‘Zero to One’ Summary of the book
The core lesson is that the best and most disruptive companies go “from zero to one,” from non-existence to existence, from no solution to solution, from nothing expected to something expected. Most companies, though, go from 1 to 1.1, or 1.1 to 1.11, they don’t make a huge disruptive change. To have a lasting impact, you must find a zero and create a new paradigm.
“Today’s “best practices” lead to dead ends; the best paths are new and untried.”
“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.”
A useful interview question (also for yourself): “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”
“Startups operate on the principle that you need to work with other people to get stuff done, but you also need to stay small enough so that you actually can. Positively defined, a startup is the largest group of people you can convince of a plan to build a different future.”
“If you can identify a delusional popular belief, you can find what lies hidden behind it: the contrarian truth.”
