Do you aspire to start your own business? Do you want to become as great as Steve Jobs or Warren Buffet? Well, then one thing that you have to do is read books in abundance. One of the best ways to learn new things is by reading books. The skills that entrepreneurs would learn by reading can be then successfully applied in the ventures they undertake.
So Every entrepreneur should make reading books a habit.
In this article we enlist the books which any aspiring entrepreneur must-read.
1.’The Fountainhead’ by Ayn Rand
The novel’s protagonist, Howard Roark, is an individualistic young architect who does not compromise his artistic and personal vision for worldly recognition and success. The story shows how the protagonist wanted to do something new as opposed to tradition. The author tries to show us that individualism is greater than collectivism. This is an idea which every entrepreneur must possess. The courage and will to do something offbeat is what would lead them to success. Mark Cuban, the owner of Dallas Mavericks feels that this book is a must read.
2.’The Innovator’s Dilemma’ by Clayton Christensen
In this book Christensen tells us how new businesses can threaten established companies by bringing out new products. Existing businesses have to deal with maximising sales as well as retaining their customer base. This restricts their ability to innovate as they fear losing their customers. This is why when new unexpected competitors develop something innovative they can take over the market. This book has received the Global Business Book Award in the year 1997 and is also recommended by numerous CEOs around the world.
3.’Benjamin Franklin’ by Walter Isaacson
This book shows us how Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America shaped up his life. It covers the entire journey of Franklin from his early days as a runaway printer to his multiple triumphs as a statesman, scientist and Founding Father of the US. Any young entrepreneur facing difficulties in his work or personal life can turn to this book for getting inspiration. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX considers this as one of his favourite books.
4.’Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill
This book is based on Hill’s earlier work ‘The Law of Success’. Hill studied individuals who have amassed personal fortunes and brought out 16 laws which can be applied to achieve success. ‘Think and Grow Rich’ condenses these laws into 13 principles in the form of ‘Philosophy of Achievement’ . This book stresses on the importance of having a clear thought process and being determined about what we want to achieve. These principles contribute towards personality development and self improvement in addition to professional development. Daymond John, an investor on ABC’s hit pitch show ‘Shark Tank’ believes that this book changed his life and made him more goal oriented.
5.‘Conscious Capitalism’ by John Mackey and Raj Sisodia
This book published in 2012 uses examples of today’s market leaders to prove how both business and capitalism are good. Since it draws examples from the present, young entrepreneurs can relate to it more easily. It shows how the big organisations increase their utility for all the stakeholders of the business. This book tells us how to build a strong business by focusing on four tenets as follows:
- Higher Purpose
- Stakeholder Integration
- Conscious Leadership
- Conscious Culture and Management
Anyone hoping to make a blueprint for a new business should read this book to build a more cooperative, humane and positive future.
6.’Blink’ by Malcolm Gladwell
Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell delves into a wide range of fields from psychology to behavioural economics to present his research on the adaptive unconsciousness through this book. Adaptive unconsciousness is the mental processes that work rapidly in presence of relatively less information. This book mainly deals with thin slicing which is the ability to use a limited information from a very narrow period of experience and arrive at a conclusion. Picking examples from everyday life and from diverse fields makes this book easier to read and understand. The nature of decisions taken determine the success of a business. In an entrepreneurship, people mostly have to make decisions quickly often with limited information available. This is why it is recommended that aspiring entrepreneurs read this book.
7. Lucky or Smart by Bo Peabody
Every person believes that no matter what work he undertakes, he needs a fair bit of luck to succeed in it. By the time Bo Peabody was twenty-seven years old he had become a multi millionaire. He was the co founder of 5 companies in different industries. The reason why he is famous today is that he made these companies thrive through the thick and thin of economic times. One may feel Bo achieved these feats out of sheer luck but that is far from being true. In this book Bo takes the readers through his own life experiences in a fairly easy to understand language and shows us how smart decisions combined with luck brought him success. The message given in this book is to always make our work innovative, morally compelling and philosophically positive.
Image credits-Google images, Bing Images, Wikipedia, Business Insider
Also published on Medium.
