Zero to One by Peter Thiel

"Every moment in business happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them. It’s easier to copy a model than to make something new: doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But every time we create something new, we go from 0 to 1. The act of creation is singular, as is the moment of creation, and the result is something fresh and strange." ― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups

“The best entrepreneurs know this: every great business is built around a secret that’s hidden from the outside. A great company is a conspiracy to change the world; when you share your secret, the recipient becomes a fellow conspirator.” ― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups

“Monopoly is the condition of every successful business.” ― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups

“If your goal is to never make a mistake in your life, you shouldn’t look for secrets. The prospect of being lonely but right—dedicating your life to something that no one else believes in—is already hard. The prospect of being lonely and wrong can be unbearable.” ― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups

“By the time a student gets to college, he's spent a decade curating a bewilderingly diverse resume to prepare for a completely unknowable future. Come what may, he's ready--for nothing in particular.” ― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups

“CREATIVE MONOPOLY means new products that benefit everybody and sustainable profits for the creator. Competition means no profits for anybody, no meaningful differentiation, and a struggle for survival.” ― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups

“You should focus relentlessly on something you’re good at doing, but before that you must think hard about whether it will be valuable in the future.” ― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups

“you’ve invented something new but you haven’t invented an effective way to sell it, you have a bad business—no matter how good the product.” ― Peter Thiel, Zero to One: Notes on Startups