There has been a genuine belief that money is used to make money and also a monopoly is greater than a million per-competitions put together. Venture capitalist tends to identify, fund and profit from developing company after they've grown, and this is checked within the space of 10years to know a company that will be successful and gets 20% of the company, so it's their duty to carefully study the company not to invest the money in "ruin". So entrepreneurs will be advised to only opt for the best by carefully choosing and not venture into the available which might eventually not be profitable.
SECRETS
Conventions are seen as easy, secrets are seen as difficult, and mysteries as impossible, which can be rephrased as; Goals that can be satisfied with minimal effort, Goals that can be satisfied with serious effort and Goals that cannot be satisfied, no matter how much effort one makes, by the Unabomber (Ted Kaczynski).
Lots of people there are no hard secrets to be discovered including Geography that believes there are no new places to be explored, Incrementalism of which growing kids are not commended for doing new things but for doing a bit more than the discovered, Risk aversion which is people's fear of taking the risk of discovering secrets yet not being believed and being ignored complacency also sets in when Elites in the society believes in tapping pleasure from the discovered secrets rather than believe in the discovery of another secret, and flatness which also makes people believe the world is homogeneous so every secret they discovered has already been discovered by a guru somewhere.
The convention is believing there's no secret to be discovered thereby settling for a routine while secrets discovery is believing the impossible can become possible.
The two types of secrets we have are, "Secrets about nature and secrets about people", which are factors to think about when starting a company, but the easiest way to find a secret us the look at the unthinkable and unexpected places, and everyone within and no one outside is told when discovered.
FOUNDATIONS
The most important part of a company is how starts and whom it starts with, and good relationship and structuring is needed not only between the founders but also the workers, structure in terms of the owning, running and governing (which should not exceed 5 wisely chosen members).
There should be discipline on how the workers and board members should be compensated even though when they're not compensated well they might not run the company well. It could also affect the health of the company, even though some prefer being paid in stocks as their willingness to be a part of the company for a long time. The product should also be improved which is extending the founder.
THE MECHANICS OF MAFIA
It is not enough to have workers or team with competent hands but also corporative and united, by being free towards one another's and having the interest of the organization at heart just like a family, where a specific duty is assigned to each member and they are assessed based on that. This reduces conflicts and strife among workers. An organization can be likened to a cult without any evil or diabolical acts because they should share the same mindset and keep secrets no one outside will have access to.
IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME
The Field of Dreams conceit is that engineers are biased toward building cool stuff rather than selling it. But customers will not come just because you build it. You have to make that happen, and it’s harder than it looks.
There has been a controversial belief by nerds and salesmen that nerds advertisements are not necessary for the forming of a company and this is against the beliefs of salesmen, when the truth is that, advertisement is needed but nerds and engineers the product will sell itself and a company without a good sales strategy is a bad company no matter the greatness of the products. A good salesman is hidden mostly behind unrelated titles. There are many ways of selling a product and they include;
- Complex sales
- Personal sales
- Distribution Doldrums
- Marketing and advertising
- Viral market
There's more to sales you don't just sell your product but part of the company and this helps to create media awareness.
MAN AND MACHINE
The invasion of Information technology in this present age brings fear of joblessness to people's hearts but machines can never replace humans but can only complement humans. Now we're in an age where people do a single thing repeatedly to get a minimum wage or payment. Still, even though the computer might store and arrange data's better than humans it can't take easy decisions like humans. The best way to have a great result is by allowing the computer to complement human efforts then the result can be more efficient, but the computer can't replace manpower and man can't neglect the impact of computers.
SEEING GREEN
Questions that affects the progress of cleantech companies include:
1. The Engineering Question
Can you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements?
2. The Timing Question
Is now the right time to start your particular business?
3. The Monopoly Question
Are you starting with a big share of a small market?
4. The People Question
Do you have the right team?
5. The Distribution Question
Do you have a way to not just create but deliver your product?
6. The Durability Question
Will your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future?
7. The Secret Question
Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don’t see?
The issue is, is a company good for society or seen as good by society? a company can be good for society when it's product advances and is improved.
THE FOUNDER'S PARADOX
It's more powerful and dangerous for a company to be led by a distinctive individual, some people might be strong while some are weak, some might be genius while some are dullards, but the majority are in the middle i.e average, but the fact about the extreme behaviors of leaders are often exaggerated and can be as a result of circumstances like birth, environment, exposure, and influence.
In conclusion, this present age is defiant to making new products and these are the likely effects:
- Recurrent collapse
- Plateau (a similar reinvention of past products)
- Extinction
- Takeoff
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