Zero to One
If you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets. The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One , legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things. Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself. Doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesse
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PayPal founder Peter Thiel argues that real innovation goes from zero to one rather than from one to many, and the book lays out his case for building a monopoly business.
He is a tech investor and entrepreneur who co-founded PayPal and Palantir and was an early investor in Facebook. Zero to One grew out of a class he co-taught at Stanford with Blake Masters in 2012.
The contrarian framing remains widely cited in startup circles, though some sections show their 2014 vintage. The core arguments about monopoly and definite optimism still feature in MBA curricula.
Zero to One was written by Peter Thiel, published in 2001 by Objetiva.
Zero to One is 253 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Zero to One takes most readers 4 to 5 hours to finish.
Zero to One is a standalone novel by Peter Thiel, not part of a series.
Zero to One is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.