As an entrepreneur, you should constantly be learning. Whether you have your MBA already or you haven’t yet attended business school, there are thousands of books from which to choose that will rev up your entrepreneurial savvy without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.
However, the biggest challenge for a massively busy entrepreneur is finding the right resources, and then making time for them. Which books will propel you forward and will give not only practical advice, but also encourage your philosophical and emotional growth as a leader?
To save you the time of seeking through all of the great business books available, here’s a pared down list of my six favorite practical and inspirational books -- that are also the best value for your time.
1. The Lean Start-up by Eric Ries
Highly lauded, The Lean Startup teaches Eric Ries’ scientific process for efficient product testing, innovation, and invention. Most startups waste their time trying to wade through a muck of trial and error. Ries’ book helps entrepreneurs slice through uncertainty, giving practical replicable applications for small or large businesses to learn more quickly what is working and get rid of what doesn’t.
2. 101 Crucial Lessons They Don't Teach You In Business School by Chris Haroun
Many crucial business lessons are not taught in business school, including how to get a job, how to find customers, or how to network. Chris Haroun, an award-winning graduate business school professor at several Bay Area universities and a venture capitalist at Artis Ventures, has spent the last 20 years meeting with business icons and finding out how they created their success. This book is based on the lessons he learned from his meetings with the likes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Marc Benioff, and other CEOs of the greatest tech companies in the world.
3. Zero to One by Peter Thiel
Legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel knows a thing or two about innovative business. In this book, Thiel explains that we live in an era of technical stagnations, and creating more versions of a business that already exists doesn’t add value to the world - it just takes the number from 1 to n. Theil’s provocative theory is that innovation is what will add to the world; taking the number from 0 to 1.
Thiel is an incredibly forward thinker, and some of his musings are understandably uncomfortable. However, the many examples and streamlined data presented will make you want to learn everything Thiel has to teach.
4. The Self-Made Billionaire Effect by John Sviokla and Mitch Cohen
According to Sviokla and Cohen’s extensive research of over 120 billionaire entrepreneurs, the most important single thing that almost all self-made billionaires provide to the public is value. This book examines how, even in the most highly competitive fields, when the focus is providing massive value to the customer first, value is easily created and given back many times over.
5. Start With Why by Simon Sinek.
Sinek is very clear; the most effective businesses, the moneymakers, are ones that can clearly articulate why they exist. “Making money” is not a why. A deep, abiding understanding of what you want to inspire, and how you want to lead is the basis of this inspirational book.
6. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey.
Though you may have already read Covey’s classic leadership book, it is one for the ages that can always be revisited; ten million people can’t be wrong.
This book is intricate and detailed: the seven habits that Covey lays out are not for skimming. They are concepts that take time, and what Covey calls a “paradigm shift.” The paradigm shifts that are most important are not shifts in business acumen, but in personal mastery and interpersonal relationships. Once these shifts are created, Covey states, then business sense evolves out of those proactive perceptions and attitudes.
Murray Newlands would be thrilled if you’d share this story with your networks. You can find him on Twitter (@murraynewlands), Vine (murraynewlands) and learn more about his work at www.murraynewlands.com
