Book by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters

This is the first book review post on my blog! I was panicking over what type of book to discuss and I picked this book as it was staring at my face from my library, laughing at me as I was panicking XD. Anyways……. Hope you all enjoy my first book review and discussion 🙂

In all seriousness though, let me start by telling you a little bit about myself. I would like to describe myself as an entrepreneur. Finding and playing with different business ideas and wanting to try it all. I feel that earning money through your own business where you the boss is so much better than earning it through a job. Fulfilling your own dream rather than someone else’s. It motivates you to work smarter.

I bought this book because I wanted to be like most of the top entrepreneurs. I want to spend my free time reading and improving my skills. Becoming a better version of myself is always my goal. I kind of wish to take you on the journey of the books that I read as well by reviewing and discussing my thoughts as I read them. Might be random so brace yourselves XD.

If you would like to learn from this book too you can buy it from Amazon here:

Post Draft Edit: Henlo! This is a long article because I shared my reviews and thoughts after reading each chapter. If you want to skip to certain chapters you can use the links below:

Blurb Authors Title Preface Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Conclusion

Blurb

The reason I bought Zero to One is because the blurb (the text at the back of the book) caught my attention:

“The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system, the next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. If you are copying from them then you aren’t learning from them.”

This blurb spoke to me because I believe in carving your own path. It’s become more of a mantra than a goal. When I’m asked the question, “who do you want to be like in the future?” my response is no one. I want to be me, I want to be the future inspiration not the next somebody else.

Authors

The first author of this book is Peter Thiel. He co-founded Paypal (an American company operating a worldwide online payments system) and Palantir (an American software company that specializes in big data analytics); both widely used services by many. He saw the potential in Facebook and was one of the first investors for it. Thiel funded companies like SpaceX and LinkedIn as well. He also started the Thiel fellowship which encourages young people to put learning before university. Yes, he knows his stuff! He’s helped build multiple breakthrough companies and this book is meant to show how.

This book was also written in collaboration with one of his star pupils Blake Masters. Masters took detailed class notes when he took Professor Thiel’s class at Stanford (about start-ups). He worked with Thiel to turn his notes into this book. They believed that the future does not only exist in Stanford and everyone should learn too. Boy I’m glad they made that decision!

Title

Zero to One is the ultimate goal that this book is helping us (the reader)
achieve.

Note: When I refer to the author I will refer to Thiel as the voice that is
used in the book is his. I don’t mean to discredit the work that Masters has
put in but the story and experiences in the book are coming from Thiel.

It’s very easy to copy an existing model. Any improvements made to existing models turn something from 1 to n (n being any natural number or counting number). The aim is to turn something from 0 to 1. To create something new. To come up with an entirely new business model is taking something from 0 to 1.

My Thoughts:

This is actually a refreshing thought to think about. I watch a lot of
YouTube videos to find inspiration for a new idea for a never seen before
business but the ideas that keep propping up are tweaked versions of each
other. Granted I didn’t expect this book to straight up give me the answer (and it doesn’t) but it does open your mind and give you more things to think about.

Preface

“Today’s ‘best practices’ lead to dead ends.” It’s tried and done. The best paths for the future are the ones that aren’t done and yet to be discovered.

The preface is essentially an emphasis of the point Thiel is getting at and that is the future companies, the ideas that go from 0 to 1 are the ones that aren’t done. No rehashs.

My Thoughts:

The first thing that striked a question in my mind was that the author says if we don’t come up with something new for a while, we might face a fate worse than the 2008 financial crisis. I’m assuming that fate is the current 2020 Covid Crisis….

Is he working with Gates…..covid?.. No, stop, please. IM JOKING!

But yes the current covid situation has kick started a lot of innovation that is necessary to get through the current situation. A lot of people are relying on technology to do things they used to do pre-lockdown/covid. The entertainment sector has flipped on it’s head moving from live to online to hybrid forms of entertainment. Restaurants have fallen apart not being able to switch to a takeaway business. Online Stores are everywhere but, I don’t think this is innovation just yet. It’s amazing how things quickly flipped on it’s head to cater for the huge demand of pre-lockdown activities at home. However, its not really innovation in my head. Let me explain why.

You are essentially taking things that exist and put them online. What happens when there is no more covid (let’s say 5 years from now)? We’ll go back to live and normal. Almost all the hard work to move things online will be scrapped because it’s not ideal. I certainly don’t want the future of the entertainment business being online as half of the experience is cut off with the computer screen. But being hybrid does have it’s possibilities.

Thiel’s book is meant to help us think of ways to create 0 to 1 businesses that will outlive 15 years in the future.

Chapter 1 – The Challenge of the Future

In the first chapter of the book Thiel opens by stating his favourite interview question. This question ends up being the baseline for almost every chapter. “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”

Here he isn’t expecting the typical answer like ‘our educational system is broken and we need to fix it’ because it’s not a few that believe in this. This chapter goes on to explaining his answer while explaining his definition of Horizontal and Vertical growth of a business.

Since this is just a review and not a summary I won’t go into detail summarising what he says. It would be best for you to read it yourself. Not that I don’t want to, he explains a lot of things in the book in a way that you can understand it better than me summarising.

My Thoughts:

One thing that was cool to read was his take on why we as a society aren’t advancing like we thought we would. 4 day work weeks, cheap energy and vacations on the moon were (and still are) dreams of many long ago. The reason why they aren’t achieved is because the only thing that has improved since then are computers and communications. People expected the change to happen automatically with those improvements. But of course that’s not the case. The challenge is actually creating something that will allow for these things to happen.

I sat there reading this and this tiny point blew my mind. It’s true! We just expect stuff to happen coz technology is upgrading but no one is making those dreams a reality. The number of memes I’ve seen related to the Back to the future movie:

I understand that it still probably is not a thing. We expect it to be done because a movie suggested that it will be the future. No one made it happen though… I thought that was mind blowing. Oh also I saw this while googling the memes:

Watch the Back to the Future Trilogy using the links above. You’re seriously missing out if you haven’t watched them already! (Might do a movie review post at some point so keep your eyes peeled for that!)

Now…BACK TO THE BOOK!

Chapter 2 – Party like it’s 1999

This is the ‘history chapter’. I mean usually I’m not so keen about reading history parts . It’s interesting however, to read about someone’s circumstances and how it lead to their creations.

The author in this chapter discusses a quick history of the 90’s, the DotCom Boom and Crash, the Paypal Mania and the lessons learned from each of the crisis’s.

Here were the lessons learned by Silicon Valley:

1. Make incremental advancements: anyone who claims to have it all or be able to do something great is a suspect. Anyone who wants to change the world is usually humble and doesn’t have to show it off.
2. Stay Lean and Flexible: Planning is arrogant whereas trying things out allows flexibility
3. Improve on the Competition: You should never create a new premature market. build your company by improving recognisable products offered by successful competition.

My Quick Thoughts:

I was honestly surprised when I read this (point 3). I initially thought “wouldn’t it be better if you had an outstanding product that no one else has seen before?” “Why follow your competition when you can create something different?” Apparently not. When I read this I thought about the PSP. That was one of the first handheld consoles released to combat the Nintendo DS but the PSP craze had vanished after a couple of years. It was ahead of it’s time. If it were released now to combat the Nintendo switch Play station I think would have a much better competition.

4. Lastly Focus on the Product, not sales: sustainable growth is viral growth. if you have sales people for your product then your product is not good enough to sell itself.

But then he goes on to say that the opposite of all of these lessons are more true in today’s world and that threw me off too. He explains why in the book but I wasn’t personally ready for the quick switcheroo.

Chapter 3 – All Happy Companies are Different

Business version of the reoccurring question: “What valuable company is nobody building?”

This is a chapter that delves into the difference between Perfect competition and having a Monopoly. But first I talk about what it means to capture value (from the book).

It isn’t enough to simply create value when creating your business. you have to capture it as well. Here he compares airline companies with Google and creates a transition toward the main point of this chapter like the easy spread of warm butter on toast. Trust me I’m not great at English coz I’m not smart but even I was like:

Perfect competition: the ideal and default state of Economics 101.”Perfectly competitive markets achieving equilibrium when producer supplies meet the consumer demands.

Monopoly: owning the market. No one to compare prices to and you basically the boss.

You can probably tell where this chapter is going but I’ll spill the beans. He goes on to saying the having a monopoly is better than having competition. Thiel gives a goose bumpy closing to that chapter by saying “All happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem. All failed companies are the same: they all failed to escape the competition”

My Thoughts:

I agreed with this statement but something was pushing me back. I was thinking is it ethically right for one company to have all the power? Can’t be right? Like take Amazon for example. There was a case where they were competing with a diaper company and they literally were willing to bleed themselves dry with prices (making a loss in the section) that they undercut the diaper company. They were forced to close down and Amazon racked up their prices for their diapers gaining that monopoly.

I’m not comfortable with any company gaining that much power putting others in a situation where they have to close. I understand that yes it’s great for the business and if you don’t you won’t survive but there has to be a better way. I feel like any method of success where you are cutting someone else out of the picture is just plain wrong. But in order to fix that means uprooting the whole system and even if there was a better one out there our society just isn’t ready for that. Hmmm…. I’m interested to hear what your thoughts are in the comments (when I figure out how to add them in lol).

Chapter 4 – The Ideology of Competition

Competition is an ideology that pervades (is present or apparent throughout) our society and distorts our thinking. This is a heavy statement that I derived from the first paragraph and I feel like I agree with it to some extent. The whole point of this chapter is to explain his thoughts on why focusing on competition isn’t great for coming up with something new and innovative. He does this by comparing the Marx and Shakespearean models of every type of conflict.

My Thoughts:

Let me explain why I agree to some extent. When I deduced this sentence I immediately thought about how people work in society. It seems to always be about competing with Sue down the road on who has the best outdoor garden or I gotta have the latest phone coz my friends will treat me like a god or I wonder what Precious got for Christmas. It’s about competing with others rather than doing what makes you happy in society. The immediate thought of what will people think when doing anything arises rather than “will this make me/them happy?” I can see why its horrible and how it distorts our thinking.

The example Thiel uses in the book is our education system. It drives and reflects our obsession with competition. Grades are a whole system to compare student’s achievements. If poor Jake couldn’t achieve the top grades like Yuri in English what does it prove? Apparently he’s a dumbass that can’t survive in the real world because he can’t write and deliver a speech. In reality it just means Jake can’t learn by sitting at a desk or test well. Nothing really on how he’ll do in real life.

Comparing people by grades in school doesn’t really help the student themselves because their essentially tortured into thinking they won’t do well in life because their grades aren’t as high as their peers. It causes students damage when they are matched by ability in higher education. They turn into conformists (people who comply with the rule and regulations set by an accepted majority) while paying super high prices to get there coz their dreams are crushed.

…

It makes it sound like we are in a dystopia right. That’s the point Thiel is making. When we focus on competing we become blind in achieving our own goals.

Now I said to some extent earlier. I don’t completely agree that competition is bad. Competition is a good thing in some cases. I will take the case of Microsoft and Google (mentioned in the book) competing. Thiel says that one specialises in operating systems and office applications whereas the other specialises in their search engine (obviously now they have their aspect in almost every technological field). What was there to fight about? Yet we have:

1. Windows Vs Chrome OS
2. Bing Vs Google
3. Explorer Vs Chrome
4. Office Vs Docs
5. Surface Vs Nexas

Personally I don’t see a problem here. Yes I agree that there are clear winners when it comes to these categories but notice they target different audiences for all of them. Chromebooks from what I understand target affordability which have Chrome OS. Windows = Most Office workers.

Google Wins for best search engine but Bing was not intended to be the best out there. Think about those who don’t bother to out of Bing to do a quick search. Those who don’t be as extra to download Google Chrome. They use Explorer (Now Edge) to Bing their search. Their targets are different. Can you believe that in 2017 their annual revenue from Bing was a WHOPPING $5 BILLION!!! And that’s unintended revenue! Coz some people aren’t bothered enough to swap to Google and Chrome.

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Again Microsoft Office target Office workers where as the Google Docs and their line of ‘Office software’ were meant for the more casual use and non office workers (students go under this category). Lastly I don’t know enough about the phones to make a comment for them but I’m sure they targeted different audiences.

Here I feel competition was good for both companies because they both came out with similar products meant for different audiences. Their so called competition gave us products that may not have existed if neither of them were challenged.

Chapter 5 – Last Mover Advantage

In this chapter Thiel discusses what it means to escape the competition and earn a monopoly.

Your company’s value is the sum of money it will make in the future. This was the first ‘point’ made in the chapter. This reminded me of Shark Tank. When I first got a Netflix subscription one of the first shows I watched was Shark Tank. I’m not gonna lie that was one of my motivations for starting my business journey (more on this in a different section of this blog).

It was interesting for me to properly understand how a valuation is done. Creating a business is like a game when it comes down to it. The amount of seeing into the future and iterations you need to do and overcome is what will determine if you win or lose.

For a company to be valuable it must grow and endure, which is possibly a reason why many entrepreneurs fail. They only focus on short term growth.

He moves on in the chapter to define the characteristics of a monopoly. This part allowed me to think about what I need to do in order to have my businesses ‘fit the criteria’ as such. Every Monopoly has

1. Proprietary Technology: this must be at least 10 times better than it’s closest substitute. The examples Thiel uses includes Google’s search algorithm and Paypal making selling on Ebay at least 10 times better instead of mailing a check.
2. Network Effects: Very powerful source of traffic. You want to be where the crowd is.

Note

In the book Thiel uses the example of using Facebook but think about what we have today. Instagram, Youtube, Tik Tok and whatever new social media that might come in the future. Connecting on Social Media is an absolute essential today. There’s no questioning it.

3. Economies of Scale: a monopoly gets stronger as it gets bigger. A good start-up should have the potential for great scale built into it’s first design.

4. Branding: a strong brand creates a strong monopoly. Apple was used as an example here.

See, I have mixed feelings about Apple. The reason it was used as an example was because of it’s minimalistic design across all of it’s products. I personally love the design and how everything fits so well together. As well as this their camera quality – top class! However, the reason why I’m not such a fan is because their innovation doesn’t surprise me and they know how to take every last penny from their customer. It’s true that they may have been a wow company back when it was created, but now I feel like they’re stuck. All of the recently launched products by Apple are re-releases of their previous products with a minor upgrade. On the point of taking every last penny, the headphone jack example is enough.

…

They removed the headphone jack to sell their air pods and a special attachment that allows the users to listen to things. Like they are known for causing a problem for the users then selling a solution to that problem that shouldn’t have existed anyways. Charging your Apple pencil? Sure! but you can’t charge your iPad at the same time. Still a problem? We have an attachment for that. It winds me up that people let the beast extort money from them and they run back to feed it some more.

I got carried away there lol. Anyways, my mini rant aside.

After defining what a monopoly is the author proceeds to discuss how to build one. You go from starting small > monopolising > scaling up > not disrupting > being last to come first.

I won’t go into too much detail on the process as you’ll grab the essence when you read the book.

I’d like to talk about he last section since it was intriguing for me. I always believed those to make their first move will gain most of the market share since you’re the only one. So called ‘first mover advantage’ or ‘the early bird gets the worm’ type thing. According to Thiel this should not be a goal.

Generating cash flow and building your valuation is key. Being a last mover allows you to make the last great development in a specific market with a bang. You will enjoy years or even decades of money profits. Business is like chess. You have to begin with the end in mind (one of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People).

Chapter 6 – You are not a Lottery Ticket

Does success come from luck or skill? For some reason the top bosses claim it’s luck or claimed to have won nature’s lotto. This is clearly not the case. They’re just being strategically humble according to Thiel.

Thiel later on mentions a tweet sent out by Jack Dorsey (CEO of Twitter). The tweet said “Success is never accidental”, to which he received many negative comments like ‘yea, says all the crazy rich white men”.

…

I try to take positive angles as much as I can but I can’t ignore a harsh reality.

I do agree that the vast majority of the ‘successful people’ are white men. This is because of their networks, wealth or experience which at the time were not afforded to all minorities. However I don’t think this is the case now. Our world has grown from that believe it or not. The wonderful World Wide Web has brought us together and Covid has certainly pushed that forward. More people speak up against social injustice and if there is a racial obstacle that people may face in the future then I feel that it will be quickly overturned.

Thiel goes on to say (to crush the luck idea) ” If you believe that life is a matter of chance then why are you reading this book?” He got me there xD. In life there is:

1. Indefinite Pessimism: this is looking onto a bleak (bare) but not knowing what to do about it.
2. Definite Pessimism: believing that the future can be known, but since it will be bleak, they must prepare for it.
3. Indefinite Optimism: believing that the future will be better, but doesn’t know how exactly so won’t make any specific plans.
4. Definite Optimism: believing that the future will be better than the present if they plan and work better.

I feel like I fall in between the categories of Indefinite Optimism and Definite Optimism. I 100% believe that the future will be a better place but I don’t know how. But it’s not that I’m not making specific plans. Personally I wish to be successful in one of my businesses and dominate that field. I have set out my own plans to find out which business that it is.

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After discussing the different types of people there are in the future he goes on to discuss the definite and indefinite things in life that will guide your decisions as a person/entrepreneur.

Chapter 7 – Follow the Money

Ok I kid you not I thought that this was boring, look at my initial notes for this chapter:

I’ll get to that in a bit.

“For whoever has, will be given more, and they will have abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” (Matthew 25:29) Apparently Einstein said something similar where he stated that compound interest is the “eighth wonder of the world.”

Did you believe me? I believed it until Thiel made his first point. People quote famous people to earn credibility for their statements just because they’re famous and dead (and can’t prove it to be true or false). People like Einstein as a result rack up interest on their image by getting credit for things they never said. After this the chapter goes on to discuss how the power law becomes visible when you follow the money.

Then came the boring part that made me make that initial not because a majority of the chapter was discussing venture capitalism and his experience with it. He goes on to say things like “once you think that you’re playing the lottery (when it comes to venture capitalism), then you’ve psychologically prepared yourself to lose”. Another quote from the book was “the reasons why VCs (venture capitalists) fail is because technology investors live to much in the present”. Two interesting and valid points made.

Btw if you’re actually interested in the venture capitalism then this chapter can be an interesting read for you.

The part that grabbed my attention in this chapter was towards the end of the chapter. He makes a smooth as butter transition from venture capitalism to it. He says that everyone is taught to “never keep all your eggs in one basket” when it comes to investing. You have to diversify your portfolio. However, Life is not a portfolio. An entrepreneur cannot “diversify”. You can’t run multiple businesses at the same time in hopes that one of them will work out well.

This made me pause for a while. That was exactly what I was doing with my businesses. I am (at the time of writing this) trying out multiple things at the same time in hopes that something will work out.

According to Thiel is what schools teach. Doesn’t matter what you do as long as you do it well, but do well in all subjects otherwise your branded as dumb. Schools don’t encourage students to specialise in what they’re good at because that essentially what the world accepts. On the other hand Thiel is not suggesting to create a start up on something you’re incredibly good at. Too many people are creating start-ups without understanding the power rule which is when you expand it will grow very fast.

I don’t know why my mind was blown. I did hear that you shouldn’t dabble in everything. The phrase “Jack of all trades, master at none” comes to mind. But I still wanted to start multiple things with the thought of “something will work then I’ll focus on that”. I guess I have to re-think what I need to focus my time on. because I do understand the power rule and I don’t want to lose anything that I work hard for because I can’t keep up.

Chapter 8 – Secrets

There are conventions (things that people know) on the one end of the scale, mysteries on the other end of the scale and the sweet spot that every great business has is the secret.

KFC have their special seasoning that makes their chicken so finger lickin’ good. Google have their search algorithm that allows people to search stuff. Even back in the day when Pythagoras discovered the mathematical relationships between the sides of a triangle, you couldn’t know about it until you joined is vegetarian cult XD.

The problem with secrets today though is that according to Thiel people have stop looking for them. People just assume there’s nothing to look for anymore because it’s all done now. Notice the trends in fashion nowadays – Vintage is Back, the 70s are back. Side Note: I am dying for the cyberpunk collection of fashion that doesn’t make me look like I’m cosplaying.

Humans are taught to take things step by step, day after day and grade after grade. If you overachieve you’ll end up learning something that’s not on the test so it’s not worth it. Students aren’t graded or given extra credit for learning more than what’s in the syllabus. It’s a horrible situation that we grow up in. We are taught to be achievers but not so much because it’s pointless. We are taught not to do something that no one’s done.

Side note:

I have noticed throughout the book that Thiel has quite the dislike towards our education system and I don’t blame him. Only the few that think differently come out successful in business and it’s sad that people like that have to go through the struggle of figuring things out for themselves rather than having the support from school and society. I genuinely hope that in the future the education and economic system will take a turn to support individuality rather than fitting everyone in the same system.

Enough of my little thought bubble there. The point above was just one out of four reasons why people avoid searching for the unknown. Finally, what do you do when you’ve found a secret? You should tell those that matter and no one else. Telling many people obviously doesn’t make it a secret anymore and you don’t know people’s intentions.

I agree with this statement if not believe that you should only tell those who support you and that’s it. Telling your dad’s uncle to show progress makes absolute no sense to me because at the end of the day the ultimate show off is your success. You don’t want your idea shared and people to … I don’t know the technical term but have negative support if that makes sense. The problems that can be caused by telling one wrong person will hurt you and the risk just isn’t worth it.

Chapter 9 – Foundations

Thiel’s Law: “A start up messed up at it’s foundation cannot be fixed.” See now, I was going to write that “no it’s not an actual law. It’s just something that Thiel’s closest friends call it because he emphasises it so much.” But if you Google ‘Thiel’s Law’, It’s a thing! Who knew! This applies to everything from construction work to relationships too. If you don’t have a great foundation and you have problems in the future because of it, you won’t be able to fix it.

This chapter discusses Thiel’s interpretation on what you need to look out for to have a great foundation as a start up. It starts with who you partner and work with. Your basically marrying your partner when it comes to a business. You can’t go on to create a business if you’re not compatible with one another. I’ve first hand seen the damaging effects of partnering with someone for their money… it ain’t pretty. I won’t go into too much detail over this but imagine a marriage where you marry your partner for their money and that’s it. How do you think that marriage will turn out? Controlling? Abusive? A majority of the time not good unless you have the off chance you fall in love with (work well with) them. Ye, pick your partner wisely if you plan on having a partner.

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I honestly wouldn’t want a partner and share the equity of any of my companies when they take off because I have trust issues. Not everyone works well in a partnership and I feel like I am one of those people. The trust issues problem I realise must be worked on since I will at some point have to hire my first employee but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.

Thiel goes on to define other things to keep in mind when building your foundation however I will go into detail about one interesting point that I honestly liked reading when reading this chapter was Thiel’s point about a CEO’s pay. ‘A company does better the less it pays it’s CEO’… My first thought was Bezos. How much is he paid? Isn’t he worth like 100 billion dollars? I google checked this. Bezos is only paid $81,840! What?! Let that sink in. That’s so weird. Multi billion dollar revenue company pays it’s CEO only $82, 000. Apparently, low paid CEOs sets standards for the rest of the company. You don’t want to be paid exorbitant amounts and set status’s in your company.

This was shocking for me. I personally had the goal to only pay myself enough to live a middle class life no matter whatever I earn because I wanted to re-invest my extra cash back into the money. Glad to know my intentions will actually be good for my future companies.

Chapter 10 – The Mechanics of Mafia

Interesting Title. I was expecting to read about something you’d find in the movies with how to deal with the mafia. Boy was I wrong XD.

This chapter is actually all about your company dynamic. What make’s your ideal company culture? The term ‘mafia’ was bestowed upon the founders of Paypal after selling it to Ebay. This was because the people eventually founded someone the most successful companies today (alongside Paypal). These include SpaceX, Tesla Motors, YouTube, LinkedIn and others that are all worth about a billion dollars each! No wonder they’re called the mafia. They are the mafia I was talking about lol.

One point that got me thinking was a question all business owners should think about when hiring their future employees: “Why would someone join your company as it’s 20th engineer when they could go work at Google for more money and more prestige?” As someone who is too used to “why should we hire you?” questions, this feels like a switcheroo.

To answer this question it would be to clearly define your company’s missions and values. as well as this you want the employee to think “Yes, I want to work with these people. I will grow as a person here”. I completely agree, I would want to feel like this as an employee and it feels great to think about this question as the one setting up the businesses. So far reading this book I’ve gotten plenty of things to think about that I never would have thought of before starting my businesses. It feels refreshing.

Chapter 11 – If you Build it, Will they Come?

Ah, the beauty of sales. This chapter focused on the importance of the salesperson because they are the people that will drive the sales in your company. I personally have never had a salesperson try to sell anything to me before but from what I hear they are crazy annoying. But if you think about it the use of a salesperson is crazy clever. It’s difficult to think that it’s clever when all you what to do as a customer is toss them in the bin for bothering you so much but they are great for embedding their message into your brain.

The use of emotion is a great way to have you remember something. This is why salespeople are so useful. Both ends apparently hate salespeople which was surprising for me to read lol. It’s a common misconception that salespeople are people that just get in the way of the creators of a product and the consumers.

Sales people are actors and their priority is persuasion. We all have an element of the salesperson too. We all have to ‘sell ourselves’ at some point in life. Job interviews, business loans, proposals… ok maybe not the last one but you get the gist. This chapter is interesting because it also goes through the process of how a business goes about selling their product. Thiel talks about marketing and advertising, viral marketing (becomes viral if the product encourages the user to invite their friends to use it too), power law of distribution and selling to non-customers.

Chapter 12 – Man and Machine

This chapter sparks a discussion that I love having with people and that is ‘are machines and technology bad for us?’. The argument against technology and machinery is that it will eventually replace the humans and take over. I believe not…..entirely.

One thing people love is globalisation. This is the process by which the world becomes increasingly interconnected. Before this happened, people were afraid of the cheap labour being offered by other countries. And yes there are some things that are better done in other countries but Globalisation means substitution though. A similar concern is raised with technology and machines.

I don’t understand the fear of technology. I think technology is great and will get better. All of the technological advances give me goosebumps because they’re so cool and useful for our world. I have the unpopular opinion of liking Facebooks custom ads using our personal data to sell stuff to us. It’s so convenient and I don’t see a problem with it.

The time where I start seeing a problem is when that data is used for malicious (intended to do harm) activity. Like if the government starts discriminating against you because you like…I dunno liking things against the governments intentions. For example if the government is anti-abortion and you favour the protests that happened in Poland on it, you’d be kicked from society. Even worse if the government uses technology to censor us from stuff like they do in China. Those are bad situations that I fear but the other stuff is cool because it’s intended to make life easier.

…

Regarding the argument of taking jobs. Don’t you think society needs a massive upgrade if people are worried about (for example) the self-checkout taking food off their table? The argument of ‘what if technology replaces me?’ just shows that a lot of humans that do such repetitive tasks aren’t offered better opportunities or are forced to stay that way. I can’t imagine someone who is excited to go to a box packing job for the job. It’s mindless and repetitive. We need to have a society where equal opportunities are offered to everyone to pursue a career they want.

I mean no disrespect to those who are in such a position and fear their replacement for technology. I appreciate everything you do. This discussion isn’t a jab at you but is a jab at society for not upgrading with the times. Also if you’re someone who does this kind of job to pass time then that’s cool too 🙂

Right, where was I? Oh yeah, interesting chapter to read but for me this chapter was nothing new because I believe that technology is human’s complement not enemy.

Chapter 13 – Seeing Green

I appreciate that this book talked about remembering the environment. We’re at a climate crisis and I have the impression no one’s (billionaires *cough cough*) doing anything about it because it ain’t profitable.

Those who do (e.g. Cleantech), crash because they neglect the 7 business questions that all businesses must take into consideration:

1. The Engineering Question: Can you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental developments?
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 in 10 or 20 years into the future?
7. The Secret Question: Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don’t see?

I love that Thiel not only goes into detail about what you need to think about when it comes to answering all of these questions but he also provides a case study of the lovely Tesla Motors. He goes through how Tesla Motors managed to become one of the most successful Cleantech companies out there by answering these questions from their perspective.

I don’t know about you but I like it when I read something that tells me to think about something and they give examples because there’s no ambiguity.

Chapter 14 – The Founder’s Paradox

Apparently founders of tech companies are wackadoos XD.

This is the last chapter of the book. Thiel has a final discussion on famous singers, actors and business people and how eccentric they all were/are. I don’t really have much of a discussion for this chapter. I love all types of characters but I do notice that big tech founders do have their own … aura.

Things I’ve Learned aka Conclusion

This was a very knowledge filled book and I am glad I read the book. I genuinely use what I’ve learned in conversations I’ve had and started to implement somethings in my life too. Here are the things I take away from this book:

• The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system, the next Larry  Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. If you are copying from them then you aren’t learning from them.
• It’s very easy to copy an existing model. Any improvements made to existing models turn something from 1 to n. The aim is to turn something from 0 to 1. To create something new.
• Vertical growth is better than Horizontal growth.
• Make incremental advances.
• Stay lean and flexible.
• Improve on the competition. Never create a premature market. Build your competition so you can release a recognisable but better product.

…

• Focus on your product not sales. Build a product/service that sells itself.
• Having a monopoly is good for business. All happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem. All failed companies are the same: they all failed to escape the competition.
• Don’t compete with people for the sake of competition. When you battle you’ll lose focus on what you’re actually trying to achieve and will focus on just beating your competition. 
• Every monopoly has propriety technology, network effect, economies of scale and branding.
• You are not a lottery ticket. Nothing happens by chance. Things happen if you make them happen.
• The power rule is a powerful thing. If you have something and it grows it will grow exponentially. Too many people are starting businesses without understanding the power rule.
• Don’t be a Jack of all Trades, be a master of one…then move on to the next project. Don’t work on multiple things at the same time.
• Remember to keep your business idea a secret. Telling the wrong person will hurt you.
• If and when picking your business partner pretend it’s a marriage because you will be spending A LOT of time with them.
• Remember to think why people should work for you when hiring them?
• Sales people are annoying but important to have because they help spread the word about your business.
• Think about the environment as you want your business to be sustainable.
• Business owners are wackadoos XD.

Thank you for reading my review and discussion. Don’t forget if you’d like to read this book yourself feel free to buy it here:

Hope to catch you in the next review 🙂

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