Ever since my Sophomore year in college, I have read a variety of books regarding the subjects of Business, Entrepreneurship, and Investing. As a Computer Science student, I was aware that my career path was in high demand and that numerous job opportunities were available. I also knew that times were quickly changing and that the traditional path to success was no longer a guarantee. It is for that reason I begun reading as much as I could. I knew that it was important to learn new skills that were not always taught at school if I wanted to succeed in this information-driven economy. And in this post, I share the top five books about the subjects of Business and Entrepreneurship that I have read thus far.
Eric Ries' The Lean Startup is one of the first book I have read in this subject. It challenged the belief of "getting it right the first time", which many of us, myself included, are conditioned to believe in school. The Lean Startup addresses the need for speed and rapid iteration over the traditional structured approach in product development and business systems in today's rapidly evolving environment. Ries heavily emphasizes the importance of gathering customer feedback quickly and through smaller iteration, as this approach is not only beneficial to the customer, but also to a startup, which may not have sufficient resources to amend a mistake at a much larger scale.
You can read more in Eric Ries' The Lean Startup.
Shark Tank investor Daymond John has first hand experience of building a successful business from practically nothing. In his book, The Power of Broke, he challenges the notion that more capital is the solution to the challenges most startups face. In fact, Daymond John argues that startups with an abundance of capital tend to do worse than those with scarce capital. He argues that entrepreneurs with an abundance of capital tend to believe that many challenges they face can be resolved by throwing more money at the problem instead of considering better alternative solutions. In the book, he also covers the humble beginnings of his extremely successful fashion company FUBU.
You can read more in Daymond John's The Power of Broke.
In his book, Zero to One, PayPal co-foundeer and early FaceBook investor, Peter Thiel makes the bold claim that Companies that focus on building monopolies are responsible for much of the progress in various industries, and that competition and capitalism are two opposite ideas. Thiel argues that entrepreneurs should shift their focus from improving on an existing product or service - going from one to n - to building something entirely new or significantly better - going from zero to one.
You can learn more by reading Peter Thiel's book Zero to One.
In their book The One Thing, Gary Keller and Jay Papasan reveal the surprisingly simple truth about extraordinary results. They call to question various popular beliefs such as multitasking and work-life balance, which they claim are unrealistic. They preach that extraordinary results can be achieved by only focusing on the one most important task for any given endeavor.
You can read more in the book The One Thing.
Think and Grow Rich is written by Nepoleon Hill. He writes that he was inspired by the late philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Think and Grow Rich makes the top of the list (or bottom in the case of this article lol) as it focuses on what I consider the most important thing. that is one's self and mindset. While on the surface the book seems to spend much time covering the importance of increasing income, the principles actually cover something much more significant that can help many people succeed in whatever path they choose to take.
You can learn more by reading Think and Grow Rich.
