15 Most Recommended Business Books For New Entrepreneurs
Do you want to start a business this New Year but you’re not sure where to start?
Then, I suggest you grab a book and start reading.
There is nothing worse than having an idea not knowing what to do with it. Rather than sitting back and wait for inspiration, you should do what most successful entrepreneurs do in their spare time.
Read a book.
It is a known fact that reading is one of the most common habit successful people share, so if you want to become successful, you too must start reading.
Over the years, hundreds of entrepreneurs and startup founders have shared their top favourite business books with us and why they loved them. It’s no secret that it takes time to build great businesses, so if you haven’t started yet; it is time for you to start the process.
Here are the top 15 most recommended books for new entrepreneurs.
1. 4 Hour Work Week – By TIM FERRIS
“People will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.”
This book provides new concept of retirement and productive life plan. If you’ve dreamed of escaping the corporate world, (the so call rat race) to living a more fulfill life traveling the world while working less and still be able to create monthly five figures income having zero management, then this book is all you need to get you started.
2. Rich Dad Poor Dad – By ROBERT KIYOSAKI
“There is a difference between being poor and being broke. Broke is temporary. Poor is eternal.”
To become successful one must have good knowledge of money and financial education. Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad” focuses on helping people understand the real difference between being poor and being wealthy. We strongly recommend this book for all new business beginners.
3. The $100 Startup – By CHRIS GUILLEBEAU
“You don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to.”
The subtitle of this masterpiece says it all:“Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, And Create a New Future” This book is about building successful small businesses on your own terms. It shares the stories of people finding new ways to make a living rather than sticking with the traditional 9 to 5. It’s a motivator to people who wants to turn their hobbies into successful businesses.
4. The Hard Thing About Hard Things – By BEN HOROWITZ
“The most important lesson in entrepreneurship: Embrace the struggle.”
Reader will find in this book practical wisdom in managing some of the toughest problems in business school with other essential information in building and running a business. The author analyses the problems that bothers every leaders.
5. Outliers: The Story of Success – By Malcolm Gladwell
“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.”
Author Malcolm Gladwell shares the formula to success by study some of the most famous and successful entrepreneurs around today. “Outliers” takes us back in time into the lives of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and many others.
6. Think and Grow Rich – By Napoleon Hill
“The way of success is the way of continuous pursuit of knowledge.”
Napoleon Hill shares a number of amazing formulas of success thru secrets that will make rich. There are provided basic as well as simple techniques found in this book for a successful business.
7. How to Win Friends and Influence People – By DALE CARNEGIE
“Don’t be afraid of enemies who attack you. Be afraid of the friends who flatter you.”
This is a self-help book that will improve your manner of relating with people that might lead to your success. This book will also help you understand and consider the people around you to create a network of supporters for your business.
8. The Lean Startup – By ERIC RIES
“The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.”
This provides some measures that will help entrepreneur attain progress as they launch their business. It is filled with ideas and real life examples from the Eric Ries the author.
9. Founders at Work -By JESSICA LIVINGSTON
“The less energy people expend on performance, the more they expend on appearances to compensate.”
This is a collection of different interviews with founders of popular technology companies that provides funny yet surprising discoveries in terms of building a company.
10. Start With Why – By SIMON SINEK
“There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.
Why do you do what you do? If you’re anything like me, you probably had to think before you could answer that question. Simon Sinek
11. Good to Great – By JIM COLLINS
“Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”
Very few businesses are built to last. “Good to Great” discuss the long term performance of big companies and what they have done right over years to sustain a long lasting success running their business. It provides tips and ideas to what smaller companies can do to last long.
12. The E-Myth Revisited – By MICHAEL E. GERBER
“If your business depends on you, you don’t own a business—you have a job. And it’s the worst job in the world because you’re working for a lunatic!”
Michael Gerber debunks all the Myths about starting a small business. In this book you’ll learn all the assumptions and expectations that are interrupting your productivity towards success.
13. I Will Teach You To Be Rich – By RAMIT SETHI
“Very few people actually want to understand something they want results.”
This is a 6 week program created by Ramit Sethi. It is based on the four categories of personal finance— banking, saving, budgeting, and investing. This one here is a must for anyone who wants financial freedom. It is also a highly recommended book for new entrepreneurs.
14. The Millionaire Fastlane – By MJ Demarco
“Many people want to change their life, but they are not will to change their choices, and ultimately this changes nothing.”
The Millionaire Fastlane wants you to build wealth fast. This is about building and executing your financial plan without getting distracted by new and shiny objects like luxury cars, boats and houses.
15. The Innovator’s Dilemma – By CLAYTON M CHRISTENSEN
“Watching how customers actually use a product provides much more reliable information than can be gleaned from a verbal interview or a focus group.”
What happens when big companies fail to innovate? Clayton discusses how even big companies can sometimes miss the innovation wave.
16. Rework – By JASON FRIED & DAVID HEINEMEIER HANSSON
“What you do is what matters, not what you think or say or plan.”
Rework wants to teach us a faster better way to run a successful business. A lot of the ideas shared are non-traditional. It’s a complete new way of looking at competitors, and even investors.
How To Read a Book — How Successful People Read Books
How To Read a Book — How Successful People Read Books
Reading books is as good for your brain as eating healthy food for your body. Reading helps to improve memory, upgrade your thinking capabilities, reduce stress, improve knowledge, vocabulary, focus along with many other benefits. In fact, every successful person has one trait in common and that is their habit of reading books.
Warren Buffet reads 4–5 hours in a day, Bill Gates reads 50 books in a year, Mark Zuckerberg says I read daily to learn more about the world and different cultures. The list doesn’t end here and I am sure you must have come across celebrity book recommendations too on YouTube or Instagram.
However, did anyone tell you how to read a book?
Let me be very honest in this article. I will tell you exactly how I read and how many other successful people read books.
How Successful People Read Books:
1. Don’t read a bestselling book: I have asked 20 people how they choose books? And the answer was either they pick a bestselling book or they just see on Instagram if any book is popular among book bloggers. This is one of the biggest mistakes every beginner makes. First, you pick a bestselling book because you heard the book is great and reading helps in numerous ways then you find the book boring and dump the idea of reading altogether.
All the successful first ask themselves “What subject/topic they would like to know more about” and then they pick a book accordingly. If you are reading a book just because it’s a bestseller but has nothing to do with the problem you face in your life then you are just wasting your time and money.
For example: Let’s say you have stage fright but you want to master the art of public speaking and communication skills. In such a case, if you are reading Atomic Habits, Eat That Frog or any such book then you are simply wasting your time because these books don’t address the solution of your problem. On the other hand, if you read “How to Win Friends and Influence People” then you will not only get the solution but your enthusiasm and focus will increase
In short, humans are selfish animals and we listen/read carefully when someone is talking about the solution to our problem. You will automatically want to flip the pages to learn more. Hence, the first task is to pick the “best fit book” for yourself.
2. Don’t read cover to cover: One of the biggest myths spread on reading is that you should read every single word till the very last page. According to Ankur Warkioo, Jay Shetty, Naval Ravikant and many other influential people, one shouldn’t read books cover to cover.
The reason behind skimming through books is best put by Ankur Warkioo. He says, “most nonfiction books are better as blog posts.” Naval RaviKant to Dan Lok, everyone says, “we have limited time which we shouldn’t waste on books that don’t deserve our attention”
For example: Let’s say you are already familiar with subconscious mind but the book that you are reading starts with “what is subconscious mind” then you must skip that part and jump to what’s new and more interesting. Because if you are feeding your brain with repetitive boring information, it will stop thinking critically.
I know some people may raise objections to this, but the reality is most nonfiction books talk about similar things, hence, you can skim through the pages which you think are not going to add any value in your life. However, there are some books that deserve to be read cover by cover, in fact, twice, thrice or till you extract every single valuable lesson.
“Skim through the mediocre books, dump the bad books and keep re-reading best books”
However, if you are a complete beginner, this doesn’t apply for you because you still need to learn even the basics and your knowledge is limited. Also, if as a beginner you are skimming through the books, you will end up ruining your reading experience, time and money.
3. Read first and last: The best time to read books is either in the morning when your brain has no prior worries or negative thoughts or in the night when you have too many thoughts. Reading in the morning will fill your mind with positive and thought-provoking wisdom which will help you to spend the rest of the day productively. While at night, when you have all the burden of the day, you can relax your mind by reading something that keeps you hooked. Reading at night will help you to get up in the morning more actively and in a good mood. I prefer reading both the times. I read 1 hour in the morning and 30 minutes before going to bed so that my day and night both are relaxing and positive.
4. Don’t take notes instantly: Most people make notes just after reading a thoughtful quote, sub-topic or a page. Studies show that when you make notes instantly, you disturb your concentration and moreover you wouldn’t be able to understand the topic.
The ideal of taking notes is after completing a whole chapter so that you force your mind to remember what you have learnt. Dr. Jordan says, “Read a couple of paragraphs or maybe an essay or something like that depending on the density of the book. Close the book. Think about it. Write down what you are thinking, write down what you remember.” He asks us to separate the function of reading and note taking.
Read-Think-Write
He further says, “Don’t read a sentence and then write down that sentence. That’s not helpful. You can read the sentence, close the book, think about it and then formulate a sentence so that it’s your sentence. This is how you will understand the book.
5. Visit Your Notes Monthly: According to some studies, “you can retain only 10% of what you read” and that’s why people started the trend of taking notes. But alas! Hardly anyone flips through their notes after making them. You don’t need to re-read some books if you don’t forget to read your notes.
In order to refresh your memories with the book, you must read your own notes every month. Reading your own notes will help you to remember the lessons, observe your thinking pattern, realize what you felt while reading the book and above all you get a reminder that you still need to take actions on what you have learnt.
These are the 5 step formulas that are followed by every successful person. I am also following these 5 steps and I can guarantee you that the results that you are going to experience are hilarious and life-changing. I hope now you not only read books but understand them and make the most out of them.
5 Must-Read Books Recommended By Successful Entrepreneurs
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There are several book recommendations available online. One particular list has 23 books recommended by Mark Zuckerberg himself. Most recommendations are very expansive and become difficult to choose one book. For entrepreneurs with limited time available for reading, here’s a concise list for you with recommendations from leading entrepreneurs.
Recommended by Mark Zuckerberg; Book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Sapiens is one of the most interesting reads for people who want to understand how society has evolved over time. Sapiens helps us to realize the importance of teamwork and how humankind has benefitted over time by creating larger and larger teams. From operating in tribes to operating as nations to finally functioning as a global world, the human kind has been forming larger teams to combat issues across the world. The book makes the reader realize that though a single person has played an important role in evolution, teams have been centric in determining the success of humanity. It is no shocker that Mark Zuckerberg who has built Facebook which is now influencing and impacting the world has recommended Sapiens for a read. The book can rewire the way you think and prepare you for taking over the world by understanding society structures.
Bill Gates/Facebook
Recommended by Bill Gates; Book: Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dream by Matthew Walker
This sounds like a self-help book, but it is far from it. Why We Sleep is about the behavioural science of sleep and the impact that it creates on the human body. Often, entrepreneurs feel like sleeping is a waste of time. They work late hours to work on the hustle life and give little regard to sleeping. This book teaches us to reassess the way we think about sleep. For many working professionals, reading a book about the power of sleep can be revolutionary and teach us more about our own bodies. While reading extraordinary fiction books, we often get used to the extraordinary plot. However, books like Why We Sleep can surprise us by teaching us more about things we thought we knew very well. This book prepares the reader for the unexpected by showing them what they don’t know about things they thought they knew best. One of the ways to becoming a better entrepreneur is understanding the key to unlocking your best potential. This book gives interesting insights about unlocking potential and thereby helps you to know yourself better.
Tesla/YouTube
Recommended by Elon Musk; Book: Zero to One by Peter Thiel
Zero to One is one of the most fascinating books which reflects on technological advancement in the current world. According to the book, most technology startups are now moving towards improving old technology instead of creating completely new technology. The book recommends people to move from zero to one by creating new technology instead of improving on older technology. Elon Musk has been a revolutionary who has resonated with creating new technology for the world. With SpaceX and Tesla, Musk has created technologies which did not exist in the world before, and has thereby contributed towards creating a completely new world. Reading Zero to One can change our thinking about technological advancement and our approach towards it.
Jio/YouTube
Recommended by Mukesh Ambani; Book: Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
In his lifetime, Mukesh Ambani has recommended a very limited number of books. Leonardo Da Vinci has topped his list of recommendations. The book is about Da Vinci’s personal notes and varied interests. Walter Isaacson explains the intersection between art, humanities, philosophy, geology and botany which was prominent in Da Vinci’s life. For entrepreneurs who want to get their hands into diversified interests, this book can be inspirational. Moreover, learning about the life of Leonardo Da Vinci can teach you a lot about struggle, hardship and hustling across a variety of interests. It’s no surprise that a man like Mukesh Ambani who is involved in multiple businesses has recommended this book.
Wikipedia
Recommended by Warren Buffet; Book: MiTek: A Global Success Story, 1981 - 2011 by Jim Healy
This book narrates the story of MiTek, a small midwestern firm which was on the verge of financial collapse but ended up becoming a dominant supplier to the industry. During times like the pandemic, it is interesting to read about businesses which combated the challenge of survival during financially hard times. This book inspires the reader to go on during tough times and formulate innovative solutions. MiTek cannot be found in local stores or on Amazon. But it is a collectible which can be bought online on some platforms. MiTek is one of the top recommended books by Warren Buffet and it is a must read for every entrepreneur.