10 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read
The road of entrepreneurship is a never ending road of learning, you have to love trying new things and learning as you go. And reading, even though it’s easily neglected in our digital society, is a truly essential part in the learning process.
These are the books that have had the biggest impact on my life in entrepreneurship. They will teach you the mindset you need on your journey to creating the life you truly want.
1. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
It has been called “the entrepreneur’s bible”, and for a good reason. Think and Grow Rich was written back in 1937, but the knowledge that resides within it is timeless.
Hill goes into great detail covering crucial topics, in what he call’s “the 13 steps to riches”. You will learn the importance of desire, having faith in yourself and what you are doing, utilising autosuggestion to turn your thoughts into reality, valuing your imagination, the importance of decision making and breaking procrastination and so much more.
This book is not just a great source of inspiration, it is a guide from which you can extract some truly powerful nuggets of knowledge, that you can apply to your life as soon as you’ve read the book.
If you only read but one of these 10 books, be sure to read this one.
2. The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman
This is the one book I recommend to anyone interested in business, because it covers essentially everything you need to know about starting, running and selling a business.
Josh founded PersonalMBA.com, where he shared summaries and key points from an extensive amount of business books with thousands of readers. This book is the summary of all of his work, covering topics such as value, marketing, sales, finance, systems, management and psychology.
A must read to anyone looking to up their game in business, and a great book to have by your side while you’re working on your side hustle.
3. Startupland by Mikkel Svane
This is truly a gem in the genre of Entrepreneurship and Business, but one that hasn’t received the attention it truly deserves.
Startupland is the story of the three guys, Mikkel, Alexander and Morten, who started the company Zendesk in a tiny apartment in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It’s a story of the biggest struggles and challenges a startup team faces, keeping the team together, the first investor, moving to the United States and finally going public. It’s a story of truly risking everything in order to turn an idea into a global company.
If you want an insight into what the process can look like, when you have a small team of individuals who want to build something cool and have people pay for it, this is the book for you.
4. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
As one of the most practical books on personal development and success you will ever read, The Compound Effect will teach you the power behind repeating the smallest tasks over along time.
It’s a book about decisions, a book that says that there is no magic bullet to the life you’ve always imagined. Darren goes through, in great detail, the principles that you need to actually create success in your life through the power of compounding.
5. The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris
I’d be surprised if you hadn’t heard about this book before, as this has to be the most popular business book of all time. But even though so many people have read it, very few actually apply the powerful knowledge that resides in it’s pages.
This book is the recipe, based on the true story of the author Tim Ferris life, on how to break out of the rat race and create a self-sustaining business. It contains practical steps and tools that you can copy, modify and use in your own venture, combined with Tim’s witty but very intriguing story telling.
This is a must have book in any entrepreneurs or freelancers bookshelf.
6. Grit by Angela Duckworth
One of the most practical and eye-opening books on the power of perseverance(grit) to have ever been written. Angela combines her years of research with incredible story telling about people who have used the power of grit in their life to achieve or change something.
This book had a profound impact on my own life, showing that hard work isn’t the only thing you need. In order to work on something that is taking you far outside your comfort zone, you will have to apply grit and perseverance.
7. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
This is a must read for every entrepreneur and or manager who is interested in innovation and improving how you launch new products and services. It’s about initiating and managing growth, of course focused on the startup sector.
You’ll learn how to actually know what your customers want, if the issue they express is really a problem they can’t live with, how to build a Minimum Viable Product to test your idea and how to constantly keep adapting and improving on your product or service in order to grow and keep growing.
8. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
This is, together with Think and Grow Rich, one of the biggest classics in personal finance and business. It’s the story of how Robert Kiyosaki built his foundation of knowledge in finance and business, learning from both his rich dad and poor dad.
The book will cover everything from the basics of assets and liabilities to learning how to invest in real estate by utilising market downturns. Actions and decisions that are perceived to be risky, might be a lot less risky if you know how to calculate the risk.
The knowledge and principles contained in this book often contradicts conventional wisdom and might go against your own thoughts and experiences. I advice you to keep an open mind, as this book does contain some truly powerful golden nuggets. But it’s always best to simply extract the principles and tools that you consider to be most useful in your life and personal finances.
9. The E-myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber
Focusing on how to start and run a small business, Michael captivates you as he uses incredible story telling, combined with practical knowledge and principles, that is both entertaining and educational.
This book will teach you the three “individuals” that are behind every idea of a business, the entrepreneur, the manager and the technician, and how you identify which of these individuals you actually are. This is a crucial step on your entrepreneurial journey, as it helps you understand your strengths and weaknesses, and who you need to hire first to help your business survive and grow.
There is so much more that Michael goes on to teach you, but apart from the idea of the three individuals, the biggest takeaway for me has been that you are the biggest obstacle on your path to growing your company. You can only do so much of the work, until you eventually start dropping some of the balls you are juggling, and at that point you need to start outsourcing some of the work.
10. The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
This is the perfect, easy-to-read, guide on how you can take your idea to building an actual business on the side and bootstrapping your way to launching, with real-life stories of people who did exactly what you are trying to do.
The book will take you from start, to launch, to growing, covering topics such as business validation, demographics, business plan, advertising, funding, franchising and so much more.
Personally, this is my go to inspiration book that always teaches me something new.
Thanks for reading! :)
If you have any book recommendations or tips on books that you think should’ve been on this list, be sure to leave a reply below.
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