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Cover of Zero to One by Peter A. Thiel

Zero to One

  • 253 pages · about 4 hours
  • First published 2014
  • 14 editions

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1 About this book

If you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets. The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One , legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.

Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business.

It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself. Doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system.

  • Business & economics
  • Political science
  • Economic policy
  • Diffusion of innovations
  • New business enterprises
  • New products
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Small Business

2 What to expect

Short, contrarian notes on building startups: create something new instead of competing. Opinionated and quick to read.

Good for readers who want: business, startups, and a short read.

3 About Peter A. Thiel

Born 1967

Peter Andreas Thiel ( ; born 11 October 1967) is a German-American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and conservative political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies and Founders Fund, he was also the first outside investor in Facebook. As of October 2026, Forbes estimated Thiel's net worth at US$37.7 billion. Born in Germany, Thiel moved to the US with his parents when he was an infant.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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