15 Business Books Every Aspiring Entrepreneur

Should Read

Ben Horowitz, cofounder of

Andreessen Horowitz, offers up a

brutally honest look not at what’s

needed to start a business, but what it

takes to run one. Readers can

appreciate the equally entertaining

and shrewd descriptions of his

journey from software engineer to

venture capital CEO. His no-nonsense

approach and relatable wisdom are

characteristics I consider to be

invaluable for anyone in a leadership

role, whether at a startup or a Fortune-

level corporation.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No

Easy Answers

In her book Resonate, presentation expert

and Harvard Business Review contributor

Nancy Duarte explores a number of proven

techniques for transforming any

presentation into what she describes as "an

engaging journey" for audiences. As the

leaders of our companies, it's imperative

that we maintain a thorough command of

the spoken word in such a way that elicits

any number of desired responses from

clients, investors, and colleagues alike. This

book spells out the how-tos behind these

key communicative skills.

Whether you’re doing the dog and pony show for funding, seeking to

effectively communicate with your team, or looking to position yourself as

a thought leader in your industry, you’re going to need to learn to make

and give stellar presentations. Ask any business owner and he or she will

tell you, strong in-person presentation and communication skills are

the difference between the remembered and the forgotten.

Resonate: Present Visual Stories That

Transform Audiences

Business Model Generation: A Handbook for

Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers

With social networks, blogs, and

daily startup life generating more

din than an oncoming freight train,

knowing when and how to cut

through the noise can be

tough. Business Model

Generation zeroes in on today’s

shared language of success while

educating readers about the

building blocks of businesses,

beginning with a concept known

as the business model canvas.

This book stands as an invaluable

tool for defining, iterating upon,

and innovating your business

model.

The core of every successful

startup today hinges on the

product and the experience, be it

for a user or consumer. Here

Mark Stickdorn highlights the

importance of human-centered

design and discusses methods

for customer and design

research. I'd say without

reservation that this one's a

must-read for any active or

aspiring business owner or

product marketer.

This is Service Design Thinking: Basics,

Tools, Cases

But before you run off and eliminate

groupthink from your toolbox, I suggest you

readGamestorming by Dave Gray. This self-

described playbook serves as a how-to for

overseeing effective team collaboration.

Grab yourself a copy if you’re looking to

shake up the ways in which you co-create

and ideate with employees or customers. I

should know– this book inspired an entirely

new method of growth hacking at our

company, which we’re now calling the 50/50

experiment.

Brainstorms possess the ability to either exhilarate and excite or frustrate

and discourage those participants charged with creating from them

products, campaigns, or brand concepts. Many reports point to the latter,

maintaining that most brainstorms are toxic and a complete waste of time.

Says organizational psychologist Adrian Furnham, “Evidence from science

suggests that business people must be insane to use brainstorming

groups.”

Game storming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rule

breakers, and Change makers

By the same team that brought

us Business Model Generation,

this book lays the groundwork for

defining and understanding

successful value propositions.

Whether that success translates

into a sound business with

engaged and happy customers or a

major acquisition from Google, it’s

safe to say this book is a

worthwhile buy. With applicable

exercises and workshop ideas for

colleagues and clients alike, Value

Proposition Design undoubtedly

lives up to its title.

Value Proposition Design: How to Create

Products and Services That Customers

Want

These days you can’t scroll through a

marketing blog without being inundated

with headlines about shiny SAAS tools.

Analytics, social listening, you name it.

But with enough gizmos and services to

fill our minds and browser extensions,

it’s amazing how often we overlook the

need to equip ourselves with the single

most important tool: our own ability to

lead. That’s because ultimately, it’s on

us as the founders to instill that same

virtue in our teams. As education expert

John Holt once noted, “True leaders, in

short, do not make people into

followers, but into other leaders.”

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership:

Follow Them and People Will Follow You

Eric Ries is the Tony Robbins of the

startup world. Thanks to his

refreshingly concise writing style,

his book is chock full of relatable

lessons. His pointed honesty is one

of the many reasons I refer this book

to just about every entrepreneur I

know. His explanation of the Build-

Measure-Learn framework educates

readers on the uses of customer-

based observation, a tool that ought

to exist at the heart of every startup.

The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

This one stands out for its ability to convey

the many challenges you will inevitably face

as a founder. Author Noam Wasserman

frames what he calls the “three R’s”–

relationships, roles, and rewards– as factors

every founder must constantly evaluate and

adjust. He places special emphasis on the

ways in which organizers can confidently go

about making tough choices about human

and financial capital. My favorite part about

this read is how in-depth the lessons it

contains actually are. Suffice it to say, I wish

it existed when I was starting my business.

The Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup

As the founder, owner, and

veritable captain of your ship, you

can expect to encounter countless

distractions, both personal and

professional. Great leaders know

how and when to be myopic in their

scope of work. Essentialism

teaches us the ways of a modern

day “essentialist”. That is, how to

be the type that works smarter, not

harder, in order to maximize on

productivity levels across the

board.

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of

Less

When we talk about failure being the

foundation for success, Ed

Catmull’s Creativity, Inc. is treasured by

many for its candid story and style. In it, he

recounts the inception and creation of his

company (for those unaware, that’d be the

world famous Pixar Animation Studios). It’s

not your average philosophical recipe for

management or bland, chest-pounding tale

of overcoming the odds, but rather a simple

narrative of one man’s childhood passion

for art and technology. How he forged that

into the ideals and experiences behind one

of the most innovative companies of our

time, is something every one of us can

stand to learn a thing or two from. This

one’s a remarkably insightful look at how

even the most successful careers are

comprised of countless failures. Catmull’s

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True

Inspiration

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone

to Take Action & Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams

Pull Together and Others Don't

Speaking of empathy, Simon Sinek’s

books Leaders Eat Last and Start With Why are

two truly reflective books that out to be in every

founder’s literary arsenal. He uses biological

evidence to assess the psychological and

sociological impact of empathy, and offers

various frameworks for ways in which empathy

itself can be utilized as a tool to drive your

organization’s success. Though similar in nature,

both of Sinek’s books carry unique sets of

takeaways for today’s founders. Start with

Why explains the fundamental need to know and

articulate our business’ “why”, while Leaders Eat

Last teaches us how to uphold the tenets of our

“why” as we incorporate new people into the

folds of our business.

Outliers: The Story of Success

When we think about what drives success,

we often point to fundamental elements like

hard work, passion, and commitment. But

what about more arbitrary factors like a

person’s birth date, cultural background, or

familial upbringing? Author Malcolm

Gladwell encourages readers to consider

how individualized one’s own potential for

success actually is. Redefine your definition

of success–and learn how the “10,000-Hour

Rule” applies to you– in this thought-

provoking bestseller.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make

the Leap … And Others Don’t

Let’s be real, not every company among us

breeds excellence. While some possess the

DNA makeup conducive to long term success,

countless others simply do not. But is it

possible, still, for those companies classified

as “mediocre” to carve out permanent places

for themselves in today’s market? To make the

leap from good to great? Jim Collins examines

this question, and in the process uncovers a

certain set of characteristics capable of

distinguishing a company’s potential for

enduring greatness. The findings in Good to

Great reveal the qualities of successful leaders,

the importance of technology, and the need for

a disciplined culture, among a number of other

truths that will almost certainly impact your

business.