This is the book I wished I had read earlier.
Zero to One by Peter Thiel with Blake master is such an insightful book for those who are interested in startups, the history of technology, and the story of venture capital behind the tech giants today. Thiel is a brilliant person and a prominent figure behind Paypal, Palantir , and one of the early investors of Facebook. His fellowship has also created some successful people with their products that we are familiar with today. There's one famous person in crypto who received his fellowship, And he is Vitalik Buterin. Those were a few reasons why you should bother to read this book and more in the following part.
Are you familiar with get X to sign up/join and get more X to refer your friend advertisement?
Zero to one practically dissects and shares many marketing approach and business perspective from Paypal to many other tech giants today. That includes the marketing approached that Thiel mentioned in his book.
" We gave new customers 10$ for joining(red: paypal), and we gave them 10$ more every time they referred a friend" (Thiel & Masters 18)
He didn't just stop there rather also explained the cons of doing that just to acquire more customers. It is then followed by some practical tips to grow our business based on certain characteristics that he summarized in the book. There are many philosophical and economic discussion that unless we have a bit of grasp of fundamental economy it would be difficult to follow his train of thoughts.
Did you ever get curious why Tesla is successful?
If you are curious why Tesla is so successful, way back in 2014 thiel already laid out the 7 for 7 rule that Tesla got right.
They are "technology, timing, monopoly, durability, team, distribution, and secrets"(Thiel & Masters 168).
If you want more elaborate reasoning, grab the book and read the page 168 for more elaboration on those. In relating to monopoly, I find that thiel enjoys talking about it even to the point mentioning different types of monopoly and the conception of monopoly in today's context. And overall, this book is like getting into thiel's brain and reading all of his experiences and knowledge that is crammed into 195 pages. It's also published way back in 2014 when the startup scene started flourishing to today where it's somehow cool to work for startups or even to have a startup.
Way back in 2014, I was still in highschool and had no access to books like this one. If I had access to a book like this, it definitely would save me so much time, pain, and money. At least, before doing anything, I would ask the questions that Thiel wrote in the book such as,
"Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don't see?" (Thiel & Masters 14).
There were so many things that I wished I knew before even diving myself into anything startup based or even starting a business. I am just glad now I finished the book and that maybe it’s not too late to rewire what I thought or even be more creative for my future endeavors. I also definitely would recommend this book even to those who are simply looking for non-fiction to read. There is so much information to learn from that adds understanding into the tech scene that we know of today.
A bit of background behind this review.
Every week, I would pick one book from my book collections and read them. I will review it once I finish the book which is often on monday. However, I only got the time to fully sit down and organize my notes by Tuesday, which is why despite its title “monday book review”, I still post it almost every Tuesday. You can find reviews ranging from fiction to nonfiction, even self-help and self-improvement genres. Sometimes, I also review programming books too. If you are interested in books and want to get fresh recommendations, you should follow my Monday Book Review Series! Thanks for checking out and reading.
Monday Book Review Series
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 | 𝘔𝘢𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢. 𝘈 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺, 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭, 𝘯𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘴, 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦, 𝘤𝘺𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴. 𝘐𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘱𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘈 𝘳𝘦-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥. |