A powerful weapon for creating something from nothing. 'Zero to One'

Hello, I'm Tenma Oki from DMC Lab. After working in sales, systems, and digital promotion, I'm currently handling digital-related tasks from a sales perspective.
This time, we're covering "Zero to One: How to Build the Future" (NHK Publishing).
The primary author is Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal.

An excellent book for learning the perspective and thinking of a serial entrepreneur

Peter Thiel founded PayPal, then merged it with rival company X.com, led by Elon Musk, and sold it to eBay for $150 million. With that capital, he invested $500,000 in Facebook in its earliest stages as a venture capitalist and recouped $1 billion. He has also invested in other growing companies such as LinkedIn, Yelp, and Quora, achieving success.
Not only him, but other PayPal alumni have also started companies one after another (such as Elon Musk's Tesla Motors, mentioned above, and YouTube, which was started by three PayPal employees) and achieved success.
People call these PayPal alumni, who launch new businesses one after another and make them successful, the "PayPal Mafia," and Thiel, who has invested in most of their ventures, is the godfather of the PayPal Mafia.

Zero to One is a compilation of Thiel's lectures on entrepreneurship at his alma mater, Stanford University.
It's an excellent book for learning the perspective and mindset of a serial entrepreneur like him—someone who isn't just a fluke winner who happened to win ten rounds of rock-paper-scissors in a row.
Moreover, it's a rare book whose English and Japanese editions were released simultaneously worldwide just last month, allowing readers to experience the latest pulse of Silicon Valley without translation delays.

And coincidentally, the author of the foreword, Kyoto University Associate Professor Tetsushi Takimoto, is my junior high and high school classmate.
He contributed a passionate piece, stating, "I don't usually recommend books by living authors, but this person is an exception."

Given this connection, and though it strays slightly from the core theme of advertising, I'm featuring it because learning their perspective is crucial for digital professionals like myself.

A relentless curiosity to uncover hidden truths and a mind that constantly questions common sense

Teal's words are clear and powerful.
This book begins by asking:

"There's one question I always ask in interviews: 'What's an important truth that almost nobody agrees with?'"
(P.22)

This is the very foundation of Teal's thinking, applicable to everything from the nature
This is the fundamental idea at the core of Teal's approach, underpinning everything from the nature of strong companies to their business philosophy.

PayPal, the company he managed, survived the dot-com bubble.
Facing the calculation that it needed at least one million users to gain traction, and sensing limits to advertising-based customer acquisition, it executed a novel promotion: giving $10 to both new sign-ups and their referred friends. It completed the necessary funding for this just before the dot-com bubble burst. What happened to PayPal after that is, as you all know, history.

Teal presents the following four lessons learned by entrepreneurs who remained in Silicon Valley after the dot-com bubble burst:

"1. Move forward incrementally."
"2. Be lean and flexible"
"3. Improve on what your competitors are doing"
"4. Focus on the product, not sales"
(P.40-41)

Teal's approach also offers compelling practical insights for entrepreneurship, such as how to assemble a team.

"Why would the 20th employee want to join your company?"
"Why would someone who could get a higher salary and a higher position at Google or another company choose to be your 20th engineer?"
(P.163)

Indeed, discovering a vital truth and turning that vision into a business is the fastest way to create a sense of purpose, dreams, passion, and solidarity among employees.

A relentless curiosity to uncover hidden truths, a mindset that constantly questions conventional wisdom.
This fundamental Teal attitude is undoubtedly a powerful weapon for succeeding in new business.
For example, take the four lessons mentioned earlier. If you simply accept them, you won't create anything from zero to one.

Teal rejects all of them outright, dismissing them as mere "Silicon Valley common sense."
Here are the principles Teal presents as a counterpoint:

"1. It's better to make bold bets than chase small differences.
2. A bad plan is better than no plan
3. Profits vanish in highly competitive markets
4. Sales are just as important as the product."
(P.41)

Discovering hidden truths with your own eyes is the true Teal way.

True to Teal's powerful ideas, this book contains concepts I couldn't readily agree with.
For instance, I believe Lean Startup is one good approach to entrepreneurship, and I know friends who pivoted to entirely different businesses after founding and achieved great success. Furthermore, some companies are certainly worth investing in even if their employees wear suits.

Rather than swallowing his words whole, we should question even them. Discovering the changing truth, the hidden truth, with our own eyes—that is the true Teal way, the philosophy we should learn from this book.

As an aside, Teal is a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy. The required reading for PayPal employees was the sci-fi book Cryptonomicon. The company he currently runs is called Palantir, his fund is named Mithril, and this book itself quotes a line from a song in The Lord of the Rings and has a chapter titled "The Return of the King." He seems particularly fond of the Lord of the Rings universe, which perfectly aligns with my own tastes. I'd love to talk with him sometime.

【Dentsu Inc. Modern Communication Lab】