Are you an entrepreneur or business owner? If so, you know how tough it can be to be a successful one.
In order to build a thriving business, you have to make smart decisions every day and know what’s going on in the industry. You need to have self-discipline and stay motivated. It is not an easy life for these people, but it can be made fun with the right read on your downtime!
I have put together this list of 15 must-read books for entrepreneurs that I believe will help us succeed in our careers while making us laugh, smile, and get excited about life! Regardless of what type of business you are running, there is no shortage of useful information in these books.
Each book varies in length and style, but all offer invaluable advice and insight into how to take that leap into the unknown world of entrepreneurship.
1. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It: by Michael E. Gerber
The most valuable lesson I learned from this book is small businesses aren’t supposed to be about business. They are, for the most part, personal and service-based — you’re running a small business because you want to excel at doing something you’re good at (and love). Unfortunately, most small business owners go into it thinking of it as a side business that just happens to be profitable. They don’t invest the time to understand what people want, with a focus on their customers’ needs rather than their own. As a result, they feel frustrated when things like customer loyalty, repeat visits, and profits don’t come as easily as they thought they would. If you’re considering opening your own small business or taking over an existing one you should read this book for its invaluable advice on how to succeed where others have failed.
2. The Little Red Book of Selling: by Jeffrey Gitomer
When most people hear the word “sales” they immediately think of sleazy used car salesmen, scam artists who prey on innocent victims, or slimy mortgage brokers who push their clients into taking out fraudulently high loans. But there’s more to it than that. In his book, Jeffrey Gitomer outlines the key components of what makes a great salesman and gives detailed advice on how to use them in your own business. It’s a quick, enjoyable read that will completely transform the way you think about sales and the people who provide it.
3. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: by Stephen Covey
I wasn’t sure what to make of this book when I first picked it up. But far from being a bunch of “crap about visualize-your-way-to-success”, there are some very valuable lessons in here.
One of the habits I would like to mention is: Think Win/Win, which teaches the importance of exploring all available solutions to a problem. Many people get angry or upset when someone disagrees with them and see it as an attack on their personal integrity — they believe that if someone doesn’t agree with them it’s because they are stupid or just don’t understand. Instead, we need to recognize that there are different ways to solve problems and most people want the same result: a problem solved in the best way possible for everyone involved.
4. The Magic of Thinking Big: by David J. Schwartz
This book is based on a very simple premise: if you don’t think big, your dreams and desires will remain exactly that — dreams and desires. Many of us are plagued by anxieties, fears, and a long list of “problems” that seem to keep us from going after what we want out of our lives. The problem, though, is that those problems aren’t as bad as we think they are. There’s a solution: only by going after what we want will we find the success that the Universe has in store for us.
5. The Long-Term Capital Gain Tax Cut: How to Accelerate Wealth Creation and Boost Economy: by William G. Gale, Kevin J. Hassett
This is a well-written book that has sound advice on how to successfully invest money. The lesson of the story is that we can start investing relatively small sums of money at each stage, and over time, it will build up into something bigger than we imagined. One of the most important points that this book makes is to really understand what you’re investing in — if you don’t, there’s a good chance you’ll end up with a big hole in your pocket.
6. The 4-Hour Workweek: by Timothy Ferriss
If you’re looking for ways to become more successful in business, this book will provide the methods, tips, and tactics that other successful entrepreneurs have used to achieve the success they have today.
The premise of this book is that you don’t need to work a full 40 hours per week. It shares that with strategic planning, and careful use of your time every day, you can release up to four hours of your schedule every week — thus giving you more time for personal projects or travel. The author shares his personal experiences from being an entrepreneur over the last decade and how he overcame obstacle after obstacle by following these principles.
7. The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done: by Peter Drucker
This is an excellent guide to help you understand how you can become a truly effective executive in today’s corporate world. This book offers a great perspective on its observations from real-life experience and is written in a way that makes it easy for anyone, even someone not in management, to understand its point of view. I also try to ensure that it is clear that not accepting the proposal is a viable option. A proposal becomes a policy when the group has accepted it. With this in mind, the best way to do this is via consensus (if you are familiar with Mozilla’s consensus process, here). Also, be sure you have run it by all of your stakeholders before you present it to the group for review. I recommend starting from a draft and iterating your way there, as making proposals can be hard work.
8. The Art of War: by Sun Tzu
“Fight with the minds of your enemies and this is the only way to conquer them” — Sun Tzu
This is a classic piece of timeless advice that teaches you to take the initiative and use your enemies’ weaknesses against them. While it’s written in the context of war, it teaches us that the tactics and strategies we use in business are no different than those used on the battlefield — they’re just more subtle.
9. Rework: by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson
Rework is all about how to succeed in business by doing less, but doing it better and faster. The premise is that most of the work we do is unimportant — it’s busy work that doesn’t actually help us get to where we want to go. Every business is different, and every employee has their own area of expertise — it’s up to us to identify what those are, and then take full advantage of them. This book won’t appeal to everyone, but anyone in business would do well to give it a read.
10. The $100 Startup: by Chris Guillebeau
The $100 Startup is a simply written guide to help you start your own business. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, it’s more of a challenge for you to pick up and take on.
The premise of the book is that it doesn’t matter how big your company is or how much money you have, what matters is that you start taking control of your life. The tools you have right now are the ones you need to get successful — they may not be the best, but they’re what you have. If you want to do something, you need to stop waiting for someone else to do it for you, and just go out and do it yourself. You don’t need permission or approval, just a willingness to try.
11. The Lean Startup: by Eric Ries
The Lean Startup is a great book that teaches you how to make things, and therefore, how to build a successful company.
The premise of the book is that what we think is valuable — from our customers to our employees — can change overnight as we learn more about what’s actually valuable. It’s also a great resource for those who want to understand the latest techniques in product development within the startup world.
12. The Power Of Habit: by Charles Duhigg
This book helps explain why habits exist and how we can change them. Habits are things that are hardwired into our brain — when we find ourselves in a situation, we don’t actually think about what to do; we do it instinctively. This book serves as a good reminder that even though you can’t control what your brain does, you can control how you respond to those impulses.
13. The Art of the Start: by Guy Kawasaki
This is a great book that teaches you how to start up a company and build a successful business. It’s written in an easy-to-read style that makes it easy to understand what it’s all about. The lessons in this guide are based on talking to those successful people who have gone through the process of starting up, and putting together the pieces learned from all of them. It’s a must-read for anyone who wants to start up a business.
14. The Accidental Creative: Solve Problems, Work Smarter and Live Your Best Life: by Todd Henry
This book provides a very different perspective on how to work smarter, not harder. It’s written from the viewpoint of an author and blogger, but I think it could be applied to any kind of work. It’s about helping you to become more aware of the things that distract you from actually getting work done. It also gives a good perspective on how to deal with those distractions when they do occur.
15. Reading People: by Anne Bogel
This is the book that I am currently using to help me understand and read people. The first part of the book focuses on understanding who the different types of people are, which serves as a good starting point for recognizing communication styles. It then moves onto how you should respond to them in each type, broken down by what people typically do when they are in specific problem situations.
This next part is the most important, which is to learn how to read people on a day-to-day basis. This includes how to communicate with each personality type in various scenarios, what kind of phrases to use and when, etc. In the end, you are trained on how to not only read people but respond as well.
As entrepreneurs ourselves, we understand that reading is a valuable tool for success. We always have at least one book on hand to read and learn from. They can be a nice distraction when we’re bored or if we need some motivation during tough times.
Reading these books will help anyone take their business to the next level. These are not easy things to do, but with a little time, effort, and follow-through, they’re well worth the investment.
