If you have an entrepreneurial spirit and you are working on a startup or wish to work on a startup, then these 10 books should be on your “must-read” list. I have made the list after reading each and every one of them and from the recommendation of great entrepreneurs like from their interview on Youtube and review on twitter and have ranked them according to their importance and impact they create on your Mindset.
List of books:
Doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1.
The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine.
Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether because their businesses will be unique.
This book will make you think where you are solving an important problem or not? Or are you doing things differently or not?
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Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.
Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on "validated learning," rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want.
It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute.
Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs - in companies of all sizes - a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it's too late.
Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in an age when companies need to innovate more than ever.
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Here is an Opinion - MBA programs are a waste of time and money.
Even the elite schools offer outdated assembly-line educations about profit-and-loss statements and PowerPoint presentations. After two years of poring over sanitized case studies, students are shuffled off into middle management to find out how business really works.
Josh Kaufman has made a business out of distilling the core principles of business and delivering them quickly and concisely to people at all stages of their careers. His blog has introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to the best business books and most powerful business concepts of all time.
In The Personal MBA, he shares the essentials of sales, marketing, negotiation, strategy, and much more.
True leaders aren't made by business schools-they make themselves, seeking out the knowledge, skills, and experiences they need to succeed. Read this book and in one week you will learn the principles it takes most people a lifetime to master
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This book is not just for an entrepreneur but also for people who find a hard time making friends or poor at having a good conversation.
Honestly, I was one of them and this book has certainly helped me in forming and maintaining great new relationships.
Entrepreneurship is about managing the people around you and this book will tell you how to do it. The book has been a best seller for a long period of time and for all the right reasons
As relevant as ever before, Dale Carnegie's principles endure and will help you achieve your maximum potential in the complex and competitive modern age.
Learn the 6 ways to make people like you, the 12 ways to win people to your way of thinking, and the 9 ways to change people without arousing resentment.
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Still, in his early thirties, Chris is on the verge of completing a tour of every country on earth – he’s already visited more than 175 nations – and yet he’s never held a “real job” or earned a regular paycheck. Rather, he has a special genius for turning ideas into income, and he uses what he earns both to support his life of adventure and to give back.
There are many others like Chris – those who’ve found ways to opt-out of traditional employment and create the time and income to pursue what they find meaningful. Sometimes, achieving that perfect blend of passion and income doesn’t depend on shelving what you currently do. You can start small with your venture, committing little time or money, and wait to take the real plunge when you're sure it's successful.
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Got to know about this book from twitter as the author is an active twitter user and talks about startups all the time and gives valuable insights. You can catch his tweets at @arvidkahl
Zero to Sold is a very practical guideline for bootstrapping a SaaS business. Arvid shares his learnings and experiences very openly to the reader.
He writes about
And other answer several things that you will probably not find on google
He even talks about mental health and that it is not at all optional.
I recommend this book to anyone who has started or thinks about starting a SaaS business.
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The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, draws on his own story of the founding, running, selling, buying, managing, and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom for navigating the toughest problems business schools don't cover.
His blog has garnered a devoted following of millions of readers who have come to rely on him to help them run their businesses. A lifelong rap fan, Horowitz amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favourite songs and tells it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, from cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in.
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Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model—a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behaviour.
Through consecutive “hook cycles,” these products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.
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Noam Wasserman reveals the common pitfalls founders face and how to avoid them. He looks at whether it is a good idea to co-found with friends or relatives, how and when to split the equity within the founding team, and how to recognize when a successful founder-CEO should exit or be fired.
Wasserman explains how to anticipate, avoid, or recover from disastrous mistakes that can splinter a founding team, strip founders of control, and leave founders without a financial payoff for their hard work and innovative ideas.
He highlights the need at each step to strike a careful balance between controlling the startup and attracting the best resources to grow it and demonstrates why the easy short-term choice is often the most perilous in the long term.
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Join Tim Ferriss as he teaches you:
I hope this list helps you to form a great entrepreneurial mindset and help you achieve your goals.
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What other books or resources do you recommend for entrepreneurs?
If you are a startup looking to raise funding, here is a small list of Investors for you and for the complete list click here