Zero to One

By: Peter Thiel, Blake Masters

Narrated by: Blake Masters

Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

What valuable company is nobody building? 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 these guys, you aren't learning from them. It's easier to copy a model than to make something new: doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to 10, adding more of something familiar.

"Every new creation goes from zero to one. This book is about how to get there. Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how." (Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla)

©2014 Peter Thiel (P)2014 Random House Audiobooks

Critic Reviews

"This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world." (Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook)
"When a risk taker writes a book, read it. In the case of Peter Thiel, read it twice. Or, to be safe, three times. This is a classic." (Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan)

If you work for a Startup download NOW

Great book if you work for a Startup or have founded a startup. Raad/dowbload/listen to this book. It is very insightful about how to make a difference and get your startup to move from 0 to 1.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Amazing!

Must listen if you’re a budding entrepreneur, or someone just looking for ideas for a business

Nothing that it promises to be

Teaches you Zero to Nothing. It's simply a mild history lesson and a massive trumpet blowing session.

No new insights

I struggled to finish. It was bland, more like summary of some already known happenings, with no new insights or learning. Narration was dry.

greatest book on entrepreneurship

this book is a must read/listen for people looking to become entrepreneurs. thank you. .

Enjoyed it

Good insights for founders and those who want to create something meaningful, recommended for fresh grads to think on good lines

It's ok

A lot of it is just musings of Peter Thiel- lots of valuable contrarian insights but also a lot of just him sharing his musings about the future. The best parts were the parts where he gives actual insights into various aspects of start up life, talent acquisition, thinking about your product, sales, marketing ,selling your start up, founders etc etc but otherwise there's a lot of just talking about the future and his opinions on various things which are obviously biased. He also makes a lot of absolute statements that are no substantiated, value judgements and positivist statements.

Some books change you

Some books change you, this one did for me. I started this book just to know who Peter Thiel is, how he thinks etc. I like not to form an opinion about people until I have met them, or in this case read their book and I must say that Peter Thiel is very intelligent.

Great listen although much of it lies over my head

The audiobook contains the wisdom of author and is an inspirational listen. While listening I found myself thinking that much of his wisdom and advice will used later on as my businesses grow. Would not recommend if you were looking for a simplistic or very practical listen.

Excellent book for start-ups

Excellent book for young entrepreneurs and new start-ups to relate to their effort to build and a very good knowledge fur companies to learn goody and bad about technolog based entrepreneurial shift.

Reality of starting a business

This book is definitely not for those seeking motivational words to get them pumped up. It is for those seeking to understand the reality of starting of business and what to expect of the real world. Excellent listen.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Profound and Insightful

The obvious intelligence of the writers is well organized to allow for easy listening. So good that I will be listening again. A lot of American businesspeople think they have a book in them and it ends up beong tragic ot obvious. This is an exception to that!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Refreshingly old-fashioned

Thiel brings "progress" back from the intellectual wilderness alongside other currently unfashionable concepts like proactive planning and building our own future. I liked it.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Good topics, make you think about the future

Very good topics in the book, sometimes goes a bit far (e.g: comparison of founders with Gods and kings).
A lot of companies history examples are used.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

Interesting listen

Although I found the narration dull and often found myself mentally drifting off to something else and having to rewind.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Great book

While very condensed and not too many in depth examples of the application of Peter 's, it is a great book which summarises a couple of rules of thumb as well as his personal philosophy as an investor. Very highly recommend it!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Ok, not up to all the hype

In my opinion this book wasn't up to all the hype it had received. Personally I felt it was a little flat, and didn't leave me pumped up to embark on my next startup adventure.

I also felt, as an entrepreneur, that it lacked significant tips and substance to help or inspire me to do what I do now, but better and bigger. There are perhaps better books out there; for example The Lean Startup by Eric Reis kept making my mind wander off down little entrepreneurial side roads of inspiration, which I then used to kickstart elements of my business.

It is a good listen (the audiobook) in its own right. Well narrated, and well written and researched I would say.

But I was left uninspired. Basically Zero to One actually translates to you're either going to make it or you're not.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Very good advice for any tech startup

Shame about the performer's monotone delivery, otherwise, an excellent book.
If your planning a new startup, be ready to take notes and apply them, dispassionately to your grand idea.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Compelling arguments

Very easy to listen to and very compelling. Probably not so easy to visualise the next 10x, but still very helpful. Where is part 2?

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Required reading for anyone looking to become an entrepreneur

Blake Masters' calm, careful tone sets the scene for an audiobook which is powerful and effective.

This book gave me real insight into what it takes to run a successful organisation - everything from team to persona to exit.

Fascinating, I've already read it twice. May go back for a third!