My Rating: 4 / 5
Short Notes
- Have the ability to think how the future will be by focussing on what new changes can be brought rather than improvement of existing technology
- Define your future clearly and focus to acheive it
- Building a monopoly allows you to command most value, so better to focus on a niche that you own maximum market share
- Focus on building a edge over others always to ensure high growth and inability of others to copy you. Develop your own business moot
- Building a sucessfull and profitable company is a long game and you need to be invested in the process
- Focus on building a strong foundation for your company by developing proper work culture, hire best possible employees and design proper incentive systems
- Products dont sell, its your employees who sell your Products
- Founder vision is a key driver for growth and employee engagement
- Key Advise: Dominate one niche at a time
Long Notes
To imagine what progress the future will bring, you must be able to view the present differently.
- Imagine what the world might be like in 2100. The future is typically an interesting topic to contemplate.
- Future signifies progress instead of simply the passage of time. It can be further separated into "horizontal" and "vertical" progress:
- Expansion of concepts and inventions is what leads to horizontal progress. Because it helps current ideas reach more people, globalisation is a frequent motivation.
- However, vertical progress results from the development of something novel that has never been done before, such as a modern technology or approach.
- Vertical progress is defined as "going from 0 to 1," and horizontal progress is characterized as "going from 1 to n."
- Building a smartphone from a standard phone is an example of vertical progress; mass-producing phones and delivering them to underdeveloped nations is an example of horizontal progress.
- Since you have to predict something that doesn't yet exist, vertical progress is challenging to foresee. The only way to forecast future development is to be able to view the present from a different perspective.
- Since you have to forecast something that doesn't yet exist, vertical advancement is challenging to foresee.
- Peter Theil considers this to be an essential skill that he requests candidates to provide an example of a widely held opinion they disagree with during job interviews. Why? Because only someone who is able to think unconventionally can predict and influence the future.
Design your own future and work diligently to realise it.
- How exactly can you get ready for the various and unpredictable circumstances that lie ahead of you?
- Though it's quite typical for people to try to anticipate the future, it is useless since there are simply too many possibilities and variations.
- Instead, you should put forth a focused effort in the pursuit of your ideal future.
- Many students participate in a wide range of extracurricular activities to gain admission to a prestigious university. However, it would make more sense for them to devote their efforts to perfecting just one subject so they could be the best in everything without a doubt.
- This sort of concentrated effort results in success.
- Startups have only one ideal future, and achieving it requires focused effort.
- There is only single best market for the company's product, only one best timing to launch it, etc.
- A startup will only flourish under very specific circumstances.
- The main challenge is identifying the precise conditions that are ideal for your startup.
Monopolies are beneficial for both society and business since they indicate superiority over competitors
- People frequently envision powerful, bad corporations unjustly pushing out rivals when they hear the phrase "monopoly." However, monopolies are what truly drive innovation.
- Firstly, being a monopoly does not necessarily indicate that the rival is being mistreated. Instead, they simply cannot survive because you are performing something far better compared to them.
- Similar to this, it's not necessarily a bad thing if you come up with something unique that no business can replicate.
- Google obviously enjoys a monopoly over the internet search market. This could appear unfair to other businesses who want to enter the search engine market, but it has undoubtedly been beneficial for everyone who enjoys using Google's robust search engine.
- Mnopolies advance society because they inspire other companies to develop superior solutions in an effort to unseat the monopoly.
- To complete with Google, you must create a search engine that is superior to Google. If it succeeds, consumers will reap the rewards.
- Monopoly is ideal condition to build a sucessfull and highly profitable company
- You set your own prices, which ensure high profitability
- Competitors force you to keep your prices low, leading to lower profits as visible in Airline industry
Successful companies need to develop secrets others cannot copy.
- We all tend to assume no possibilities exist for vertical growth. Its a dangerous misconception
- Lot of secrets are still there to be discovered and developed. These are hard to find but not impossible
- For Tech companies, having a better technology than others allow you to take the advantage.
- Understand what works best for your industry
- Not focussing on ensuring you improve your secret, leads to loss of market leadership
Building a successful, profitable company takes years of work
- Building a monopoly takes time and effort.
- Profits may not come in start but can accure over its lifetime
- You need to stick for a long period of time before you are able to enjoy monopoly position and profits
- Start small and expand bit by bit. Focus on a niche and be a monopoly before moving to a new one
- Sucess rarely happens overnight
Startups need a solid foundation: the right people, culture and incentive structure.
- Initial days are crucial, so focus to lay right foundation, hire best possible people and inculcate proper work culture
- Ensure your team is well balanced, with one complementing others weakness
- Culture is dependent on the incentive structure in place that allows for sucess of company and its employees
Your products will never sell themselves: your employees do that.
- Sales is the necessary vitality that ensure survival
- Innovative products dont sell themselves, they need to be solid
- Focus on developing a solid distrubution model
- Have the right person sell to client. High value sales needs high level employees and likewise for lower value sales
- Develop a proper sales strategy that works for you
Founder's Vision is crucial to the company
- Founders need to get everyone on board in Companies Vision
- Only Founders can lead Company to new avenues and growth
