Quick Review. I am using this book to teach an MBA course in entrepreneurism. Yes, Peter Thiel has accomplished much as has his Paypal Mafia as he describes in his book. He is part of a group that only work on Unicorn opportunities - bringing fast valuations greater than $1B. Peter established himself as an overachiever early in his college career. Since then, he founded Paypal, and he helped found Palantir, big data mining. Palantir took early money from the CIA - and now has customers such as NSA and other US and foreign monitoring and detection organizations. Take that as you may. It is interesting to see how a mind works, like Peter's. Not really a guide book, nor is it inspirational. Peter is a driven guy and shares some of the inner workings of his mind. The book gets into optimism/pessimism which Thiel tries to formalize into a framework about societal malaise. Interesting, yes. Helpful? For certain types, probably. Paypal, itself, to me, was just a natural fit for the internet - another payment method. Really a Zero to One play? Not sure. The big credit card companies probably missed out on this. Paypal was originally started out to create a new currency - I suppose like Bitcoin, but Thiel does not expound on that. That clearly would be Zero to One, yet currencies already exist. The internet, itself, is a massive Zero to One play - nothing existed like it, before. Maybe the invention of the printing press had as big an impact as the internet. So, perhaps Peter plans on returning to the currency endeavor in the future and not playing his hand right now. Peter talks about globalization being 1 to N, but you really have to hold a Secret that leads to a Monopoly, according to his advice, in order to have that Zero to One breakthrough. Monopolists play their cards close to the vest, protecting their Secret. Competition forces participants to gracelessly hawk their benefits in the open market. If you can discover a Secret so powerful to change the world, great. I believe Palantir is Thiel's Big Secret.Read full review
If you are attracted to learning economics or just curious about intimate details of business, this is a great read. Peter Thiel is no doubt one of the greatest minds alive today. Highly recommended to college aged kids or young adults as it WILL expand your horizons.
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A very educative book on the start-up philosophy. It has many interesting thoughts, ideas and examples on this kind of entrepreneurship and beyond. Of course, you don't have to agree with Peter Thiel on everything. :)
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Hidden knowledge that must be shared. Graduate business education at the price of a book. One of the best business hidden secrets. Thought provoking. Excellent read.
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Peter Thiel engages his readers with compelling ideas, values, and the general fundamentals of how breakthrough companies are grown. I would definitely recommend this classic to anyone who's interested in entrepreneurship and innovation.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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