Intro

Reading is instrumental for entrepreneurs.

Not only is reading one of the best ways to gain new information, it’s also great for your brain.

As an entrepreneur, regular reading helps you:

• Get different perspectives
• Stimulate creative thinking
• Experiment with new ideas & methods
• Learn from others’ experiences

These types of books will be helpful for building business relationships, managing virtual teams, growing your business, and for other reasons. If you’re not already reading something, pick up one of these highly recommended must-reads for entrepreneurs.

While you can use a good website builder or work with a professional designer for best results, you will still need the additional help of business books.

Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill

Although this book was written in 1937, the message it presents is still relevant to life and business today. Hill explains the 13 principles to growing wealth, with a strong focus on believing in yourself and relentlessly pursuing your goals.

There’s a reason many of the most successful people in the world still recommend this book for everyone. This is a life-changing read that could help to shape your way of thinking and push you towards a future of accomplishment.

Good to Great – Jim Collins

This timeless book rigorously analyzes what separates good companies from great companies. Collins worked with a team of researchers to study the path that businesses took to become great, and he breaks it down for readers to understand and replicate.

The principles in this book still hold up today, and the ideas expressed by Collins can be adapted to fit business in any industry.

The 4-Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss

Reading this book will help you address a common problem among entrepreneurs: overworking and burnout. Ferriss talks about ways you can simplify your work without sacrificing your productivity.

Get insight into outsourcing appropriately, managing efficiently, and optimizing your work to give you time to focus on growth.

The Tipping Point – Malcom Gladwell

Good ideas don’t always make good businesses. Gladwell’s book has an elegant way of describing the steps between a good idea and an actual business or product.

Every entrepreneur should read this book and apply the lessons to their own start-up or idea.

How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie

Another classic read, this book teaches you how to influence people by first being genuinely interested in them. You’ll learn to be more persuasive without driving people away. Many of the points in this book have proven repeatedly through research over the years. Read this book to start shifting your perspective and working better with others.

The E-Myth Revisited – Michael E. Gerber

Go on a journey with Michael Gerber as he analyzes the myths surrounding entrepreneurs versus small business owners. He also looks at the idea that anyone with technical business knowledge can start and succeed at their own business.

This is a helpful book for understanding what differentiates some businesses from others. You’ll also get a lot of insight into what it takes to run a stable business that’s built for long-term success.

The Art of War – Sun Tzu

Out of all the books on this list, The Art of War might be the most surprising. In fact, it’s one of the best leadership books out there! It’s more than 2500 years old and was written by a Chinese general. This is a highly revered book about war strategies.

The same strategies that Sun Tzu wrote about for war can be applied directly to business. The lessons you’ll learn from this book can help you make wiser decisions, think more strategically, and succeed in a tough market.

Influence – Robert B Cialdini

This is a book that delves deep into the psychology of persuasion and why people say “yes”.

Cialdini’s 6 principles of persuasion can be widely applied in business, both in helping convince people to buy into your mission and preventing you from falling prey to idle persuasion from others.

The Compound Effect – Darren Hardy

As an entrepreneur, every decision you make can have an impact on your business. Hardy’s book is about building habits that will generate compounding benefits over time.

Reading this book teaches you how to organize your life more successfully and measure your progress with tangible milestones.

The One Thing – Gary Keller

Keller’s focus in this book is to direct your attention to what’s most important to you. He gives a useful framework for narrowing down your priorities, simplifying your actions, and putting all your momentum towards achieving your actual goals.

For entrepreneurs, this is a valuable read that has the potential to change the way you think about your business’s goals and your plan to reach them.

Start with Why – Simon Sinek

Sinek’s Start with Why forces you to look at the reasons behind everything you’re doing with your business. You’ll be guided through the process of analyzing the roots of what you’re doing with your business, your idea, and your vision.

Sinek is known for insightful and inspirational speaking. His book is a good starting point for entrepreneurs who want to learn how to lead by inspiring others.

Rework – Jason Fried & David Hansson

If you’re looking for self motivation to get started and keep going, this is a good book to help you cut through all the noise and get to what’s really important.

Instead of regurgitating the same advice, the authors focus on working smarter to solve real problems with your business. You’ll get a look at the major challenges facing entrepreneurs and business owners, and insight into how you can overcome those challenges.

Zero to One – Peter Thiel

Having founded multiple highly successful businesses, Thiel’s book gives you a look into how he identifies opportunities for disruption and improvement.

A must-read for entrepreneurs everywhere, you’ll learn about what it takes to create a transformational start-up that can dominate in the age of the internet.

Getting Things Done – David Allen

Productivity systems are everywhere, but David Allen’s time management system is a helpful framework for sustainable work. It’s a realistic look at what it takes to be truly productive throughout your whole career.

As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to run yourself into the ground. This book can help you organize your life and work so you’re always working toward your goals without being overwhelmed.

The Intelligent Investor – Benjamin Graham

Every entrepreneur and business owner needs a healthy dose of reality in a highly over-hyped business environment. Graham teaches the reader to look deeply into what’s behind the valuation of a stock, company, or business idea.

This book helps to ground you in reality and make sure you can spot a real value. You’ll learn the principles for building wealth slowly and steadily, creating goals that make sense and help you celebrate every step forward.

Made to Stick – Chip and Dan Heath

Written by a pair of enterprising brothers, this book provides a helpful framework to understand why some business ideas work while others don’t.

The Heath brothers build on concepts that are introduced in “The Tipping Point”, another book that made it onto this list. You’ll learn more about what makes ideas more memorable and how to use that concept to enhance your business.

Creativity, Inc. – Ed Catmull

Catmull is one of the co-founders of the highly successful animation studio Pixar. In this book, he tells some of his own story of founding and running the company, focusing mainly on the angle of how he built a foundation for creative workers.

This is a deep dive into fostering a positive, creative company culture that scales.

Conclusion

No one book has all the answers, but the more you read the more you’ll be equipped for whatever comes your way as you build your online business.

These books are many others have been read and cherished by highly successful people around the world. Crack open the pages and see if you can catch a glimpse of what they all learned and applied in their own endeavours.