Last week I started reading Peter Thiel’s new book, Zero to One (as an aside, I’m good at starting books but bad at finishing them, inline with my Leadership Weaknesses). Peter does a great job offering up theories on a number of topics from capitalism to startups to the future. One idea that really resonated with me is that of creative monopolies.
Back in 2012 David Brooks wrote about The Creative Monopoly in his NY Times article on Peter Thiel. From the article:
In fact, Thiel argues, we often shouldn’t seek to be really good competitors. We should seek to be really good monopolists. Instead of being slightly better than everybody else in a crowded and established field, it’s often more valuable to create a new market and totally dominate it. The profit margins are much bigger, and the value to society is often bigger, too.
Entrepreneurs create successful businesses in competitive markets all the time. Entrepreneurs that create once-in-a-decade businesses build creative monopolies (think Google, Facebook, etc.). When evaluating the next business idea, ask yourself if it has the potential to be a creative monopoly.
What else? What are some more thoughts on the idea of creative monopolies?
David Cummings on Startups 
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