Zero to One

Progress is defined as moving from zero (nothing) to one (new creation) rather than from one to n (replicating existing ideas).

Unless they invest in the difficult task of creating new things, American companies will fail in the future no matter how big their profits remain today.

Horizontal progress is easy to imagine because we already know what it looks like. Vertical or intensive progress means doing new things—going from 0 to 1.

The single most powerful pattern I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places.

The paradox of teaching entrepreneurship is that such a formula necessarily cannot exist; because every innovation is new and unique, no authority can prescribe in concrete terms how to be innovative.

Unless they invest in the difficult task of creating new things, American companies will fail in the future no matter how big their profits remain today.

The act of creation is singular, as is the moment of creation, and the result is something fresh and strange.

Horizontal progress is easy to imagine because we already know what it looks like.

In a world of scarce resources, globalization without new technology is unsustainable.

The paradox of teaching entrepreneurship is that such a formula necessarily cannot exist; because every innovation is new and unique, no authority can prescribe in concrete terms how to be innovative.