Everyone knows that starting your own business and becoming an entrepreneur can be tough. With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it’s hard to find time to keep up with reading when you’re trying to build your new venture from the ground up. But, if you want to succeed as an entrepreneur, it’s important to learn from the best – other successful entrepreneurs who have been in your shoes and can teach you the lessons they learned from their own triumphs and setbacks. Here are some of the top books by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.
Outliers, Why Success Is Not an Accident (Malcolm Gladwell)
Outliers is a fascinating read and will give you much food for thought. If you’re looking to be inspired by some of today’s great entrepreneurs, you will find it in Gladwell’s work. He breaks down the psychology behind why certain people have succeeded so spectacularly. You’ll learn what motivates them and what drives them to succeed over others who had similar opportunities.
Emotional Intelligence (Daniel Goleman)
If you’re just starting out, your ambitions are to have a happy life, a great marriage, and an amazing career. Unfortunately, there’s one thing stopping you from achieving all of these things—yourself. In fact, most people unknowingly sabotage their relationships, their careers and even their health because they simply don’t understand how they influence every aspect of their lives. Read on as we reveal how emotional intelligence can revolutionize your life.
Good to Great (Jim Collins)
Collins’s book explains how companies can transition from being just a good company to being a great one. He lays out what makes a company great, and then describes several good-to-great companies. At his website, Good to Great, Inc., you can download free tools that help you evaluate your own company’s strengths and weaknesses relative to these criteria. If you decide to implement his system, he provides templates and other resources to get you started.
Never Eat Alone (Keith Ferrazzi)
Ferrazzi’s book is an easy read and an excellent resource for learning how to network more effectively. The author’s insight into what makes relationships work (and why so many don’t) is especially useful. Readers learn from his experience, but it’s not a tell-all type of story. His 10 rules for power networking are a very good place to start with understanding the building blocks of developing connections.
E-Myth Revisited (Michael Gerber)
With its central thesis that business isn’t about business, it’s about people, The E-Myth Revisited is a classic book on startups and small businesses. In his words, Michael Gerber suggests that most entrepreneurs see starting a business as something akin to constructing a building: First you have an idea (that is, you conceive of something new). Then you build it.
