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

But what makes the future distinctive and important isn’t that it hasn’t happened yet, but rather that it will be a time when the world looks different from today.

All happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem. All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition.

From the outside, everyone in your company should be different in the same way.

what could be a more appropriate reward for two decades of résumé-building than a seemingly elite, process-oriented career that promises to “keep options open”?

THE BUSINESS VERSION of our contrarian question is: what valuable company is nobody building? This question is harder than it looks, because your company could create a lot of value without becoming very valuable itself.

if you want to create and capture lasting value, don’t build an undifferentiated commodity business.

a startup messed up at its foundation cannot be fixed.

Superior sales and distribution by itself can create a monopoly, even with no product differentiation.

You’ll attract the employees you need if you can explain why your mission is compelling: not why it’s important in general, but why you’re doing something important that no one else is going to get done. That’s the only thing that can make its importance unique.

As you craft a plan to expand to adjacent markets, don’t disrupt: avoid competition as much as possible.