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

by Blake Masters

Like acting, sales works best when hidden.

Whatever the career, sales ability distinguishes superstars from also-rans.

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.

Superior sales and distribution by itself can create a monopoly, even with no product differentiation. The converse is not true.

Marketing and advertising work for relatively low-priced products that have mass appeal but lack any method of viral distribution.

Advertising can work for startups, too, but only when your customer acquisition costs and customer lifetime value make every other distribution channel uneconomical.

A product is viral if its core functionality encourages users to invite their friends to become users too.

The most valuable businesses of coming decades will be built by entrepreneurs who seek to empower people rather than try to make them obsolete.

The best projects are likely to be overlooked, not trumpeted by a crowd; the best problems to work on are often the ones nobody else even tries to solve.

It’s up to us. We cannot take for granted that the future will be better, and that means we need to work to create it today.

seize the unique opportunities we have to do new things in our own working lives.