A Summary of Zero to One by Peter Thiel — Preface

How to build the future

Every moment in business happens only once.

The next Bill Gates won’t build an operating system.

The next Larry Page or Sergei Brin won’t build a search engine.

The next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network.

What does this mean? And why does Thiel start off Zero to One with these statements? Aren’t we supposed to aspire to follow in the footsteps of entrepreneurs like Gates, Page, Brin and Zuckerberg?

What it means to go from 0 to 1

According to Thiel, you’re not. What made these entrepreneurs great was the fact that they did not follow in the footsteps of others but chose to do something entirely new and never seen before — their innovations a huge leap forward from what at the time was accepted as the status quo.

They did not seek to replicate what already existed. Instead, they produced something new and unique, revolutionary products that would spawn new industries and lines of business. This is what Thiel calls going from 0 to 1.

Building companies that create new things

While Thiel offers no formula for how to do what the founders of Microsoft, Facebook and Google managed to do, for in his words — “because every innovation is new and unique, no authority can prescribe in concrete terms how to be innovative” — he does offer advice on how to build companies that create new things.

Technology is one form of innovation as it can produce progress that is both new and unique, progress that allows us to do more with less, which is the key to creating a better and more sustainable future.

If you read the preface, you’ll notice that Thiel makes quite a few bold statements and throws out quite a few terms that aren’t precisely defined. He elaborates more on these statements and provides more definitional clarity on terms like “innovation” and “progress” in Chapter 1.

I hope you enjoyed this brief summary of the preface to Zero to One, which I would argue to be the most important chapter in Zero to One as it sets the tone for what’s about to come.

Ultimately, Zero to One is not about creating a future based on precedents set by our current status quo, but on building one that is new and exciting, and has yet to be defined but once defined will create even greater leaps in progress like the ones that resulted from breakthroughs like the smartphone.

Stay tuned for Chapter 1’s summary!