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

by Blake Masters

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

Op

Companies are like countries in this way. Bad decisions made early on—if you choose the wrong partners or hire the wrong people, for example—are very hard to correct after they are made. It may take a crisis on the order of bankruptcy before anybody will even try to correct them. As a founder, your first job is to get the first things right, because you cannot build a great company on a flawed foundation.

Uii

If you’ve invented something new but you haven’t invented an effective way to sell it, you have a bad business—no matter how good the product.

Yu

If you can get just one distribution channel to work, you have a great business. If you try for several but don’t nail one, you’re finished.

Ty

Customers won’t care about any particular technology unless it solves a particular problem in a superior way.

Poi