In 1998, PayPal was created by Max Levchin, Luke Nosek, and Peter Thiel. At first, it didn’t make money. In 2001, Thiel realized that most of the company’s value was based on future profits, even if they were years away. Eventually, PayPal did make a lot of profit. The main idea is that start-ups might not make money right away, but they still have value because of the profits they’ll make over time. So, if you start a company, don’t expect instant success. You need to be patient and think long-term.

Starting small and growing slowly is a good strategy. You don’t have to be the best in every business, just your own. Focus on a specific market to become the dominant player. Once you have a monopoly in that niche, you can expand to larger markets.

Take Amazon, for example. It began by selling only books, with the goal of becoming the top online retailer. After mastering the book market, it moved into other areas like CDs and videos, and then expanded further. Amazon’s success took time, not an overnight miracle. But today Amazon is a real MICRACLE; it is worth over $1.105 trillion as of 2022. Having a brand value of $350 billion, Amazon is second only to Apple, leaving Google and Microsoft behind. In 2022, Amazon has 300 million active users.