8 of the Best Business Books You Should Read

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” These words by the great writer George R. R. Martin are absolutely correct. You have only one life with thousands of choices to make everyday and most of the time there won’t be people to guide you on what’s wrong, what’s right and what you should do in a fix. Thank God for books, remnants of minds of brilliant people who left their mark on the world. They made books to guide us in choices we should make for ourselves, and for our lives. Starting a business of your own is a crucial matter and that’s why you need to be really careful about the decisions you may have to make because every step in the way can be the cornerstone for either success or failure. But no worries, because we bring you 8 books that can effectively assist you in starting your business, whether you want to be the next Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk.

1) Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001) by David Allen

First things first. To start any business, you need to have a specific mindset, as Steve Maraboli says in his book, “Once your mindset changes, everything on the outside will change along with it.” David Allen has tried to explain this in this book, telling people what he thinks is necessary to live a productive life. Once you’re productive you can focus on the things that really matter in your life, thus you become clearer about what you want and what you need to do. This is a necessary book for anyone trying to start a business.

2) Profit First: A Simple System to Transform Any Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine (2014) by Mike Michalowicz

Let’s say the truth for once, profits are the most important thing in every business, without profits no business can ever prosper and it’s the factor that can transform a small business to a big one. In his book, Mike Michalowicz explains the necessary things required for generating profits in your business. He mentions easy to understand steps and makes a general system that prioritizes profits and stability of the company. A must read.

3) The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber

How can the same companies giving the same things be so radically different? How can one perform so good and the other so bad? What are the targets for any company? These difficult questions are answered by Michael E. Gereber in this fantastic book. It tells us that businesses need growth, companies require policies, proper structure and most importantly, consistency. Most importantly it tells us how to run business on itself, without our presence. The way to go.

4) Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent by Sidney Finkelstein

How can we live a thousand lives? Until an elixir of immortality is discovered, we will have to rely on books, read about their lives and feel that we are living some part of it as well and Sidney Finkelstein does it for us. In this fantastic book he has interviewed successful leaders and transformed their leadership ideas into this book, what ways do they use, what is their attitude, is there anything common in them? This is especially important for the tech companies and an interesting read for anyone who is looking for leadership skills.

5) Conscious Capitalism by John Mackey

We might have heard about capitalists as power and wealth hungry people but John Mackey tells how capitalism can be beneficial to everyone in the company, the leaders, employees and the customers. He himself has made a company called “whole foods” and he tells us about the secrets behind it. In this era of capitalism this is a must read for any businessman wanting to make everyone happy hence leading to a better company

6) From Idea to Reality: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Meaningful Business Growth by Jean Paul Paulynice

Jean Paul explains his personal experiences in this book, like a good teacher and the book has places where you can write your own notes and make your own strategy, hone your strengths and see your weaknesses. The book is written in a style where you will want to keep turning pages and make you turn your own ideas into reality.

7) The Hard Thing About the Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz

Ben Horowitz is a famous name in the silicon valley and tells us about his journey with tech companies and tells us about the toughest things that you face when you’re starting/ progressing your business, how difficult it actually is to move forward, he adds some song lyrics in his book to so that it isn’t just a dry book but an enlightening one to make you the next successful CEO

8) The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future by Kevin Kelly

The most important factor to make any product successful is the need for that product. We can’t see the future but there are some intelligent people who can see the patterns and predict where the wind will blow in the future and this can help you decide your own business, as to which things will work in the future and what ideas should you brainstorm.