Zero to One_ Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future ( PDFDrive )

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SALES IS HIDDENAll salesmen are actors: their priority is persuasion, not sincerity. That’s why theword “salesman” can be a slur and the used car dealer is our archetype ofshadiness. But we only react negatively to awkward, obvious salesmen—that is,the bad ones. There’s a wide range of sales ability: there are many gradationsbetween novices, experts, and masters. There are even sales grandmasters. If youdon’t know any grandmasters, it’s not because you haven’t encountered them,but rather because their art is hidden in plain sight. Tom Sawyer managed topersuade his neighborhood friends to whitewash the fence for him—a masterfulmove. But convincing them to actually pay him for the privilege of doing hischores was the move of a grandmaster, and his friends were none the wiser. Notmuch has changed since Twain wrote in 1876.Like acting, sales works best when hidden. This explains why almosteveryone whose job involves distribution—whether they’re in sales, marketing,or advertising—has a job title that has nothing to do with those things. Peoplewho sell advertising are called “account executives.” People who sell customerswork in “business development.” People who sell companies are “investmentbankers.” And people who sell themselves are called “politicians.” There’s areason for these redescriptions: none of us wants to be reminded when we’rebeing sold.Whatever the career, sales ability distinguishes superstars from also-rans. OnWall Street, a new hire starts as an “analyst” wielding technical expertise, but hisgoal is to become a dealmaker. A lawyer prides himself on professionalcredentials, but law firms are led by the rainmakers who bring in big clients.Even university professors, who claim authority from scholarly achievement, areenvious of the self-promoters who define their fields. Academic ideas abouthistory or English don’t just sell themselves on their intellectual merits. Even theagenda of fundamental physics and the future path of cancer research are resultsof persuasion. The most fundamental reason that even businesspeopleunderestimate the importance of sales is the systematic effort to hide it at everylevel of every field in a world secretly driven by it.The engineer’s grail is a product great enough that “it sells itself.” But anyonewho would actually say this about a real product must be lying: either he’sdelusional (lying to himself) or he’s selling something (and thereby contradicting
himself). The polar opposite business cliché warns that “the best product doesn’talways win.” Economists attribute this to “path dependence”: specific historicalcircumstances independent of objective quality can determine which productsenjoy widespread adoption. That’s true, but it doesn’t mean the operatingsystems we use today and the keyboard layouts on which we type were imposedby mere chance. It’s better to think of distribution as something essential to thedesign of your product. If you’ve invented something new but you haven’tinvented an effective way to sell it, you have a bad business—no matter howgood the product.
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Copyright © 2014 by Peter ThielAll
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PrefaceZERO TO ONEEVERY MOMENT IN B
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THE CHALLENGE OF THE FUTUREWHENEVER
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century air conditioning, and even
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STARTUP THINKINGNew technology tend
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A QUICK HISTORY OF THE ’90SThe 19
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MANIA: SEPTEMBER 1998-MARCH 2000Dot
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hurry. A South Korean firm wired us
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The entrepreneurs who stuck with Si
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dogmatically rejecting them. Instea
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In this book, we’re not intereste
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Think about how Google talks about
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between Hackers and Jaws: rap star
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RUTHLESS PEOPLEThe problem with a c
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monopoly profits provides a powerfu
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competed even harder for the standa
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Office vs. Docs, and Surface vs. Ne
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If you can’t beat a rival, it may
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In March 2001, PayPal had yet to ma
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CHARACTERISTICS OF MONOPOLYWhat doe
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3. Economies of ScaleA monopoly bus
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BUILDING A MONOPOLYBrand, scale, ne
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Silicon Valley has become obsessed
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YOU ARE NOT A LOTTERY TICKETTHE MOS
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CAN YOU CONTROL YOUR FUTURE?You can
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merry in the meantime: hence Europe
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hubris. You can still visit the Bay
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businessman, but actually his own a
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opinion exactly, so for the most pa
Page 61 and 62: Francis Bacon wrote that “the pro
Page 63 and 64: American households were saving, at
Page 65 and 66: THE RETURN OF DESIGNWhat would it m
Page 67 and 68: YOU ARE NOT A LOTTERY TICKETWe have
Page 69 and 70: to understand: we don’t live in a
Page 71 and 72: The error lies in expecting that ve
Page 73 and 74: of companies that will successfully
Page 75 and 76: After 10 years, however, the portfo
Page 77 and 78: WHAT TO DO WITH THE POWER LAWThe po
Page 79 and 80: SECRETSEVERY ONE OF TODAY’S most
Page 81 and 82: WHY AREN’T PEOPLE LOOKING FOR SEC
Page 83 and 84: are found mostly in history books a
Page 85 and 86: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO CONVENTIONHo
Page 87 and 88: THE CASE FOR SECRETSYou can’t fin
Page 89 and 90: HOW TO FIND SECRETSThere are two ki
Page 91 and 92: WHAT TO DO WITH SECRETSIf you find
Page 93 and 94: FOUNDING MATRIMONYWhen you start so
Page 95 and 96: To see misalignment at its most ext
Page 97 and 98: ON THE BUS OR OFF THE BUSAs a gener
Page 99 and 100: VESTED INTERESTSStartups don’t ne
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Page 103 and 104: BEYOND PROFESSIONALISMThe first tea
Page 105 and 106: compensation or perks, but you can
Page 107 and 108: DO ONE THINGOn the inside, every in
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Page 111: NERDS VS. SALESMENThe U.S. advertis
Page 115 and 116: The traditional U.S. aerospace indu
Page 117 and 118: mass appeal but lack any method of
Page 119 and 120: One of these methods is likely to b
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Page 123 and 124: SUBSTITUTION VS. COMPLEMENTARITYFif
Page 125 and 126: people. We don’t trade with compu
Page 127 and 128: computer hybrid approach from PayPa
Page 129: generalized artificial intelligence
Page 132 and 133: SEEING GREENAT THE START of the 21s
Page 134 and 135: 5. The Distribution QuestionDo you
Page 136 and 137: THE TIMING QUESTIONCleantech entrep
Page 138 and 139: THE MONOPOLY QUESTIONIn 2006, billi
Page 140 and 141: Cleantech entrepreneurs’ thinking
Page 142 and 143: THE DISTRIBUTION QUESTIONCleantech
Page 144 and 145: gas, and gas prices had fallen more
Page 146 and 147: THE MYTH OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Page 148 and 149: broader markets in the future.TEAM.
Page 150 and 151: world needs energy, only a firm tha
Page 152 and 153: THE FOUNDER’S PARADOXOF THE SIX P
Page 154 and 155: THE DIFFERENCE ENGINESome people ar
Page 156 and 157: Where does this strange and extreme
Page 158 and 159: Another example is Sean Parker, who
Page 160 and 161: WHERE KINGS COME FROMExtreme founde
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For some fallen stars, death brings
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distinctive persona? Or, in his inc
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the impeccably credentialed executi
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future will look a lot like the pre
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Singularity, an attempt to name the
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Illustration CreditsThe illustratio
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Boyle, RobertbrandingBranson, Richa
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Earnhardt, Dale, Jr.East Asian fina
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housing bubble, 2.1, 8.1Howery, Ken
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dynamism of newlies ofprofits ofpro
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Q-CellsRand, AynRawls, John, 6.1, 6
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globalization andproprietarytechnol
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About the AuthorsPeter Thiel is an
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