Zero to One

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The book titled "Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future", a non-fiction book written by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters and published in 2014, had been recommended to me many times by friends due to my interest in startups. Most recently, I had the chance to read the book as part of a course taught by Alex Mari at the University of Zurich. In the following I would like to review this book:

Short summary of content:

Peter Thiel, who by the way is a founder of PayPal and well-known venture capitalist, wrote this book about startups. In it, he shares his knowledge on how to take your startup from zero to one.
It's well known that many people start up, but a large percentage of those who do fail.
In his book, Thiel explains the reasons for this, such as the lack of courage to venture into something completely new and to develop a proper view of the future.
His work gives helpful tips on how to create a business from scratch. Practically from zero to one, like his book title. Likewise, he shows how to get off the beaten business path and gives valuable tips to consider when creating a start-up.
One of his basic ideas in this book is to see the present from different and unusual perspectives.
Furthermore, he defines the term future in terms of what is now and what will be soon.
Here he differentiates between horizontal progress (further development and expansion of existing ideas) & vertical progress (creating something completely new out of nothing).

Another important topic in Thiel's book is the future.
(As early as possible, parents try to set up their children broadly and diversely. Already at school age, parents want their children to learn Chinese and Spanish and, best of all, to learn to play several instruments).
Because of the lack of ability to predict the future, which according to Thiel not even a fortune teller can predict, it is very difficult to prepare for it. Thiel explains in his book why it is even hopeless to prepare oneself diversely for the future.
Thiel's opinion here is that "The future can only be seen by those who have mastered unconventional thinking." According to Thiel, however, there is only one best possible future for start-ups, and they must head straight for it.

Anyone who believes that there is no more room for innovation in our high-tech society will be proven wrong by Thiel.
Nevertheless, he will take away the belief in quick success from the over-enthusiastic and explain why a company needs many years to become successful and often first has to cover a great distance of hunger in order to become profitable for the first time after a few years.

Furthermore, in "Zero to One" you learn why a good team is one of the most important factors in the formation of a stable startup and why corporate culture means more than just putting a foosball table in the workroom and having a barbecue every now and then.
Thiel gives an example of how, as a founder of PayPal, he managed to introduce a corporate culture in which such a good working atmosphere prevailed that some employees later founded their own companies together.

The last topic Thiel addresses is sales and why sales strategies are much more than just pure selling. He reveals how to put together a super sales team with unique sales ideas.


Evaluation:
Peter Thiel's book is highly recommended for all startup enthusiasts in my opinion.
The topic of the book hit exactly my taste, as I am very interested in the start-up scene and would like to start one myself. Nevertheless, I have to say that due to my interest in this field, I was already familiar with some of the content that was addressed in the book. Nevertheless, the author goes into great detail about various tricks of the trade that you should definitely keep in mind when starting a business, which I think still makes the book worth reading even for those already interested in startups.
In my opinion, the book does not necessarily read like a non-fiction book or a manual, but rather reflects Peter Thiel's subjective opinion and experience in most situations.
Basically, however, I found it very exciting to dive into the mind of one of the most important founders of our time and to learn his methods, tips and tricks.
The structure and flow of his book was, in my opinion, quite logical and comprehensible.

Conclusion:

All in all, I liked the book a lot. The book is a must-read for all startup enthusiasts who want to understand the thoughts of a super successful founder and startup investor. Nevertheless, the insight you get from reading this book strongly depends on the background of your own previous knowledge and experience. Nevertheless, I think everyone can get a message and added value from this one.

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Atomic Habits

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The book titled "Atomic Habits", a piece of advice literature written by James Clear and published in 2008 was first brought to my attention when I attended a course taught by Alex Mari at the University of Zurich. In the following I would now like to review this book:

Brief Summary of Content:

If I would be asked to summarize the book in one sentence, I would do it as follows:
„How to create completely new and better habits with tiny, barely noticeable changes with continued repetition.“
The basic idea of James Clear is to pick up the reader with his own problems regarding habits and perseverance. He explains what habits are and how they arise from actions that are instinctive in us.
An example of what, according to James Clear, describes this change is the minimal change in the course of an airplane that arrives several hundred kilometers from its actual destination.
He writes that ofthen we do not notice small behaviors, although these can end in a habit and thus in the final desired behavior with continuous repetition.
Small habits arise from minimal changes in life that have a big impact in the long run.
He calls it the „daily 1%“, with which you finally reach your targeted 100% after a certain time.
Furthermore, he mentions the 2-minute rule, which can be used to break down a goal into small actions. These are easier to turn into habits.
Along the way, Clear keeps drawing funny comparisons: for example, that he never manages to send greeting cards, while his wife, on the other hand, is much more reliable, because she already has a box of cards sorted by occasion at home. Thus, when an occasion comes up, she can just pull out the appropriate card and start writing without having to go to a stationery store and buy a card first. Thus, she bypasses an effort, which is why she finds it much easier to send cards than her husband James Clear. Afterward, he analyzed this behavior and explains how to solve these problems

Evaluation:

In my opinion, the book was very easy to read and is written in a very captivating way because there is an identification from the ground up with the problems addressed.
The theme of the book was very well done as it addresses the common problem of bad habits and missing resolutions. It was very interesting to read, as a real value was generated by reading it. In each chapter, you could understand anew why such problems occur and tips and tricks were mentioned and explained with which you can revise your own behavior and habits again according to your wishes.
While reading the book, I often had to smile at passages or examples where I recognized myself in my own behavior, and I was always surprised that the problems are also very much prepared for the general public. In particular, the comparisons that the author had drawn from reality, as well as making possible an identification with the problem treatment of the book, have pleased me particularly.
In my opinion, the structure and flow of the book were quite logical and comprehensible.

Conclusion:

Overall, I found the book very successful. It reflects the problems of probably most readers and provides approaches and assistance to solve these problems.

Thus, the book provides real added value and is therefore clearly recommended by me to all who often catch themselves that they do not implement their own resolutions or only insufficiently and have difficulty in addressing their bad habits.

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