So I recently read this book Zero to One by Peter Thiel. The tagline says – Notes on Startups or How to build the future.

I was not quite sure of what to expect from the book. The last time I seriously thought about entrepreneurship was way back in engineering college third year where we had a subject on the same. At the same time I had just managed to (not so) successfully lead our college fest. So the lessons post that experience were quite relevant.

Overall impressions

I must say I really liked the book. From the get go it does not get into preach mode on entrepreneurship. But its an honest view on what makes companies work. The main theme of the book is that competition is bad for everyone, and creative monopolies help move the world forward. The author says the prospect of having a monopoly business and hence the high profits one can make from it is a primary motivation for entrepreneurs to take risks. Or at least the author wants the world to be so.

You are not a lottery ticket

This is my favorite chapter from the book. And it was one of those moments as if a brick fell on my head and woke me up from my stupor.

Well I don’t know if I ever will be an entrepreneur, but this lesson will be valuable for life in general. The author asks us to stop treating ourselves and our lives as if controlled by some external factor altogether by luck or chance. The existence of serial entrepreneurs shows how it is not at all a matter of luck.

The idea that life is not all about luck is an important one which we need to keep reminding ourselves. Whenever we see successful people, we know that they perhaps worked hard. But the other idea which usually surfaces is that luck played a major role as well. We downplay how much deliberate action can have an impact on our lives.

This weaves into the theme from The six pillars of self esteem (another of my favorite books), where the author goads us to not be a bystander in our own life, but to take conscious action and steer it the way we want it.

Conclusion

Overall I liked the book a lot. It gave me a new way to think about founding a company. And by doing that maybe it got me thinking about how you can think about founding yourself and your life again, and again.

Rating – 4/5