By Vaishnavi Kumar
Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary
~ Jim Rohn
Every aspiring/budding entrepreneur must read Business books as they provide first hand information from people who tried various hacks and ideas, people who faced challenges same as you might be facing and succeeded with exceptional results. These books also provide motivation and give a whole new perspective to your outlook towards business as well as life!
Here are our favourite 10 business books
1. Start With Why – Simon Sineck
Simon Sineck says, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”. According to him, in order to inspire others, we should convey our why first. Sinek explains how great people inspire others and not manipulate them. This is a book that will definitely be profitable to entrepreneurs.
2. Psychology of Money – Morgan Housel
This book consists of 19 short stories. It takes a tour on the peculiar ways in which people think about money. This book encourages you to make smarter financial decisions and ways of dealing with money. The main highlight of this book is that it makes us understand the difference between being rich and being wealthy.
3. Profit First – Mike Michalowicz
As the name itself suggests, Take your Profit first. This book not only tells us about profit but also makes us aware about the mistakes that entrepreneurs make with money leading to loss. In short it will provide tips to transform your business from a Money draining beast to a Money making machine. This is a book we always come to when we need perspective.
4. Ikigai – Hector Garcia Francesc Miralles
Ikigai is a Japanese concept. In Japanese, Iki means ‘life’ and gai means ‘value or worth’. This book describes the art of living. It teaches us to balance our lives and explains that focusing only on one thing might deplete your opportunity of benefiting from other areas. A must read book for a long and happy life.
5. Your Next 5 Moves – Patrick Bet-David, Greg Dinkin
It’s said that you need to have the ability to look 5 moves ahead to become a chess grandmaster. Similarly, to excel in any business you always need to plan a 5 moves ahead if not more. This book mentions the five strategic moves that every entrepreneur should know.
6. The One Thing – Gary W.Keller, Jay Papasan
This book talks about how success will be achieved when we narrow our concentration to that one thing. It also explains the six big lies between entrepreneurs and success. There are a total of 17 chapters in this book. The author talks about the best approach to achieving what we want.
7. Getting Things Done –David Allen
In this book David Allen, an American management consultant, shares tips and tricks for stress-free performance. Allen says,“Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax.” This book will help you understand how to excel in your work by not over exhausting yourself.
8. Essentialism – Greg Mckeown
If you feel overworked, constantly busy, yet unproductive, then this is definitely the book for you. Essentialism isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things done! It’s a whole new way of thinking about your work.
9. Crushing It – Gary Vee
This is not a motivational book, however it motivates us better than all the other books. Gary Vee talks about how to live life on your own terms. The book includes useful insights on expanding business through various social media platforms which is very important in today’s technological world where every day new apps are launched.
10. Influence – Robert Cialdini
In this Robert Cialdini’s shares his evidence-based research. He carried out his research over 35 years and a 3 year study on what encourages people to change their behaviour. He explains the reason behind why people say “yes”. It consists of 6 universal principles that will help us become a skilled persuader.
These are some of our personal recommendations which love, re read and refer to often.
For more recommendations see this post by Business Insider
We believe reading is critical to learning and readers are leaders. See our post on High Performance Habits here
Let us know in the comments below, your favourite business book.