From 0 to 1: unlocking the secrets of business and the future

Chapter 2 Prologue: The Retrograde Who Changed the World

In early November 2014, I went to Ireland to attend a web summit event called Web Summit.The reason I took the trouble to go there was because the organizers who invited me said they had arranged for me to speak on the same stage as Peter Thiel.How can I miss the opportunity to get in touch with the godfather of Silicon Valley venture capital at such a close distance!

I went to Ireland, but because of the organizers, I had no close contact with Peter Thiel other than watching him speak from a distance on the stage.But I am not sorry, because in my eyes, Peter Thiel has surpassed a specific person, but a spirit and a symbol.He symbolizes the whimsical, maverick but down-to-earth spirit of innovation in the United States.This kind of person, like Jobs, is still alive after death, so why rush to meet him?
With the launch of PayPal, Peter Thiel took center stage in Silicon Valley innovation.After PayPal was sold, he and his colleagues, a group of buddies known as the "Pay Pal Gang" including Elon Musk, set off again to do Tesla, do Tesla, and do LinkedIn. (Linked In) to run LinkedIn, and Peter Thiel chose to invest and founded Founders Fund (Founders Fund), which opened a new pattern in the Silicon Valley investment community.

Peter Thiel broke into the Silicon Valley investment world and presented himself as a disruptor.He has a very famous criticism of Silicon Valley investors: "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters." Twitter.) He criticized other VC (venture capital, venture capital) in order to seek short-term and quick profits, only dare to invest in light capital startups, which has led to great progress in the bit level (Internet) for decades, but in the atom Tiny advancements (cutting-edge technology).His signature investments are rockets to explore the universe, robots to replace humans, artificial intelligence with high-level algorithms, drugs to treat cancer, immersive equipment for virtual reality, etc.Some of these industries are now gradually heating up and even hot, but when Peter Thiel invested, they were asset-heavy and high-risk industries that all VCs avoided.

There is a joke that if you find that all the cars on the road are going the wrong way, it is probably because you drove the wrong way.And Peter Thiel is like a car that not only goes forward and fearlessly in the opposite direction, but also makes all other cars on the road confused and wonder if he is going in the wrong direction.This is why Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund is not the largest in Silicon Valley, nor is it the longest in history, but its influence transcends national boundaries and eras, directly illuminating the world and the future.

Among all the major decisions that Peter Thiel has made, what I admire the most is that he founded the "20under20" project aimed at encouraging high school and college students to leave school and start a business.In this project, 20-25 young talents under the age of 20 are selected every year, and they will be given 10 US dollars within two years to do the entrepreneurial project they want to do most.There is a sentence on the official website of this project: Some ideas can't wait. There would be no Microsoft and Facebook, or Microsoft and Facebook would not be Bill and Mark's!

Even in the United States, a country that advocates freedom, the "20under20" project launched by Peter Thiel still caused huge controversy.The program has been accused of encouraging students to pursue business success rather than academics.Summers, the former president of Harvard University, even said that this is "the most misdirected charity project in 10 years, it aims to bribe students to abandon school education" (I think the single most misdirected bit of philanthropy in this decade is Peter Thiel's special program to Bribe people to drop out of college).

However, in the four years since its inception, the project has generated an equally enormously positive response in the United States and around the world.The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) warmly congratulated its two students for being selected at the program's inception and encouraged them to come back whenever they wanted.What Peter Thiel wants to prove is that people have other paths to success besides higher education.

On the homepage of the project's website, Peter Thiel cites a quote from Mark Twain to mark his philosophy: I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. (I never let going to school interfere with my education. ) Through this program (later renamed the Thiel Fellowship), Peter Thiel challenged traditional views of education and talent.It is conceivable that in time, a group of outstanding companies and famous entrepreneurs will emerge from this project, which will completely change people's inherent attitudes towards education, growth, entrepreneurship and life in many ways, and promote social development. Make progress faster and promote life to develop more freely.What Peter Thiel dedicates to the world will not only be a group of great companies and technologies, but also his thinking on issues from the perspective of human development.

As a Chinese angel investor, I pay close attention to Peter Thiel's various investments and remarks, and benefit a lot.Before his new book "From 0 to 1" was published abroad, I was fortunate to have a sneak peek and saw the English manuscript sent by a friend from the United States.The timely launch of the Chinese version by CITIC Publishing House is a joyful and exciting event for Chinese investors, entrepreneurs, government agencies, and educational institutions. I hope that Peter Thiel's venture capital ideas and practices will be adopted by more Chinese readers. well known.I have also been thinking about promoting the establishment of a project similar to the "Till Scholarship" in China-maybe considering Chinese characteristics, this project must be renamed "22under22" (22 years old is the age for college graduation), a new graduate The entrepreneurial reward project based on the main idea, it will not lead to a bloody case like steamed buns, right?

I thought I was a thought-leading person... Unexpectedly, the Chinese Ministry of Education issued a policy in November 2014 to support college students to suspend their studies and start a business.No matter what the background of this policy is, Peter Thiel’s strong promotion and support for young people’s entrepreneurship is obviously the strongest voice in this global entrepreneurship chorus, which has inspired entrepreneurship around the world and inspired countless Chinese youths entrepreneur.

Despite the astounding progress, venture capital in China still has a long way to go.A helpless fact is that even Ali, Tencent, Xiaomi, and JD.com, which are already quite well-known in the world, still have negligible users of their products outside of China.When I was happy for the publication of Peter Thiel's new book, I couldn't help thinking: When will China be able to produce companies and products that conquer the world like Facebook, Google, Apple, and Tesla?
I hope that moment will come sooner rather than later.Maybe at that time, Peter Thiel will often come to China to participate in various network summit activities.At that time, I will ask my subordinates to send him an invitation, saying come to China, I can give a speech with Xu Xiaoping on the same stage, and then release him...

Xu Xiaoping, Founding Partner of ZhenFund

Written on Christmas Eve 2014
(End of this chapter)