Molson Hart

I’m currently rereading Zero to One for my book club. Thiel argues that all significant fortunes are built by building something new that totally avoids competition (or at least addresses a problem in a completely new way from preexisting competition).

It passes a logical smell test. If something were not new, then it would already exist. If something exists it is already for sale. Therefore you are competing. If you are competing in an undifferentiated way, the lowest price wins and the producer loses.

Okay that’s great, but does it prove out in life? It does in my own. All the money I’ve ever made can be traced back to three different ideas I had. One in 2011, one in 2014, and one in 2016. Once I had the idea, it didn’t actually take much work for it to start raining money.

Execution on new ideas that avoid competition is way easier than execution in a competitive old space. So maybe that saying is wrong. Success is more inspiration than perspiration.

I was kinda 50/50 on Thiel’s view here - plenty of people become successful reexecuting current ideas in a more efficient way / different angle. Are you able to expand on your own examples you refer to?

Really? What are some examples besides moving operations to lower cost countries?https://twitter.com/Molson_Hart/status/1258054826400907264 …