By Shlomo Silber, CEO & Co-Founder, Bond Collective
As an entrepreneur and founder of a startup, there’s one simple thing you can do to benefit yourself and your business: read. More specifically, read the best entrepreneur books out there to get a jump-start on your competition.
Reading books by leaders, business owners, other entrepreneurs, and those in the know gives you access to valuable knowledge that you can’t find anywhere else.
Even if you have a great idea and a plan to make that idea a reality, you can still benefit from other’s successes and failures. That’s what reading the best entrepreneur books is all about: following in the footsteps of those who have gone before you and learning from their mistakes and triumphs.
To help you find just the right book for your specific goals, we’ve created a list of the 12 best entrepreneur books that every startup founder needs to read. With the books on this list, you can get started improving the way you think about — and work on — your business.
The 12 Best Entrepreneur Books
1) The Achievement Habit
In The Achievement Habit, Dr. Bernie Roth asks (and answers) a question every entrepreneur and startup founder should be asking themselves: Am I solving the right problem? Dr. Roth then helps you identify and conquer those obstacles with clear and actionable strategies.
2) Think And Grow Rich
In the original Think and Grow Rich, published in 1937, Napoleon Hill draws on stories of Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and other millionaires of his generation to illustrate the principles of success.
In the updated version, Arthur R. Pell, Ph.D., relates anecdotes of how contemporary millionaires and billionaires, such as Bill Gates, Mary Kay Ash, Dave Thomas, and Sir John Templeton, achieved their wealth. You can’t go wrong with what has been called the “granddaddy of all motivational literature.”
3) The Obstacle Is The Way
In The Obstacle is the Way, author Ryan Holiday shows you how some of the most successful people in history — from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs — applied stoicism (the philosophy of enduring pain or adversity with perseverance and resilience) to overcome difficult situations.
So if you’re feeling frustrated, demoralized, or stuck in a rut, this book can help you turn your problems into your biggest advantages.
4) The E-Myth Revisited
The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber is an updated version of the phenomenally successful original. In this latest edition, Michael Gerber dispels the myths about starting your own business. Along the way, he points out how common assumptions, expectations, and even technical expertise can get in the way of running a successful business.
5) Tools Of Titans
In Tools Of Titans, author Tim Ferriss relates the business lessons he’s learned from celebrities, athletes, special-ops commanders, and black-market biochemists (just to name a few). Through it all, Ferriss keeps a relentless focus on actionable details so that you can translate the experiences into real-life strategies.
6) The Fountainhead
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand sums up the entrepreneurial passion and spirit when it states, “The question isn’t who is going to let me, it’s who is going to stop me.” And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Countless successful people around the world recommend this book as required reading for every entrepreneur.
7) The $100 Startup
In The $100 Startup, Chris Guillebeau shows you how to lead a life of adventure, meaning, and purpose — and earn a good living at the same time.
Guillebeau reveals how to turn ideas into income and proves that you don’t need an MBA, a business plan, or even employees. All you need is a product or service that springs from what you love to do anyway, people willing to pay, and a way to get paid.
8) The Effective Executive
In The Effective Executive, author Peter F. Drucker shows you that the measure of any good executive is the ability to "get the right things done." This usually involves doing what other people have overlooked as well as avoiding what is unproductive.
Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge may all be wasted in an executive job without the acquired habits of mind that mold them into results. In his book, Drucker demonstrates the distinctive skill of the executive and offers fresh insights into old and seemingly obvious business situations.
9) Deep Work
According to Deep Work author Cal Newport, deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time.
Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a superpower in our increasingly competitive twenty-first-century economy.
10) The Innovator’s Dilemma
In The Innovator’s Dilemma, author Clayton M. Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right yet still lose market leadership. No matter the industry, Christensen says, a successful company with established products will get pushed aside unless managers know how and when to abandon traditional business practices.
Christensen then gives you a set of rules for capitalizing on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation.
11) The 10X Rule
The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone unveils the principle of "Massive Action" which allows you to blast through business clichés and risk-aversion while taking concrete steps to reach your dreams. It also demonstrates why people get stuck in the first three actions (no action, retreat, and normal action) and how you can prevent these pitfalls.
Find out exactly where to start, what to do, and how to follow up each action you take with more action to achieve “Massive Action” results.
12) Business Adventures
Business Adventures, written by longtime New Yorker contributor John Brooks, is an insightful and engaging look into corporate and financial life in America.
Brooks provides lessons for all businesses — large and small — using real-life examples like the Edsel (a $350 million disaster), Xerox, and General Electric and how these iconic companies were defined by a particular moment of fame or notoriety. Brooks shows that you can learn a lot from the business adventures of others.
13) Blink
Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, explores the science behind decision-making and intuition and shows how these skills are essential for any aspiring business leader.
Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing" — filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.
Improve The Way You Work
Reading these 12 best entrepreneur books is a great start for any founder looking to get ahead. But success is about more than just the words on a page. You’ve got to take action.
One of the best ways for an entrepreneur to bridge the gap between book and business is to put the advice into practice with other like-minded startup founders. To really make an impact in your business, you need to spend time talking to your peers about what they’re dealing with and how they’re coping with the challenges of running a startup.
But where can you find that type of environment? Coworking spaces like those offered by Bond Collective.
With coworking space, not only will you enjoy working alongside and learning from entrepreneurs from every corner of the business world, but you’ll also benefit from the low overhead inherent in shared workspace and the infrastructure (internet, heating and cooling, snack bar, storage, technology, etc.) that you might not be able to afford at this stage of your startup.
And then there’s the professional image that all seven Bond Collective locations present to your employees and customers alike. Whether they’re working there full-time or visiting to close a deal, everyone will enjoy the comfort and luxury built into each corner of our office environment.
Whether you opt for a coworking space, a dedicated desk, or a private office, you’ll get access to all the benefits mentioned above, plus a rich network of entrepreneurs and founders who can help you make your startup dreams into business realities.
To get started or to learn more about coworking space benefits for digital nomads, entrepreneurs, startups, remote workers, and businesses of all sizes, visit BondCollective.com today.