All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition.Ĭapitalism means capital.

Sales matter just as much as the productĪll happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem.

It is better to risk boldness than triviality.

Thiel points out instead that the opposites are valid: Making small changes to things that already exist might lead you to a local maximum, but it won’t help you find the global maximum.” “But leanness is a methodology, not a goal. He also argues against the old “lean startup” dogmas: It’s about the blank canvas and constantly re-writing the plan. StartupsĪccording to Thiel, a startup has to continuously question received ideas and re-think business from scratch. A startup is the largest group of people you can convince of a plan to build a different future. To introduce innovation, we have startups. “Indeed, the single most powerful pattern I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas.” Apple did it with the iPhone in 2007, changing the way we see and use phones altogether. Vertical progress is what it takes to go from zero to one and create the technology or idea in the first place. In a world of scarce resources, globalization without new technology is unsustainable: His answer to this question is that most people think the future of the world will be defined by globalization, but the truth is that technology matters more. “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”

When interviewing candidates, Thiel likes to ask his favorite question: To have a lasting impact, you must find a zero and create a new paradigm. They moved from 0 to 1.Īll of these multi-billion dollar companies were once a startup and became valuable by uncovering truths behind widely-held (but incorrect) beliefs, thus fundamentally changing our world. The most successful and disruptive businesses in the world – Apple, Facebook, Google – achieved success by creating something fundamentally new.

Thiel book