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.

worthwhile for 7 criteria for success

towards the end of the book there are 7 criteria you need to hit for a zero to one success.
I measure any new venture on these 7 points. if you adhere to these you walk away from 99% of opportunities, though rigorously applied to your own designs will force you to not increment but seek a game charger. forces you to work harder.
on a quirky point the narrator refers to 'she' constantly. not sure if this is early on virtue signaling but after a while it started to irk me as it doesn't, as all PC culture is, not reflective of reality.
this is odd as Thiel is republican.
good listen though.
DG

Interesting

it's a good read. it's a good way to demystify Morden entrepreneurship. I recommend it

I wish Peter Thiel read this

Superb Book - Lots of great ideas for any Human.

I wish Peter read this book - I feel the book loses its soul when it is not read by the author.

Unbiased and Profound Quest of Entrepreneurship & Innovation

No quick magic scheme for starting enduring ventures. Peter dives deep into the core tenants of successful ventures for any real entrepreneurs tackling some of the hardest problems of humanity

Very practical, easy to follow and insightful book

The book well written and easy to follow. I would say this is a must read for anyone starting or joining a startup

Way too short and nothing backed by data. A scam.

Narrator was ok. But the content of the book was superficial and not particularly helpful. I think this book would be of extremely limited value for someone learning about start ups.

Excellent insight for start up founders

I always like books that offer unique perspectives that enables one’s creativity to explore innovative ideas and new solutions to significant problems.

Master Class

Beautifully narrated and well-crafted piece of business writing. I feel fortunate to have listed to this.

Not read very well

Throughout the book I get the feeling that the narrator does not really understand the content and is just reading most of the text like a robot which makes it hard to grasp and digest the content. Often I had to rewind the sections several times and it is still hard to grasp what the author is trying to say. Or maybe it's the fault of the content, but I would probably want to try the hardcopy/e-book to see whether it is the content or indeed as I guessed the narrator that it the problem

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.

One of the Most misleading books I've bought

I had to stop at chapter 9. The title is misleading. had to look at the cover several times to make sure i was listening to the correct audiobook. But even if i wanted to buy a book that was a mash up of politics, philosophy, business, religion, child education and history this would not be it. A lot of his theories on business, such as monopoly, is garbage in my opinion.
Complete letdown. I wouldn't recommend to anyone.

Interesting listen

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

Self inflated book

Whilst you can see that this book as had ghost editors trying their best to make this book relevant , in reality it’s all about how good Peter Thiel & his business friends are.
If you ask a lottery winner why he chose the lucky numbers many years after they won, they would weave an amazing story of the day and how they got up etc etc. because somehow they want it to be the luck they created , they want to inject themselves as a person in control of the story, that is this book.
This person funds lawsuits to kill the 1st amendment for the media.