An entrepreneur can be considered anyone who identifies a need, and fills it. This person will organize and run a business based on their instincts, and is willing to risk a substantial amount to do so. Whether the business is large or small, run out of a skyscraper or a work from home business – it’s not what the business is, or how it’s run that makes the entrepreneur. It’s the spirit inside them.
The most important ways to learn, grow, and progress along your journey as an entrepreneur is to read and listen. Read articles and read books. Listen to speeches and listen to podcasts. Just keep learning.
Here are 10 books every entrepreneur should read this year:
1. The E-Myth Revisited – Michael E. Gerber
An updated version of the widely popular The E Myth: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, this book details the common myths surrounding starting your own business and how to avoid them to ensure success.
2. How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
Learn how to win people over, make them see and agree with your point of view, and influence them to make the decisions you want to make. This book is the holy grail of communicating with people successfully for business purposes.
3. The 4-Hour Workweek – Timothy Ferris
Work less, play more – that’s the theory of this author. Learn how to live luxuriously by increasing efficiency, outsourcing responsibility, and changing your mindset in order to work only 4 hours per week, while still building your fortune.
4. Rework – Jason Fried and David Hansson
Accelerate your success in business with this fast-paced approach to entrepreneurship. This book encourages the reader to learn by experience and take more action, instead of spending endless amounts of time planning.
5. Cold Calling Techniques – Stephen Schiffman
The most important part of business is sales; if you can’t sell your product or service, you’re done. This book will break down tried and true sales techniques that will ensure you close the deal.
6. The Lean Startup – Eric Ries
Grow your business faster and ensure your startup isn’t in the majority of failures with these developmental business tips. The lessons in this book are inspired by “validated learning,” and many components of lean manufacturing.
7. The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand
A less direct focus on business and entrepreneurship, this novel inspires the reader’s individualism and should motivate them to create their own path. Taking risks and accepting the consequences are something every entrepreneur should be prepared for.
8. Losing My Virginity – Richard Branson
An autobiographical adventure of one of the most brilliant entrepreneurs of the century. Branson details his business philosophies that he credits his success to.
9. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook – Gary Vaynerchuck
This book is a straight to the point blueprint on how to cut through the noise to reach your customers and beat out your competition in doing so. Written by a social media expert, this book offers tangible takeaways on how to tell your brand’s story.
10. The Startup of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career – Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha
Co-authored by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, this book inspires the readers to accelerate their career by treating it like a startup business. Advice from some of Silicon Valley’s most successful entrepreneurs is bound to inspire action.
Force yourself to gain some advice and inspiration on your entrepreneurial journey. There is no reason to go it alone. These books are bound to spark something inside you to get motivated and just do it – whatever it may be.
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