Book Recommendations

Must-read Classics

  • The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Steven Covey)
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)
    • Not nearly as superficial as the title suggests, this is a very actionable introduction to an important fundamental skill:  Seeing things from the perspective of the other person.
  • Good to Great (Jim Collins)

Books for Entrepreneurs, Founders, and Business Owners

  • Zero to One:  Notes on Startups or How to Build the Future (Peter Thiel)
  • The Four Steps to the Epiphany:  Successful Strategies for Products that Win (Steve Blank)
  • The E-Myth Revisited:  Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It (Michael Gerber)
  • The Hard Thing about Hard Things:  Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers (Ben Horowitz)
  • Purple Cow:  Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable (Seth Godin)
    • An essential marketing book.  Better than most undergraduate marketing courses.

Books for New Entrepreneurs and anyone thinking of starting a business

  • The Lean Startup:  How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses (Eric Ries)
  • The Personal MBA:  Master the Art of Business (Josh Kaufman)
  • Built to Sell:  Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You (John Warrilow)
  • Sprint:  How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in just Five Days (Jake Knapp)
  • This is Marketing:  You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See (Seth Godin)
  • Art of the Start 2.0:  The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything (Guy Kawasaki)

Books that will Expand your Thinking about Business, the World, and Life

  • Abundance:  The Future is Better Than You Think (Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler)
  • Skin in the Game (Nassim Taleb)
  • Loonshots:  How to Nurture Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries (Safi Bahcall)
  • Predictably Irrational:  The Hidden Forces that Shape our Decisions (Dan Ariely)
  • Essentialism:  The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Greg McKeown)

Books for Anyone Trying to Get Better at Anything

  • The Art of Learning:  An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance (Josh Waitzkin)
  • Atomic Habits:  An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (James Clear)
  • Smarter, Faster, Better:  The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business (Charles Duhigg)

Other Recommendations

  • Anything You Want (Derek Sivers)
  • The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying (Bronnie Ware)
  • A More Beautiful Question (Warren Berger).
    • Ask a better question, get a better answer.  Here are a bunch of ideas.
  • 7 Strategies for Wealth and Happiness (Jim Rohn)
  • Principles (Ray Dalio)

Unexpectedly enjoyable reads for creatives, writers, and artists

  • Show Your Work (Austin Kleon)
  • Your Music, Your People (Derek Sivers)
  • Daily Rituals:  How Artists Work (Mason Currey)
  • On Writing (Stephen King)
  • Masterclasses with James Patterson and Neil Gaiman