PayPal: It is equivalent to Alipay in the United States. It cultivates people's habit of paying. As long as there is a mailbox, you can pay in US dollars. Please see the payment war for details.
Chapter 065438 +0
What's the difference between 1 to n and 0 to 1?
Peter thiel said: There are two kinds of development in human history, one is called horizontal progress, and the other is called vertical progress.
What is horizontal progress? The progress level is from 1 to n, just like I opened 1 store and copied it to 100+ or 1000+.
What is vertical progress? That is, you didn't have a store before, but now you have one. This is a process from scratch, called from 0 to 1, vertical progress.
From 1 to n: globalization. Now the whole world is learning from the United States, but Americans are particularly afraid that China will learn from the United States because there are so many people in China. If we waste resources like the United States, the global resources will not be enough.
From 0 to 1: scientific and technological development. For example, Edison invented electric light, Internet, Internet of Things and 3D printer. These are all processes from 0 to 1, and our lives have changed.
In the traditional era, the business model of successful enterprises is a process from 1 to n, that is, on the existing basis, copying past experience and expanding their market influence through competition. In the Internet age, a successful enterprise is a process from scratch, from 0 to 1 to create a market. To realize this process, we must avoid competition and establish monopoly.
Chapter 02
Do you have any different ideas from others?
Every time peter thiel interviews a person, he will ask this person a question: What do you think is different from others?
He hopes to find people who have different views from others, because he firmly believes that people who have different views from others may be right. He hopes to find people with this unique opinion and form a team together.
Peter thiel appeared in 1999. At that time, there was a phenomenon in the world, that is, the Internet bubble. For example, there are many internet companies in Zhongguancun, and any idea they have can earn a bucket of gold. America is crazier. The Nasdaq index soared out of the chart and then fell sharply.
A few days after peter thiel completed the financing, the Nasdaq index plunged all the way, the whole network bubble burst, and a large number of Internet companies closed down.
After this incident, people came to four conclusions, which are still considered as the golden rule:
Do business step by step.
Keep it simple and flexible, and don't plan too much in advance.
The competition is gradual, so don't create new markets rashly.
Focus on products rather than marketing.
These four rules are generally considered as X, peter thiel said, "I think what is really correct is their opposites". He believes that these four golden rules are not things that should be done when starting a business, but may be more reasonable on the contrary.
Step by step: bold attempts are better than mediocrity and conservatism. For example, now we all rely on people to drive. Google began to study driverless technology, and Tesla did not mix oil and electricity but directly made an electric car.
A bad plan is better than no plan: even if the plan is bad and will be changed, you should at least have a plan now. Without a plan, you will run around like a headless fly.
Don't take part in the Red Sea competition: we'd better not take part in the competition. You should try to be a monopoly enterprise.
Marketing is as important as product: no matter how good the product is, it needs to be known to more people through marketing. For example, when peter thiel first started PayPal, as long as you shared it with friends and successfully registered, you would get a reward of 10. It was this $65,438+00 that made PayPal buy thousands of customers in the early days, and then gradually increased. Peter thiel has spent millions of dollars on this project, but there are no initial thousands of members, and they don't even have an initial base, let alone a geometric base.
On these four points, peter thiel has a wise saying: You must remember that the most counter-mainstream action is not to resist the trend. If a person resists all the trends all day, it is called immaturity. The most counter-trend action is not to resist the trend, but not to abandon your independent thinking in the trend. When someone says such a thing, you can agree with him or disagree with him, but please make your own judgment and reasons after thinking for yourself, and then draw a conclusion. This is against the trend.
Chapter 03
Lies about monopoly enterprises;
Take chestnuts for example. As Google, which accounts for 68% of the search field, with an annual turnover of 500E and a net profit of 2 1%, he often tells others that I am not a monopoly, and I really don't earn much. I am a technology company like Sony, Siemens and Apple, accounting for only 0.24% in this industry. Don't divide me.
You know, if you are an American monopolist, you will be split up at the meeting.
In contrast, airlines in traditional industries can bring hundreds of billions of dollars of water a year, but they can only earn 37 cents from each passenger.
Why is this happening? Because airlines are competitive, there are many airlines in the United States, which is a fully competitive market. Under the pressure of great competition, they can't make any money at all.
Although Google monopolized the search industry, it didn't make us any money, which made us very unhappy. On the contrary, Sinopec and PetroChina, the two major domestic oil giants, refused to let the international oil price fall. In the end, the price of oil dropped, which made us very unhappy.
Why haven't we been exploited by industries like WeChat Alipay? We all have WeChat Alipay in our mobile phones, and their monopoly is even more powerful. Why?
Our understanding of monopoly is gradually changing.
Peter thiel summed up the lie about monopoly enterprises as follows: In a static society, monopoly is a bad thing. The so-called static society is a society close to zero-sum game: there are so many resources in this society. If you take others away, you will lose resources such as oil and minerals. In this case, you will find that zero-sum game is very important. What is a dynamic society? The value of a dynamic society is created. When Google Alipay Baidu WeChat has created so much value in the existing society, you will find that he not only earned his due share, but also others did not suffer.
Therefore, at present, society can be made into a dynamic social environment. In this dynamic world, creation is the most important. Therefore, it is a dividing line whether to realize monopoly by resources or by customers.
The core idea from 0 to 1: If we want to be a company, we must be a company that can achieve monopoly. Only with monopoly conditions can we have enough profit space, ensure enough R&D and innovation, and then bring more competitive advantages.
Chapter 04
Why do people like competition so much?
Peter thiel analyzed that competition is a concept, a concept that accompanies our growth. We have been taught since childhood that we must beat others to succeed.
When the author went to college, he studied law. At that time, the best job was to be a court clerk, and then compete with hundreds of applicants for employment. He failed. He was depressed at that time, but later he realized that this failure was very important to him. If he hadn't failed in the employment competition, American society would have one more shop assistant, not an entrepreneur, a person who helped PayPal and changed the way human beings paid.
The reason why we are obsessed with the success or failure of competition stems from our obsession with competition. What we like is the game itself, not what value it will bring. Only by understanding this matter can we let go of a lot of obsession with competition.
For example, PayPal has a competitor, and both companies produce similar payment products. At the height of the competition, engineers in peter thiel wanted to invent explosives to blow up the right houses. However, if the two companies continue to compete, the result of competition can only be that no one can make money. Before the severe winter of the Internet, both companies could not get financing, so they chose a 50%-50% merger at the last minute. After the merger, they became the only ones in the market.
So you can understand that Didi merged with other taxi software, right?
These mergers were all inspired by peter thiel: Why should we fight to the death?
But you can't live without competition, can you?
Peter thiel pointed out that in our life, if you can't find M&A or the cost of M&A is too high, then we need to cut the gordian knot, end the battle quickly and resolutely, and never get involved in the Vietnam War.
Chapter 05
What are the characteristics of those monopoly enterprises?
Patented technology: Compared with previous products, the products you create must have at least ten times the advantages, such as Alipay WeChat and shopping websites.
Network effect: There are more and more ways to bring people through the Internet. At first, facebook was only used by students in the class. The more you use it, the better it is and the wider it spreads.
Economies of scale: If only 20,000 people use Google, Google will lose money, but when ordinary people in the world use it, it will be very profitable, because its marginal cost is zero, that is, every time one user is added or one user is reduced, it has no impact on the cost, as is the case with BAT.
Brand advantages: including Apple, Google and Huawei, these brands will definitely strive to build their own brands. For them, brand is a thing with zero marginal cost.
Disney released their financial statements before. Their annual income is 500E, and movies only account for 70 e. However, these characters created by 70E have brought them countless benefits. When these characters are used again, their marginal cost is zero, so Disney can continue to expand and the cost is getting lower and lower.
Contrary to Disney, there are many domestic companies that produce products. They make some software and then sell it to application providers. Once someone knocks it down and lowers the price, this thing can't be done, and then it can only be reinvented. In this matter, as R&D personnel, they think that as long as the big customers are settled, there will be buyers, but you know, in this world, without brands, there will be no pricing power, and people without brands will always face challenges, that is, you have five dollars and others have four and a half dollars, until everyone can't make money. As a result, the financial crisis came, and the first to fall down in China were large manufacturing enterprises, which made their products cheap and good. However, when we make a company's products cheap, we are not far from bankruptcy, because we have no profit margin at all.
You have no monopoly, you have no brand, so you are doomed to die.
Only those who meet these four characteristics can be called monopoly enterprises. Monopoly is not a terrible word, but the direction we pursue.
Chapter 06
We need to discuss the following three issues:
1. Does success depend on luck or ability?
Peter thiel said that if we think that success depends on luck, then there will be no entrepreneurs like Jobs, Zuckerberg and elon musk, because they will succeed if they do one.
Emerson: Only shallow people believe in luck and opportunity, while strong people only believe in cause and effect.
There are two laws in this world, one is called social law. I find relationships and get things done, and the other is called natural law. I sow in spring, care constantly and harvest in autumn. Social laws occasionally play a role in people's lives, but when our timeline is long enough, we will find that it is always natural laws that play a role.
Short-sighted people only see social laws. For example, many people want to find an organization and become an official when they are looking for a job, but in fact, your life will remain the same after a few years. So what are the laws of nature? After several years, although you are still an official, you are getting more and more empty. So we should know how to see the world from the laws of nature. Success depends not on luck but on cause and effect. We must make great efforts to get the corresponding results.
2. Do you think our society is normal distribution or power distribution?
Normal distribution bell curve: some companies make money, some companies lose money, and some companies are neither dead nor alive.
The law of power distribution: a few people have money and the rest have no money.
Peter thiel believes that the world follows a power law, not a bell curve. Why?
Investors who think in a bell curve will think that I should put my eggs in different baskets so as to share the risk. But peter thiel thinks that if we think in this way, it's like praying. You pray to make money every day, but in fact, the profits you earn are easily eaten by those unprofitable projects, and as a result, you still don't make money.
Therefore, peter thiel said, if you want to invest, you must invest in companies that can make money: only when you put all your energy into helping this company succeed can you invest in a company and succeed in it.
In life, power law is also very important to us.
Take chestnuts for example. Now life is stressful, and we are all short of money, so many people go to Didi after work, do part-time jobs in their spare time, open online stores to do WeChat business, and maintain their monthly income through various means.
But speaking of it, although he did a lot of things, nothing was done best. That's what he did. Everything was just so-so, neither bad nor bad. In case the Didi in the WeChat business doesn't burn in a few years, then his technology will not be greatly improved, and it will be very dangerous at that time.
Therefore, the author tells us that instead of concentrating on many fields, it is better to concentrate on one point and concentrate on blasting, such as doing a good job in WeChat, doing N+ 1 job a day, and doing a good job to double the salary next year.
When a person puts his energy into a company and succeeds with a startup, this is the characteristic of power law.
We find that many people stay in one place for a long time, and they will find the power law: the well must be drilled deep enough to see water. If you don't drill deep enough, it can only be a pit in one place.
3. Be curious and believe in the existence of secrets.
There are two kinds of secrets in this world, one is the secret of nature, and the other is the secret of man.
For example, Edison invented the light bulb, which is the secret of nature. This discovery excited him and changed the world.
We may not be as earth-shattering as Edison in our daily life, but we can still discover people's secrets. For example, Didi discovered people's secrets, and we can easily take a taxi when we go out. Airbnb discovered people's social secrets, and we can stay at a netizen's house without staying at a hotel.
The structure of interpersonal relationship is also a discovery, and this secret will always exist.
So, what should you do when you discover a secret?
Peter thiel said that if you find a secret but don't tell others, it will only rot in your heart. If you tell the world the secret, everyone will spread it.
Here, the best measure of keeping a secret is a company: take this secret as the core point, set up a startup company, and then gradually enlarge it and become a reality.
Chapter 07
Peter thiel suggested:
Looking for a partner: never start a business with someone you get along with.
As long as you are innovating, your entrepreneurial work will never stop.
The board of directors must be small: unless your company is listed, the board of directors must not exceed five people, and ownership, management and control should be distinguished.
Recruiting full-time employees can give employees equity, and employees who are willing to accept equity rather than money are reliable employees.
When recruiting, we should focus on recruiting people with ideas: We are a company established to change China, and we are a company established to change the world, instead of luring people who only know how to enjoy themselves with some benefits.
Constantly emphasize your idea in the company: constantly call on everyone to fight for their ideals. You can consider designing some company products such as sweaters and hats. These cultures will better call on employees to fight for their ideals. PayPal is through this series of actions, closely unite employees, support each other, give everyone resources, and continue to succeed.
Pay attention to promotion and sales: don't think that as long as it is a good product, it will spread. Many good products are ruined because of poor promotion.
People should know how to cooperate with machines: don't worry that machines will compete with people. Machines only need electricity, which is different from people's needs. The advantages of any machine are very complementary. The future human world should be a combination of man and machine, combining the advantages of man and machine, and then forming a new world in the future.
Chapter 08
Peter thiel: We must keep the strange feeling of the ancients when they first saw the world, so that we can rebuild the world and protect the future.
This book, not only from entrepreneurship, but also from philosophy, gives us a lot of reflection, monopoly, from 0 to 1, power law, we must believe in the existence of secrets and always be curious about the future.
Competition will make you focus on your competitors and ignore your own development.
There is no perfect market equilibrium. In the real world outside the economic theory, the success of each enterprise is precisely because it breaks the equilibrium, and it does something that other enterprises can't do, that is, from 0 to 1, instead of doing the same thing with other enterprises.
What Google defines itself depends on what can make it easier, and it is monopoly if it is not attacked. You don't think it is a monopoly because it successfully diverts your attention.
If you are not in a monopoly position, you can only focus on short-term interests, and it is impossible to make long-term plans for the future, so you are struggling every day.
In order to achieve monopoly, we should avoid the mainstream entrepreneurial methodology and take the completely opposite road.