Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

1. The Engineering Question
Can you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements?
2. The Timing Question
Is now the right time to start your particular business?
3. The Monopoly Question
Are you starting with a big share of a small market?
4. The People Question
Do you have the right team?
5. The Distribution Question
Do you have a way to not just create but deliver your product?
6. The Durability Question
Will your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future?
7. The Secret Question
Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don’t see?

. The Engineering Question
Can you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements?
2. The Timing Question
Is now the right time to start your particular business?
3. The Monopoly Question
Are you starting with a big share of a small market?
4. The People Question
Do you have the right team?
5. The Distribution Question
Do you have a way to not just create but deliver your product?
6. The Durability Question
Will your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future?
7. The Secret Question
Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don’t see?

Second is risk aversion. People are scared of secrets because they are scared of being wrong

the initial markets are so small that they often don’t even appear to be business opportunities at all.

Strong men believe in cause and effect

2. A bad plan is better than no plan

THE IDEOLOGY OF COMPETITION
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

Instead ask yourself: how much of what you know about business is shaped by mistaken reactions to past mistakes?

“Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances.… Strong men believe in cause and effect.”

they are easy to forget in a world where so much of what we do is repeat what has been done before