Whether they're battle-tested veterans or fresh-faced
newbies, entrepreneurs undergo an intense learning process when establishing
and launching a business. Even those who've been through it before typically
face a certain amount of uncertainty. That's why it's critical that they learn
as much as possible about their specific area of business as well as
entrepreneurship as a whole.
Probably thousands of books offer business, leadership or
startup advice, but we've narrowed it down to just 14. Entrepreneurs and all
those fascinated by startups should find the time to read these titles this
year during their travels:
Related: Business Books Are Virtually Worthless Without This
1. The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will
Change The Way You Do Business by Clayton M. Christenen, 1997. Harvard
professor Clayton Christensen, who has founded a handful of companies of his
own over the years, delivered one of the most respected and useful books for
entrepreneurs 17 years ago. Its power lies in the assertion that even though
things are done correctly, a company can still vanish.
Other takeaways from this modern-day classic are insights
about when a businessperson should not listen to customers, the appropriate
times to select smaller markets over larger ones and the right moment to invest
in development of lower-performance products.
2. The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use
Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries,
2011. Whether an entrepreneur is a business veteran who has experienced the
highs and lows of the great dotcom bubble or a young, inexperienced newcomer, a
long-standing set of rules and suggestions are typically offered for certain
scenarios, such aswhen it's wise to turn to a focus group or just remain
optimistic.
Entrepreneur Eric Ries went in a different direction.
Instead of listening to that coveted focus group, watch the customers inside,
he advised. He has served as an entrepreneur in residence at Harvard Business
School.
Related: Don't Go Too Lean. On America's Main Street,
Business Plans Still Work.
3. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber, 1995. For more
than 40 years Michael Gerber has assisted thousands of small businesses. In his
1995 update of his 1986 underground classic, The E Myth: Why Most Businesses
Don't Work and What to Do About It, Gerber argued that despite entrepreneurs
coming up with great ideas, rarely do they make for good businesspeople. To
help prevent readers from making fatal mistakes, Gerber presented in an easily
understood book an effective business model to guide entrepreneurs at all
stages of growth.
Related: Steve Blank on Building Great Founding Teams
4. The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Gary Blank, 2005.
When the tech boom began in Silicon Valley in 1978, Steven Blank was on the
scene. Although he retired in 1999, Blank had accumulated a wealth of knowledge
that he shared in the bestselling The Four Steps to the Epiphany. In this
must-read for those launching tech startups, Blank clearly outlined how to
organize sales and marketing, discover flaws and test assumptions.
5. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie,
1936. This book has been called the “grandfather of all people-skills books”
because it has been assisting everyone from the rich and famous to successful
business leaders for more than 80 years. The reason that this title remains
useful and popular is because it describes techniques for handling other
people, like six ways to get people to like you, 12 ways to encourage others to
buy into your thinking or nine ways to change people's minds without any
resentment.
6. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, 2011. A
psychologist and Nobel Prize winner in economics, Daniel Kahneman provided this
bestselling explanation of how people think -- describing the fast, intuitive
and emotional System 1 and the slower, more deliberative and more logical
System 2. By understanding these systems, readers can learn to think things out
more slowly instead of acting on an impulse.
Related: Why Equity Crowdfunding Isn't a Threat to Venture
Capital
7. Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture
Capitalist by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson, 2013. The authors Brad Feld and
Jason Mendelson have been involved with venture capital financing for more than
two decades. They applied their experiences and knowledge of venture financing
to develop a term sheet and tips about how to strike a favorable deal.
This second edition of their 2011 book provided updates and
discusses new topics, such as convertible debt financing. It's a great resource
for understanding the thought processes and strategies of venture capitalists.
8. The Startup of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in
Yourself, and Transform Your Career by Reid Hoffman, 2012. Written by LinkedIn
co-founder Reid Hoffman and author Ben Casnocha, this book gives
entrepreneurial hopefuls advice on how to thrive in the fast-paced and
ever-changing networked world. The most important lesson from Hoffman and
Casnocha, however, is how to take control of yourself to make the most out of
your life, career and business.
9. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and
Business by Charles Duhigg, 2012. This book became a bestseller on the lists of
USA Today and The New York Times. The reason? It’s a fascinating study by
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Charles Duhigg, a reporter for The New York
Times, on how our habits predict not only life-changing events but also the
behavior of consumers.
Related: 6 Problem Solvers Who Are Disrupting Entire
Industries
10. Big Bang Disruption: Strategy in the Age of Devastating
Innovation by Larry Downes and Paul Nunes, 2014. The entire cycle of innovation
has been disrupted thanks to technology. The world has begun to focus on goods
delivered with the help software, such as smartphone applications.
While authors Larry Downes and Paul Dunes, both experts in
the tech world, break the bad news about technology disruption to potential
entrepreneurs, they also offer key advice about how to survive and compete in
this fast-paced world. The bad news for entrepreneurs is that instead of
sitting back and making money with technology, they are really going to have to
work: The tech world is moving so fast that if companies don’t innovate,
they're going to become obsolete overnight.
11. Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
by Paul Graham, 2004. In an age profoundly affected by computers and new
technology, author Paul Graham advised, business owners should understand and
embrace this arena, which he called “an intellectual Wild West,” or their
startups will likely never take flight. Graham, who created the Yahoo Store,
provided a collection of essays that offer a better understanding of everything
from the impact of the open source movement to website design.
12. The Wisdom of Failure: How to Learn the Tough Leadership
Lessons Without Paying the Price by Laurence G. Weinzimmer and Jim McConoughey,
2012. While many books present advice about how to successfully become an
entrepreneur or businessperson, this book goes in a different direction.
Essentially, this is a “how-not to” guide, exploring the failures of
individuals and companies through a seven-year study. Learning from these
mistakes, readers might discover what to avoid.
13. Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by
Hugh MacLeod, 2009. In his first book, Hugh MacLeod gave readers a glimpse into
his thoughts on marketing and life itself.The lion's share of the book, however
is devoted to the importance of creativity. Throughout the book MacLeod
detailed why it’s vital to be original and how to convert creativity into a
successful business. He also made use of his popular cartoons to further
illustrate his argument.
14. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M.
Goldratt, 1984. This selection is not the typical business book. Instead it’s a
novel that traces the path of plant manager Alex Rogo, who discovers the
author’s Theory of Constraints. There are many lessons to be drawn from this
novel, but all underscore a common theme: how to make decisions to succeed in
management and business.
Bonus book: Entrepreneurial DNA: The Breakthrough Discovery
that Aligns Your Business to Your Unique Strengths by Joe Abraham, 2011. Having
launched more than 20 companies, Joe Abraham mined his own experiences so that
prospective entrepreneurs could find success. He invites his audience to answer
some key questions like what kind of entrepreneur are you, what are your
strengths and weakness and who are the people you’re working with. By answering
these questions, readers can discover how to succeed and stand apart from other
entrepreneurs.
article by:
John Rampton
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