If you want to become an entrepreneur or like to excel in your current business venture, then here is the list of top 10 Books Every Entrepreneur and Business Leaders Should Read, that help you wade through the challenging maze of entrepreneurship smoothly. I hereby provide a curated version of these time-tested classics with their central message through a brief summary. Through the books, the authors themselves are sharing their experiences and learnings rather than providing only theoretical content.
Table of Contents
The Millionaire Fast Lane by M J DEMARCO
D J as he is fondly called is a self-made multimillionaire and founder of “The Fastlane forum”, which has its members including me.
Central message :
Money is an abundant resource, time is not;
Life span=Free time + indentured time ( Time spent making more);
Money buys free time and eliminates indentured time; Dump parasitic debt which is the major cause of indentured time. Stay away from aspirational debts.
FastLaners are frugal with time; Slow Laners are frugal with money.
How headwinds can be channeled and create accelerative winds.
The Parable of the Pipeline by Burke Hedges
Burke Hedges has fought for financial and personal independence for more than ten years as a Network Marketing High-Performance Coach.
Major Message :
Successful people in every line of work value their time and seek every opportunity to leverage their time. Only a business owner can build a pipeline in 5 years.
Time is money, Smart people erect a safety net before the recession starts. Spend 16 hours/week (2 hours/weekdays and 6 hours/weekend) to build your pipeline.
Job Security is an illusion. The book mainly discusses creating financial freedom and inspires people to become entrepreneurs.
No Excuses by Brian Tracy
Who does not know Brian? A public speaker, trainer coach, and author of many self-development books which has helped millions.
Central message :
80% of the value of what you accomplish will come from 20% of the things you do. Hard work on the wrong task can sabotage your career; Seek valuable lessons in every problem or difficulty, within every problem or obstacle lays the seed of an equal or greater opportunity or benefit. Think like a customer, take the product idea to a customer, even before launching it.
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
Chris is an EX- FBI negotiator, with more than 2 decades of experience. Uses the same field-tested principles and practices, with a distilled approach that disarms, redirects, and dismantles the counterpart in any negotiation in a relationship-affirming way.
Negotiation serves two major purposes, information gathering and behavior influencing;
The book takes you through techniques of active listening, how to use mirroring, silences, and the late-night DJ voice, use of tactical empathy to recognize counterparts’ perspectives through labeling; Before getting to yes, it’s important to hear No, which commences the negotiation. The book deals with the usage of calibrated questions to guard against failure during the implementation stage;
A very useful appendix sheet is provided – Negotiation One sheet- A Concise primer of nearly all tactics and strategies described, helps think through and customize to suit a negotiation for any deal which you are looking to close.We recommend buying your favorite toothbrush at super low prices with free shipping, and you can also pick up your order at the store on the same day.
The Almanac of Naval Ravikant
Naval Ravikant is an Indian-American entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder, chairman, and former CEO of AngelList.Through various podcasts, he has inspired many in the field of business.
Be a perpetual learner, consume high-quality information, and get paid for your judgment, understanding beats hard work, formal education will make a living, and self-education will make you a fortune. Leverage terms – Labour, capital, code and media,
Input = Amount of leverage x output; Be accountable for your output rather than input.
Add value in your offerings- Leverage, accountability, and specific knowledge.
Zero to One by Peter Thiel
German-American billionaire businessman, venture investor, and political activist Peter Andreas Thiel. In addition to co-founding PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was also the first outside investor in Facebook.
Technology takes you from 0 to 1, which is doing new things, this is a vertical movement and is innovation-driven. Create value and be valuable;
To achieve critical mass in business, it has to become sustainable.
Develop contrarian thinking;
Only one thing can allow a business to transcend the daily brute of struggle for survival and it is monopoly profits. Monopoly benefits everybody and provides sustained profit for its creator.
Secrets – Every best company is built on s a secret that is hidden from the outside;
Customers won’t care for a particular technology unless it solves a particular problem in a superior way. Focus on a handful of opportunities and make 10x improvements.
Rework by Jason Fried
JASON FRIED is the founder of 37signals, a privately held web-based software development company and author.
In Rework, he mentions,
If you are going to do something, do something that matters; Starting is important -What you do matters not what you think or plan. Without a way to make money, a business is just a pastime;
Building to flip is building to flop, Figure out the epicenter of your business and focus with all your energy on making it the best. Decisions are progress, do not postpone decisions in search of perfect answers.
Blue Ocean Strategy by W.Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne
A business theorist from South Korea is W. Chan Kim. At INSEAD, he teaches strategy and management.
This is an international best-seller, the book deals in creating the methodologies for uncontested Market space, which makes the competition irrelevant;
The new version of the book deals with updates on alignment- organizations struggle to align their system of activities to create a sustainable blue ocean strategy in practice and renewal – as to how to renew blue oceans over time.
The High Performance Entrepreneur by Subroto Bagchi
Indian businessman and entrepreneur Subroto Bagchi. He is a co-founder of the Indian IT MNC Mindtree.
Do you feel the urge to start your own business?
How do you know if you are ready to become an Entrepreneur? the book helps you plan when to make your Entrepreneurial plunge. Describes the Profile of an Entrepreneur and its various facets.
It mentions, that your success depends on a “Great Idea that leads to a family of ideas and its solid implementation”.
While choosing a team – What are all the criteria to be checked? what are the complementary skill sets your partners have, members should have proven competence and their contribution should be direct, visible, and measurable.
Sales is an important aspect- after all, it’s the ability to bring business that matters.
While in business – Keep your ego aside, acceptance and rejections are transitionary
How to build a differentiated business;
Business finance is the ability to read numbers effectively.
A must-read book if you want to be prepared to take on the entrepreneurial plunge.
Start with Why by Simon Sinek
An American author and motivational speaker named Simon Oliver Sinek was born in England.
This book deals with the golden circle of “why “ rather than what;
The Golden Circle consists of WHY, HOW, and WHAT. Even in situations when it is considered that luck played a role, it offers repeatable and predictable results.
WHY motivates because it encourages emotional action.
What is a matter of action?
HOW delivers the WHAT.
A must-read for leaders to imbibe and inspire their team to reach greater heights.
Hope you enjoyed the quick summary of books. Now would urge each one of you to grab and read these practical books that will aid your growth journey.
Conclusion
Hope you enjoyed the quick summary of the top 10 Books Every Entrepreneur and Business Leader Should Read. Personally, each of the books has provided me with amazing benefits. Now would urge each one of you to grab a copy and read these practical books which will immensely aid your growth journey. I am sure the incremental steps that you put into reading the books will help you with exponential gains in your respective ventures.