We have compiled a list of some of the top books for entrepreneurs that will help you develop all-round skills that are needed to become a great entrepreneur.
Choosing to become an entrepreneur is an easy task. However, trying to commit to it and work through the hardships is difficult. First and foremost, money should never be the primary reason for you to become an entrepreneur. Second is that you must prepare to give 90% of your day into honing your skills and becoming a great entrepreneur.
If you ask any successful businessman, who has reached any level of success, one essential tip for being successful, he/she will advise you to read. A lot. That is why we have made a list of some of the best books out there to help you develop multiple skills required to become a great entrepreneur.
These books range from developing management skills to becoming a better person. From writing well to learning what sticks in people’s minds. From marketing to spirituality, we have included everything. Let’s begin.
Top Books for Entrepreneurs to Develop Yourself.
The books mentioned here will help you develop a better personality and gain a new perspective of things by widening your horizons.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
Truly a classic when it comes to self-development books. Published in 1936, this book has remained one of the best options for people looking to develop their social skills. The reason why I have included this book here is that to become a good entrepreneur, one must be a positive, influential and socializing person. Networking is crucial in developing business and you cannot connect to people of your personality does not allow you to. A must-read, even though you are not an entrepreneur, this book will help you.
The book offers much practical advice to be good at socializing and become a positive presence in the group. It can make you more likable. And who doesn’t like to be likable?
Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson
This is the one book that I recommend everyone to start with. Why? This is a short read that you can complete within 2 days! While the book is short, its influence can be huge in your entrepreneurial journey.
The book talks about four different types of personalities and how these personalities affect your career or business. It helps you choose which type of personality will help you become a better businessman. Different businesses require different types of personalities and if you can learn to switch, success won’t be that far. A great book to help you move towards your goals. This is truly one of the top books for entrepreneurs who are just beginning.
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.
If you have found yourself in a situation where taking a choice seems difficult and you seem to have lost your ability to think properly, this is the book for you. Don’t worry, even if you haven’t been in such a situation, entrepreneurship is a field where you will encounter such a situation.
The book details two ways of thinking, fast and slow. The fast way is emotion and the slow way is logical and each way of thinking is crucial in overcoming the different situations. This book will help you become a better and more prepared responder to a challenging situation. Practicing the methods described in the book can be challenging, but with practice, you’ll be a great thinker, both fast and slow.
The 4-Hour Workweek
This book has spent more than 4 years in the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into 40 languages (what’s with the connection with 4 here?). I personally did not take anything that would help me substantially in my business journey, but there might be something for you in it. This is because I never entered the 9-5 job life. But this book talks about the escape from that life and if you are stuck there, this could turn out to be a great read.
This book talks about the dreadful lifestyle of the 9-5 works and ways to escape from it. Worth a read for sure.
Crush it! By Gary Vaynerchuck
If you are active on Instagram’s motivational pages or Youtube’s motivational section or any motivation community, Gary Vaynerchuck is someone you must have heard of. He has become extremely popular in that field and rightly so. He has the power to move people and make them realize their worth, at the same time showing them how destructive and unproductive life they are living. And now you can hear Gary’s motivational words in a book. And that book is in this list of top books for entrepreneurs.
The books motivate you to leave the couch life and start working on your passion. The b best thing I found about this book is that it makes you feel motivated without sounding preachy for corny. It compiles you to get out of your comfort zone and start working and this is the number one principle in becoming a successful entrepreneur.
The Rework by David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried.
I like to call this book a lens and a mirror. A lens because it removes the blur from our eyes and shows how easy it is to start and run a business in this day and age of networking and connectivity. The reason I call it a mirror is because after showing the possibilities of success, this book shows us the mirror. It shows us how we dream about big things but all while laying down in our couches and never working for it.
Read this book and trust me you will start to work sincerely, no matter what you are working on. A great medium to achieve your dreams and reach your goals. This book is especially useful for young and beginner entrepreneurs as it works as a call-to-action for them. Get to work.
Top Books for Entrepreneurs for Developing Your Business
These books will offer advice, strategies, methods and more to develop your business or start-up. Here are the books.
The Lean Start-up by Eric Ries
When starting a startup, getting a great idea is difficult. But what’s more difficult is making sure that your business can be sustained. A business that is not sustainable not only takes a lot of your time and resources, but it demotivates you too.
Eric Ries brilliantly puts a scientific approach in making your business sustainable and successful. He offers methods to implement that make your business endure the test of time. A definite read for someone starting a business and definitely one of the top books for entrepreneurs.
Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston
They say experience is the best teacher. But there is another. It is reading and learning from the success and failures of other great companies and start-ups. Founder at work does a great job of giving an insight into this particular thing. There are many interviews printed in the book with successful entrepreneurs about their journey.
This book will help you learn about their strategies when they were starting and learn from their mistakes so that you don’t go down that path. This book is, in a way, giving you the experience of starting and sustaining a successful company. Why would you not want to have that?
The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
Business is not a single field and just because you have a start-up does not mean any knowledge about any other field won’t help you. That is why I have included “The Intelligent Investor” in this list of top books for entrepreneurs. And this book is all about investing in the stock market.
Though the books will look a little bit difficult for the first-timers, once you get the basic idea of investing, this book will be your bible.
“The Intelligent Investor” helps you understand the market with all its ups and downs. It helps you make a better investor. Reading this book will help you make better decisions for your products as you get a better understanding of the arena where your product will perform i.e., the market.
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22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout
The name says it all. The book offers 22 laws about marketing. But what the name does not say is how useful and insightful these laws are when it comes to starting your business. The entire content of the book is divided into 22 laws such as Law of Mind, Law of Categories, etc and it details about that particular law; what to do and what to avoid to become better at it.
The book gives a great real-life example of how companies use these laws to succeed and miss these laws to fail.
This book will definitely make you feel like you have learned something great and not some repeated jargon used in many books. Learn how to choose a great market and conquer it. A must-read.
Playing To Win by Alan G. Lafley and Roger Martin.
A great practical book that has its core content from the workings of Procter and Gamble. The book details the strategies that P&G emplaned to stay at the top of the market. This book will defiantly help you hone your managerial skills as it details a lot about finding the best strategies based on situations and reaching the goals.
The book offers a great framework that can be put into your own company. The only downside is that this book just talks about P&G and no other company. This narrows the range of companies and people that can benefit from it. But there will be something useful for you too as overall its a great book. Don’t miss it.
What Great Brands do by Denise Lee Yohn.
A great way to be successful is by imitating the successful. What great brands do gives you ideas from the giants in the entrepreneur world like Apple, Nike, etc. The book teaches what makes these companies a brand and why is it necessary to make your own company a “Brand”.
Yohn brilliantly notes down the important principles that these top brands implement to stay at the top. What’s great about this book is the number of case studies offered. These case studies allow you to get an idea about what works and what doesn’t in the real world. It will help you be a better organizer in your work.
Top Books for Entrepreneurs for Developing Your Skills.
Not just business and personality, entrepreneurs must also work on their skills to reach and stay at their A-game. These books will help you achieve that. Take a look.
Contagious by Johan Berger
You have a great personality and a great business but the third important thing to be a successful entrepreneur would be better at the advertisement. To be a better advertiser, you need to learn a lot about why and which stories catch on (contagious) and which fall into the abyss of the unknown.
Contagious is a great book that details about ideas and stories that stick with people and how you can create such things. It offers 6 basic principles to make things contagious. This is great for people creating digital products, blogs, etc.
Another book with a similar premise is called “Made To Stick” and it offers similar content. You can definitely check that out too.
Be More Pirate by Sam Conniff Allende
Be more Pirate literally asks you to be more like a pirate. But how does that help you on your entrepreneurial journey? It can. The author shows you what were the great qualities of being a Golden Age pirate and asks you to take these leadership qualities to better lead the company and your employees. Not just employees, but these leadership skills can help you become a better and disciplined person which is essential for an entrepreneur.
Be More Pirate tells how younger generations can change the world by bringing revolutionary ideas. So go ahead, learn from Anne Bonney and Sir Henry Morgan, alright? Ayy Captain.
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
The book with the 10,000-hours practice rule. While many people claim that this 10,000-hour rule is a myth, think about it, can a person who hasn’t practiced playing guitar beat a person who has practiced for 5,000 hours? Definitely not. And the guy with 5,000 hours of training cannot beat the 10,000 hours guy. The more you practice, the better you get at it. And this is applicable to all the fields.
This book helps you practice in a better way and make the most of the hours you put in your work. And in case you wanted to know, if you practice something for 8 hours a day, it will take you a little more than 3 years to reach the 10,000 hours mark.
So this was the list of top books for entrepreneurs. So go ahead, create a reading list and change the world.
