Peter Thiel has a weird way of looking at the world. Back in 2014, he took a series of notes from a Stanford class taught by Blake Masters and turned them into a book that basically flipped the tech world on its head. It wasn't about "growth hacking" or "synergy." It was about something much more uncomfortable. Creating something new.
Going from zero to one is hard. Most people prefer going from one to $n$. That's just horizontal progress. You see a burger joint that works, and you open ten more burger joints. You're adding more of what already exists. That is globalization. But zero to one? That's technology. It's doing something that has never been done before, and it’s the only way to escape the brutal, soul-crushing competition of a commodity market.
Honestly, if you're just doing what everyone else is doing, you're already losing. You just don't know it yet.
The Secret Most Founders Ignore
Thiel starts with a question that makes people squirm in job interviews: "What important truth do very few people agree with you on?"
It sounds easy. It isn't. Most people give answers that are actually consensus views, like "the education system is broken" or "health care is too expensive." Everyone agrees with that. A real truth that others disagree with is a contrarian insight. If you can’t find one, you’re not going from zero to one. You’re just following the herd.
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Think about Google. Before they showed up, search engines were basically messy directories or portals trying to keep you on their page as long as possible. Google had a contrarian insight: the best search engine should get you off its page as fast as possible by sending you to the right destination. They went from zero to one while everyone else was trying to optimize the "one to n" portal model.
Why Competition is for Losers
We are taught that competition is healthy. In high school sports, maybe. In business? Competition is a trap. When you compete, you fight over crumbs. You lower your prices to beat the guy across the street, he lowers his, and suddenly nobody is making any money.
Monopolies are what you actually want.
Now, don't get it twisted. We aren't talking about the "evil" monopolies that use government lobbying to crush rivals. We're talking about creative monopolies—companies that are so good at what they do that no one else can offer a close substitute. Look at Amazon. For a long time, they weren't just a store; they were a logistics engine that nobody could touch. They owned their market because they built something unique.
If you want to create lasting value, you don't build a better mousetrap. You build something that makes the mousetrap irrelevant.
The Characteristics of a Monopoly
How do you know if a company is actually going from zero to one? There are usually four signs. You don't need all of them, but you need a few.
First, proprietary technology. This is the biggest advantage. Your tech should be at least ten times better than its closest substitute in some important dimension. If it's only 20% better, people won't switch. Switching is annoying. It's a hassle. But if it's 10x better? That’s a game-changer.
Second, network effects. This is the Facebook or PayPal model. The product gets more valuable as more people use it. If all your friends are on WhatsApp, you have to be on WhatsApp. It doesn't matter if another app has cooler stickers.
Third, economies of scale. A good business gets stronger as it gets bigger. Software is the king of this. It costs a lot to build the first copy of Windows, but the second copy costs basically nothing.
Fourth, branding. Apple is the master here. Even if their hardware specs are similar to a competitor’s, the brand creates a monopoly of "feeling" that allows them to charge premium prices. But you can't start with branding. You have to start with the substance.
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Starting Small to Win Big
Every big monopoly started in a tiny niche. This is where most founders mess up. They want to "disrupt" a massive $100 billion market on day one.
That’s a mistake.
You want to start with a very small market where you can quickly become the dominant player. PayPal didn't try to take on all payments at once. They started with "PowerSellers" on eBay. It was a tiny, specific group of people who desperately needed a better way to get paid. Once they owned that niche, they expanded.
If you try to be everything to everyone, you’re nothing to anyone. Find a small group of people who have a problem that nobody else is solving, and solve it so well they can't imagine going back to the old way.
The Power Law of Everything
In the world of venture capital and startups, the "Power Law" is the only law that matters. It’s the 80/20 rule on steroids.
Basically, a small handful of companies will outperform all others combined. This is why VCs are so obsessed with finding "unicorns." If a fund invests in ten companies, nine will likely fail or just break even. The tenth one has to return more than the entire fund.
This applies to your life, too. Most of what you do doesn't matter. A few things matter a lot. If you're spending your time on "one to n" tasks—tweaking a logo, responding to endless emails, attending "networking" events—you're ignoring the power law. You should be obsessing over the one thing that has the potential to move the needle from zero to one.
The Myth of Luck
People love to talk about luck. "Bill Gates was just lucky he had access to a computer in 1968." Sure, luck helps. But if you treat the future as a random lottery, you’ve already given up.
Thiel argues for "definite optimism." This is the belief that the future will be better than the present if we plan for it and work to create it. In the 1950s and 60s, people had big plans. They built the interstate highway system, went to the moon, and imagined cities under the sea. Today, we have "indefinite optimism." We hope things get better, but we don't have a specific plan. We just shuffle money around and hope the market goes up.
Building a zero to one company requires a definite plan. You have to have a vision of what the world should look like and the conviction to build it, even when everyone tells you you’re crazy.
How to Actually Apply This
It’s easy to read this and think, "Cool, I'll go build the next SpaceX." But how does this actually look in practice?
It starts with observation. You have to look for the "secrets" that are hiding in plain sight. These are things that are true but aren't yet widely known or accepted.
Take Airbnb. Before they came along, the "secret" was that people were willing to let strangers stay in their spare rooms. It sounded insane at the time. Most people thought it was a recipe for getting murdered. But the founders saw a truth that others missed. They built a system of trust (the "one") where there was previously nothing (the "zero").
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The Sales Trap
Founders often think that if they build a great product, the world will beat a path to their door.
Nope.
Sales is just as important as the product. Even if you've gone from zero to one technologically, you still have to sell it. But the best sales are invisible. If you're a great salesperson, people don't feel like they're being sold to. They feel like they're being helped.
Complex sales involve long cycles and high-touch relationships. Mass-market sales involve clever marketing. But the "dead zone" is in the middle—products that cost $1,000. They’re too expensive for a simple ad to sell, but too cheap to justify a dedicated salesperson. Avoid the dead zone.
The Next Steps for Builders
If you’re serious about moving beyond the status quo, you have to stop looking at what’s already working. Stop trying to build "Uber for X" or "Airbnb for Y." Those are "one to n" ideas.
Start by identifying a problem that feels personal. Something that annoys you so much that you’ve hacked together a weird solution for yourself. Ask yourself: Is this something others are ignoring because it seems too small? Is there a proprietary technology I can build that makes this 10x better?
Actionable Steps to Move Toward Zero to One:
- Audit your ideas: List your current projects. Are they horizontal (copying) or vertical (creating)? If you're just adding a new feature to an old concept, you're in "one to n" territory.
- Find your "Secret": Write down three things you believe to be true about the future of your industry that most people would disagree with. If you can't think of any, you need to spend more time talking to customers and less time reading industry reports.
- Dominate a small pond: Identify a tiny, underserved niche. Define exactly who those first 100 customers are. Don't worry about the other 7 billion people yet.
- Build a 10x Advantage: Identify the core metric of your product. Is it speed? Cost? Efficiency? Figure out how to make it ten times better than the current market leader.
- Plan for the Long Term: Ask yourself where your company will be in ten years. If the answer is "hopefully acquired," you aren't building a monopoly. You're building a feature.
The world doesn't need another slightly better version of what we already have. It needs the things we haven't even imagined yet. That's the challenge of going from zero to one. It's the only path to creating real, lasting value in a world that is far too comfortable with the status quo.