Carol S. Dweck’s book Mindset explains how we are all a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets. When we are in the growth mindset, failure is not an indication of our potential — it’s a stepping stone to success. As entrepreneurs, it’s important that we embrace growth mindset while taking up new challenges.
Goodreads Rating: 4.07/5 (112,000+ ratings)
2. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Naval Ravikant is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and angel investor. He’s launched several successful startups, including AngelList, and invested in over 200 companies. This book is a collection of his reflections on wealth and happiness from different sources like tweets, transcripts, essays, blog posts, and podcast interviews. It’s full of lessons, anecdotes, and advice that every entrepreneur will cherish as a guide to lead a more fulfilling life.
Side note: The entirety of this book is free to read at navalmanack.com.
Goodreads Rating: 4.6/5 (7,000+ ratings)
The Curse of Knowledge is the belief that once you know something, it’s hard to imagine not knowing it. This makes it hard for us to communicate our ideas clearly to our audience. In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath explain how to overcome this obstacle by following the six principles of stickiness – Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories — called the SUCCESs checklist.
Goodreads Rating: 3.96/5 (80,000+ ratings)
In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg explains in detail how habits are formed and how we can change them, both on an individual and on an organizational level. This book is a must-read for all entrepreneurs who are looking to cultivate good habits and eliminate bad ones to run successful businesses.
Goodreads Rating: 4.1/5 (300,000+ ratings)
#TheLeanStartup by #EricRies is a business book that applies the concepts of lean manufacturing and agile development to the startup process. Some of the ideas that resonated with me the most were concepts like minimal viable product (MVP), build-measure-learn feedback loop, and pivot.
Goodreads Rating: 4.07/5 (159,000+ ratings)
#neversplitthedifference Negotiation is often called “the art of letting someone else have your way”. There’s no better book to help you improve your negotiation skills than Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, a former international hostage negotiator for the FBI. In the book, Voss shares nine effective negotiation principles you can use to become more persuasive in both your professional and personal life.
Goodreads Rating: 4.40/5 (20,000+ ratings)
John Carreyrou’s book, #BadBlood, tells the inside story of Theranos, a biotech “unicorn” that promised to transform the healthcare industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier. For many years, Elizabeth Holmes deceived and misled investors and business partners before her fraudulent practices were finally exposed. At one point, Theranos was valued at $9 billion but by early 2017, the company’s value was zero.
Goodreads Rating: 4.48/5 (67,000+ ratings)
James Clear’s Atomic Habits is a step-by-step guide to building better habits. The book provides an actionable framework for creating good habits and shaking off bad ones. It’s built on the principles covered in Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit (see #4).
Goodreads Rating: 4.36/5 (255,000+ ratings)
9. Influence by Robert B. Cialdini
Robert Cialdini’s book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion was published in 1984 and is considered one of the seminal works in the field of influence and persuasion. In Influence, he explains in detail six fundamental principles of persuasion – reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity. This guide will help you understand the psychology behind persuasive techniques employed by skilled marketers and salespeople.
Goodreads Rating: 4.18/5 (74,000+ ratings)
10. Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
If you are looking for a quick and easy way to get started in business, then this book is the book for you. Written by founders of Basecamp (formerly 37signals), Rework contains unconventional business advice. It’s a quick read with hundreds of amazingly simple rules to run your business, broken down into bite-sized chapters.
Goodreads Rating: 3.94/5 (121,000+ ratings)
11. Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon
Author Austin Kleon shares ten principles to help readers embrace their artistic side and forge their own unique path. Good theft is when you deeply study the work of your heroes, reverse-engineer and remix their work, and build something unique. When you emulate others, you end up finding your own voice.
Goodreads Rating: 3.94/5 (230,000+ ratings)
12. Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our generation and author of The 4-Hour Workweek. His podcast The Tim Ferriss Show is often the #1 business podcast on all of Apple Podcasts. He has interviewed over 200 guests on his podcast, ranging from celebrities and star athletes to successful entrepreneurs and self-help gurus.
Goodreads Rating: 4.20/5 (18,000+ ratings)
13. All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin
All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin is one of the most compelling business books I’ve ever read and it’s highly recommended to all marketers and entrepreneurs. According to Godin, it’s not the product that a consumer buys, but the story behind the product. And all successful marketers tell engaging stories.
Goodreads Rating: 3.90/5 (11,900+ ratings)
14. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fck, by Mark Manson, is a book that will change your perspective on life. Manson argues that we should seek to find meaning through what we find important and only engage in values that we can control. Meaning can be found when one seeks to create joy in the moment for one’s self and those around as opposed to being concerned with building a body of work as a legacy. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life is a 2016 nonfiction book by American blogger and author Mark Manson. The book is a reaction to the self-help industry and what Manson saw as a culture of mindless positivity that is not practical or helpful for most people. Manson argues that life’s struggles often give it more meaning, which, he argues, is a better approach than constantly trying to be happy.
Goodreads Rating: 3.92/5 (600,000+ ratings)
Being an introvert, I’ve often wondered if extroverts have an unfair advantage when it comes to entrepreneurship. Extroverts tend to be more social, enjoy teamwork, and always like being the center of attention. Introversion has its own unique strengths and attributes — less obvious but no less formidable. In this book, Susan Cain shows how our society undervalues introverts and gives introverts the tools to take full advantage of their strengths.
Goodreads Rating: 4.06/5 (261,000+ ratings)
16. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow is a book that will make you question the major decisions you have made in your life. According to Kahneman, our thoughts and actions depend on which of the two systems is in control of our brain at the time. The first system acts instinctively and requires little effort while the second is more deliberate and requires much more of our attention.
Goodreads Rating: 4.13/5 (215,000+ ratings)
17. Hooked by Nir Eyal with Ryan Hoover
Nir Eyal’s new book Hooked is a how-to guide for entrepreneurs who want to learn how to build habit-forming products or services. He explains the four-step process followed meticulously by companies to subtly encourage customer behavior. Hooked: The Art of Building Habit-Forming Products and Services, by Nir Eyal, is published by Thames & Hudson, priced at £12.99, and is available now on Amazon.
Random Citizen 