10 Essential Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

August 27, 2021

You can find many books for free on the internet

Reading books is important to help inform, educate, and expand the horizon, both in a particular field of study and worldwide. Reading books has become a kind of lost art in today’s business world primarily due to our dependency on hyper-connected digital media technology.

But reading is essential for entrepreneurs in today’s business world. Can you really find everything you need to know about business and entrepreneurship online?

As an entrepreneur running a business, being confident in everything you do should be your major priority as the decisions you make, strategies you employ, and the plans you make and execute are some of the major factors to helping your business thrive and survive in the business world.

So, how can you achieve the level of confidence needed to succeed in today’s business world? The best way to do this is by reading the best books for entrepreneurs, which will serve as practical guides to your past, present, and future. These books provide in-depth knowledge about where you have succeeded and failed, and even give you insights into your efforts.    

A real entrepreneurship mindset is a mixture of self-development, business knowledge, marketing strategies, achieving business goals and objectives, and more.

As an entrepreneur, what can you do to improve your skill-set before starting your entrepreneurial journey?

To start your entrepreneurial journey and grow a healthy, thriving business, reading the best books for entrepreneurs should be a major habit.

A real entrepreneurship mindset is a mixture of self-development, business knowledge and idea, marketing strategies, achieving business goals and objectives, and many more.

Why Business Books for Entrepreneurs Is A Big Industry

No entrepreneur can deny the fact that reading business books help in so many ways. Aside from learning many different things, reading business books also helps enhance entrepreneurs’ skills and expertise.

Many entrepreneurs are self-made, and many of these successful people made reading entrepreneur books part of their daily routine.

Allowing yourself to constantly delve into a wide range of business books, will improve your memory, analytical thinking, decision-making process, as well as your verbal skills. The following are the major reasons business books for entrepreneurs is a big industry:

Improvement

Individuals normally ask that what does it takes to be an entrepreneur and things like “consistency, persistence, and a will to never give up” are often quoted as essential traits.

These are some of the great characteristics that entrepreneurs need to achieve success, but there is one particular thing that people don’t seem to give enough credit and attention to.

Entrepreneurs are obsessed with regular and continual improvement, with books being a great source of knowledge and wisdom.

However, the more books you read to improve, the better you can perform in your industry.

some books have sold over a million copies

However, the more you read books to improve, the better you can perform in the industry.

Books Are An Excellent Medium

Despite all the disruptive technology trends, reading books remains one of the best mediums since an author can bring all his business ideas and strategies on a particular topic into a few hundred pages. If you read the book, you can gain or benefit from much of this knowledge.

Reading books is similar to sitting with the author who narrates exactly how he or she was successful in their field.

However, if you want to become a successful small business owner in your niche, the knowledge, and experience of someone who has already experienced and done it is of great value.

one of the best books for for entrepreneurs

To Communicate Efficiently and Effectively

As an entrepreneur, sometimes you will have to communicate your business idea accurately and concisely. Take, for instance, in your team; you want to describe how and why you will have to create a particular feature of a product.

You will have to negotiate essential areas of your startup business with your business partners. This means you will have much to talk about at the negotiation table. Particularly when pitching to an investor you need to be straightforward and effective.

However, your capability to discuss your ideas with clarity, communicate clearly, and convince individuals will have a great impact on your career and your business. 

It Develops Analytical Thinking

Analytical thinking is an essential skill you need to develop as an entrepreneur. There will be many times when you have to identify and address business problems.

During these business phases, you will have to create alternative solutions to test your assumption, validate them, and finally learn from the entire process.

The fact is, that is what entrepreneurship entails. Thus, you need to empower yourself to be more productive.

Understand your customers better and impact their life

Find Mental Strength and Balance

At the beginning of your entrepreneurship journey, your mind may be worried about facing many months of trials and constant setbacks, which can lead to an economic panic.

To prepare yourself mentally, you can start reading the best books for entrepreneurs along with marketing and business-related books to reduce stress and anxieties.

Business books help motivate and improve entrepreneurs to take both the good and the bad side in their stride and perceive the entrepreneurial paths in different dimensions. Business books serve as a good mental outlook for entrepreneurs when facing the challenges of entrepreneurial life.

Business Books Provide Insight Into Entrepreneurs’ Nature

Running a business involves creating relationships with individuals. Business books make it possible for entrepreneurs to understand people’s behavior.

Business books help motivate and improve entrepreneurs to take both the good and the bad side in stride and perceive the entrepreneurial paths in different dimensions.

Challenge The Way Entrepreneur Mindset

Most entrepreneurs fail simply because they only fall in love with their ideas, plans, mindset, and reasoning and don’t challenge their thought and conclusion. Constantly looking for confirmation of your idea instead of challenging them is often a short path to destruction.

Business books allow entrepreneurs to build the skill of not seeing things right or wrong but instead as a point of view that has benefits and challenges that can lead to different consequences.

10 Of The Best Books For Entrepreneurs

Running a business is fun until you discover that you are not as experienced as other entrepreneurs in the industry.

Your knowledge and experience might not be at the same level as people who have been running a business for more than 2 decades.

The following are the best books for entrepreneurs that will develop their career and business to become a successful entrepreneur.

These best books for entrepreneurs will give you insight and knowledge about being a small business owner and share tips on what happens while on the journey to entrepreneurial success.

How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie

How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie is one of the best business books around with the intention to change your life and career.

This book is full of golden advice, and it is recommended to all entrepreneurs.

This book has the power to teach you the fundamental ways in which you can communicate, empathize and relate with individuals.

Dale Carnegie explains everything you need to do to relate with people you meet. This book teaches etiquette and gives tips on overcoming the competition and winning the hearts of people who are close-minded and not interested in your business.

How to make friends for the long term

The Lean Startup – Eric Ries

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries provides business owners a way to validate business ideas and strategies, test their missions and visions consistently, and adapt and modify whatever situation before any real damage is done.

The Lean Startup is a book that provides a new concept and approach that founders can use to manage their companies successfully. This book also discusses some of the innovative online business tools that you can use to accelerate your path towards validation along the way.

In addition, the author (Eric Ries) talks about ways founders can seek to develop their companies and launch new products or services – largely based around the principle of rapid idea validation before funding your idea.

As an entrepreneur that wants to develop a better business approach, this book is a must-read. It will teach you how to develop your company efficiently, and better leverage your employees’ creativity – so you will always be ahead of your competitors in the market.

Case studies written about the rich

Zero to One – Blake Masters & Peter Thiel

The future of business is up in the sky, and it is over to the entrepreneurs to decide how the next move will look. Perhaps you’re launching a small business or implementing new ideas, and want to stand out from the crowd.

Peter Thiel is a well-known American venture capitalist and entrepreneur. Peter is one of the founders of PayPal and one of the venture capitalists of Facebook. Zero to One is such an inspiring and thought-provoking book that you can benefit a lot from.

However, it would be best to read this book to get your next ground-breaking idea as an entrepreneur. Just as entrepreneurs often say, they love to do something different; they want to change the world of business.

Zero to One points out exactly what it takes to make something unique and new.

A great story for businesses to learn from

Start With Why – Simon Sinek

This book grew out of a TED talk delivered by Simon Sinek, one of the most popular TED talks ever. The concept was built around the question, “why are some individuals and companies more creative, influential, and more profitable than others in the industry?

The core premise of “Start With Why” is that the leaders who have had the greatest influence act and communicate in the same way – which is the opposite of how some individuals function in the industry.

In this book, Sinek did a great job by speaking in motivational quotes, which you can find as inspirations to develop yourself in your business and your career.

However, you can use his concept – The Golden Circle – in this book as an approach to manage and run your company. This will help you reevaluate your business goals and values.

another one of the best books for entrepreneurs

The 4 Hour Work Week – Timothy Ferriss

Tim Ferriss’ name is everywhere since he has written his book titled “The 4 Hour Workweek”. These days, people are looking for simple things that are easy to fix, and becoming an entrepreneur is all about enjoying life without having to work long hours.

Ferriss knows how to put entrepreneurs in the right mindset to start developing a business that will enable them not to work long hours and still build a fortune.

The author describes “lifestyle design” hacks and reframes to assist entrepreneurs in eliminating 50% of their work, making more money, and living the life they want.

This book will teach you how to manage your time and resources effectively and become more productive and wealthy.

The 4 Hour WorkWeek is like a blueprint. A must-read.

A free market

The e-myth – Michael E. Gerber

There are many wrong ideas and concepts about starting a business and being a successful business owner. It is normal for inexperienced entrepreneurs to become confused as contradicting information is thrown at them from different angles.

Gerber breaks down each myth and takes readers through a step-by-step guide of starting a business and becoming a successful entrepreneur in today’s business world.

Gerber wants to ensure that you understand the difference between working on your business and working in your business.

The e-myth

Crushing It! – Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary is a king of entrepreneurship and a role model to many. He’s truly a purebred entrepreneur. This book is essentially a monologue of inspiration packaged with actionable advice for entrepreneurs.

Crush It! breaks down how intertwined your personal brand is with your entrepreneurial success, particularly in today’s digital-driven world.

Gary’s mantra is to work hard, and his effort is underestimated. However, you can use this book to study practical and tactical advice in every major and minor social media platform to improve your brand.

Crushing it by Gary Vaynerchuk

The Hard Thing About Hard Things – Ben Horowitz

Horowitz is a co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He writes a personal blog, giving individuals business advice and sharing his wealth of experience developing and running startup companies.

Horowitz adopted most of his original blog posts and combined them into an excellent narrative about navigating the inevitable difficulties when starting and growing a business, especially on the side of your day job.

He analyzes the difficulties that leaders may face and shares insight he has gained with the industry. Some of the topics he covers in the book are starting a business with friends, firing those friends when things aren’t working out, poaching competitors, and cultivating a CEO mentality.

Customers love Ben Horowitz's style

Rework – Jason Fried

Rework is a book that shows entrepreneurs a better, faster, and easier way to succeed in business. When you read Rework’s book, you will understand why plans are harmful, why you don’t need outside venture capitalists, and why you don’t have to bother so much about competition.

The fact is, you need less than you think. Meaning that you don’t have to be a workaholic or waste so much time on paperwork before becoming a successful entrepreneur.

All you have to do is to stop procrastinating and start working on your idea. This book will teach you to be more productive and exposed without breaking the bank.

Customers love Ben Horowitz's style

Shoe Dog – Phil Knight

Nike is one of the most recognizable brands worldwide. But did you realize the founder of Nike was not like other billionaire investors?

He was someone with zero experience in entrepreneurship. Knight, the co-founder of Nike, started by selling running shoes from the back of his car on his college campus!

But today, popular athletes such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and more proudly wear his shoes, as well as more than a hundred million customers worldwide.

Shoe Dog is an emotionally engaging story about a small business owner growing as a human being alongside the company that he completely invested in himself.

A successful story about a unique person

Conclusion

There you have it. The top 10 list of the best books for entrepreneurs. When it comes to business books, you may find some topics more captivating and practical than these books.

Regardless, reading the above best books for entrepreneurs will help you to learn and improve your skills from other successful business owners and benefit from their wealth of experience to start a profitable business of your own.

Keep these books close and ensure you consult them regularly. These books can provide invaluable wisdom and ideas when you need advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur.

About the author: Joe Silk -

Joseph is a freelance writer who focuses on sharing our Startup Oasis team's abundant knowledge with the rest of the world. Our team has no secret for anything to do with Startups, SaaS software firms, technology, Web and mobile apps, IoT, UI/UX Design. View on Linkedin

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