1. Company of One: Why keeping small is next important to business – Paul Jarvis
Company of One is number one on our list of the best business books you should read this year. In this book, author and veteran solo entrepreneur Paul Jarvis outlines a pragmatic philosophy (and actionable approach) for building a profitable, enjoyable business with your own money designed to give you the lifestyle you want to live. In a world overflowing with business advice and blogging tips telling entrepreneurs to start a “fast-growing” startup, secure investor funds, aim for a multi-billion dollar return, or focus on money, the Company of One is a It’s a refreshing way to focus. It’s about building a purposeful, one-man business designed to be sustainable.
I’ve re-read this book several times over the past year since I got the initial copy. And I can say that this book is one of the best guides I’ve found to build a business you can truly love. To avoid the trap of pursuing goals and ideals that are not important to you. Now translated into 15 languages and counting, Paul’s core message is that the real key to creating a richer and more satisfying work life may not be to expand your ambitions into giant corporations, but to work for yourself and determine your own ambitions. will be Hours and hours become one (more profitable) company. This book provides a blueprint for doing just that.
2. Lean In: Women, Work, and Willingness to Lead (Sheryl Sandberg)
This game-changing book has become a number one international bestseller for good reason. Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In, now has decades of experience working as Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), balancing her family life, navigating the corporate leadership ladder and becoming an executive at a successful tech startup. It ranks high on our list of the best business books of the year because it covers everything from how to find a mentor at work, to negotiating for what you want, to expressing an opinion, to being a leader in an organization, to building egalitarian relationships. What partnerships in family life and true equality in the workplace should look like.
Sandberg had a lot of fun writing this business book, with a coherent theme that strikes a balance between light humor and sharing vast experiences of leadership at companies like Facebook, Google, and even the US Department of the Treasury. Lean In is a powerful call to action (and blueprint) for personal growth that empowers women around the world to reach their full potential. In writing Lean In in 2015, Sandberg resumed an important conversation about how to make women more equal in her workplace, and her work continues on a team dedicated to Lean In organizations.
3. Tools of the Titans: The tactics, routines and habits of the billionaire, icon and world-class performer by Tim Ferriss.
Tim Ferriss has taken on a serious mission to refine and share the biggest lessons he’s learned from top performers (from all walks of life) in his most recent business book.
When it comes to Tools of Titans, I’ve read almost all of this monster, nearly 650 pages long, where The 4-Hour Workweek’s multi-New York Times best-selling author Tim Ferriss details everything he’s learned: tactics, routines. Interviewing over 200 of the world’s most famous people in business, sports, academia, military and virtually every industry imaginable, the Tim Ferriss Show now has over 100 million downloads.
This is why I rank high on my list of the best business books. From Tony Robbins to Derek Sivers, Damon John and more. Reading this business book is one of the cheapest investments you can make in the future as an entrepreneur.
4. From Good to Great: Why Some Companies Do and Others Don’t by Jim Collins
The Good to Great is one of the best management-related business books I’ve ever read and is a timeless classic. Originally written in 2001 by world-renowned author, Stanford researcher and consultant Jim C. Collins, his actionable advice and fascinating case studies still test the time in this book.
In Good to Great, Collins explains how companies transform from just good companies to truly great companies that shake entire industries for the better, and why most companies fail to do so. This business book is a mega bestseller with over 4 million copies sold (so far) and details the common factors of one of the few companies in the world that have been able to maintain incredible success over a considerable period of time. hour. This is a must read book if you want to one day build your own business.
5. Outliers: Malcolm Gladwell’s Success Story.
Outliers is known for popularizing research that formulated the 10,000-hour rule for mastering any subject with careful practice. But the most beautiful thing about Outliers is that this book seeks to answer the simple question, ” What makes high achievers different? ” “Gladwell believes we pay too little attention to the culture, families, generations, and unique experiences of successful people and their upbringing.
Overall, it was the most influential business book of my life and I come back to read it every year. I got a lot of early inspiration for learning how to start a blog, and the writing style of several bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell is still one of my main influences. His content actually gave me a lot of blog post ideas for my site. In this book, Gladwell focuses on finding groups of successful people and pinpointing how they achieved their professional or personal level of success.
He argues that success is closely related to opportunities and the time people spend practicing their skills. He gives a compelling case that the reason more people aren’t experts is that it takes too much time to master something, and most people don’t have the patience to spend that time perfecting a skill. Besides, Gladwell also talks about the components you need to find or create meaningful work. This component inspired my first guest blog post on the Buffer blog and led me on the path to learning how to make money with a blog and converting it. Turn your site into a real business.
6. Working In-Depth: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport.
A Wall Street Journal bestseller, this business book claims that one of the world’s most valuable technologies is rapidly becoming rare. Author Cal Newport explains that mastering this technique allows you to process complex information more effectively and, as a result, deliver better results in less time.
This is one of the business books I picked up and started reading because I had to reaffirm my promise not to allow myself to be distracted by chasing the wrong opportunities and spending my time in other ways that didn’t help me achieve my most meaningful goals. no see. Many of the principles covered in this book have helped improve your opportunity management system to be more productive while wearing the hats you need to become content marketers, bloggers constantly experimenting with new ways to promote your blog, and curriculum creators. . on a daily basis.
So if you’re underestimating yourself, learn how to remove and distance yourself from distractions, and deep work ensures that you achieve it when you only want to redo what you do best. There is also an audiobook version you can listen to on Audible.
7. Breaking Down: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Business and Influence, and How You Can Do It too, by Gary Vaynerchuk
Four-time New York Times best-selling author Gary Vaynerchuk is making headlines again with a new business book called Crushing It, which has already reached number one on Amazon’s best-seller lists on business social media even before the book is published.
Not to be confused with Vaynerchuk’s foray into business books in 2009 with Crush It: Why Now is Time to Cash in Your Passion . This new book chronicles all-new lessons, strategies, tactics, advice and inspiration taken directly from his amplified business. The experiences of dozens of other influencers and entrepreneurs from all over the world. Vaynerchuk offers fresh tactical advice on how to become a household brand on social channels like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat. podcast platforms such as Spotify, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio and iTunes; and other emerging platforms such as Musical.ly.
This is the business book you should read this year if you are looking to build a brand that can grow your business. And remember that while it’s a guide to building your own path to professional and financial success, it doesn’t make you rich. It’s about living life your own way.
8. The Power of Bankruptcy: How Empty Pockets, Tight Budgets, and the Longing for Success Can Be Your Biggest Competitive Advantage Daymond John.
I’m a big fan of great stories about how entrepreneurs started humble, started their business from scratch, and rose to fame. Daymond John, the star of Shark Tank and founder of Fubu, brings this to life in his true form with the story of the origins of the Power of Broke. In this business book, he explains how you can build a successful business on a small budget and at your own disposal the tools, relationships and resources.
He emphasizes how starting a business when it goes bankrupt forces you to think creatively and use your limited resources efficiently. It forces you to innovate. More importantly, he explains how he purposely placed resource constraints on him and how that helped him make the most of what he had. Power of Broke applies to first-time entrepreneurs as well as season veterans. This business book will help you dream and try to make your way to the top.
9. Smarter, Faster, Better: The Revolutionary Power of Real Productivity by Charles Duhigg.
This business book is particularly unique in the field of productivity, as it offers a new definition of what it means to be productive. This book teaches you how to focus on managing your thoughts rather than spending time managing them . A key principle is that you can change your life by making certain choices. Bestselling author Charles Duhigg provides tools to redefine the decision-making process.
In Smarter Faster Better, Duhigg provides a strong case where the traditional goal-setting model, which focuses primarily on our big ambitions and ignores both small decisions and easy goals, is inherently flawed if we want to make a big difference. your life or business. He claims that the people and companies who innovate the fastest and perform the most have the skills to shift importance to achieving smaller goals.
10. Why: Start with great leaders who inspire everyone to take action. Simon Sinek.
Start with why you grew up in this TED Talk by author Simon Sinek. It became the third most popular TED Talk of all time. It is built around the question, “Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others?” The basic premise of this business book is that the leaders with the most influence act and communicate in ways that are the opposite of how most people work.
Sinek calls this idea the “Golden Circle” and everything is ” why? ” Interestingly, reviews of this business book are highly polarized. Readers either like it or hate it. I personally love it. I think the harsh reactions and reviews come from readers who have a hard time seeing themselves objectively, accepting critical feedback and translating them into positive changes in leadership. It’s much easier to go on the same path blindly… What do you think?
11. Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Fundamentally Successful Businesses Eric Ries.
In this business book, author and entrepreneur Eric Ries introduces the lean startup approach. This approach has changed the way many startup founders set up companies and launch new products. idea. His definition of startup encompasses all businesses, from sole proprietors, bloggers or freelancers running in garages to venture-backed projects within Fortune 500 companies. business.
Lean startups give entrepreneurs a way to validate business ideas, continuously test their vision, and adapt and revise before real harm occurs. This business book provides a new approach to successfully managing startups and discusses several innovative online business tools that can help accelerate your path to validation in the process.
12. Grinding Out: Ray Kroc’s McDonald’s Making
Whether you hate him or love him, Ray Kroc has been a polarized figure in the business world and Grinding It Out is a great source of motivation and stories. Regardless of your personal feelings for the man ( after watching The Founder with Michael Keaton ), the fact remains that few entrepreneurs can claim to have radically changed the way we live and eat. Ray Kroc is one of them.
He is widely recognized for his work that has made McDonald’s one of the most successful companies in modern history, propelling a massive revolution in food service automation, franchising, corporate training sharing, and advertising. Even more interestingly, Kroc wasn’t your typical self-made entrepreneur when he opened his first McDonald’s franchise at the age of 52 and embarked on a journey to create a network of fast food chains that are now worth more than $150 billion. And if you’re interested in more food-related readings, check out my girlfriend’s vegan food blog, Vegan Anj. Along with her blog, I am documenting my own journey to the vegan lifestyle on VeganTable.
13. The Myth of Motivation: How high achievers actually set themselves up to win (Jeff Haden).
Written by Jeff Haden, Inc.com’s most popular columnist, this business book has been a highly anticipated, counter-intuitive but practical guide to finding and maintaining the (real) lasting motivation you need to achieve great things in life. This book is based on Hayden’s core belief that “motivation” as we know it is a complete myth of our society.
If you’ve read my blog before, you know how much motivational quotes can help you refocus in times of self-doubt and reflect on the greater purpose of what I’m creating. This business book by my friend Jeff Hayden takes motivation to a much deeper level. Haden argues that motivation is not the magic formula you need to initiate a significant change, challenge, or effort. Rather, motivation is a result of a process, not a cause. If you’ve ever been disappointed by self-help books and failed “proven” success strategies, this business book is a must-read, providing practical advice to stop procrastination and make your dreams come true.
14. A subtle technique that doesn’t give you F*ck: Mark Manson’s counter-intuitive approach to living a good life.
This business book sold me by the title alone, but several friends recommended it to me. This New York Times bestseller is built around a key argument that supports academic research that improving our lives depends on learning to digest lemons better, not on our ability to “turn lemons into lemonade”. It is about setting realistic expectations for ourselves. By embracing our fears, shortcomings and uncertainties, we begin to find the courage, honesty, and responsibility we seek. I can’t wait to dive into this.
One of my favorite things about this book is that the author Mark Manson’s personal writing style truly reflects the book’s title. Composed of Part 2 of Deep Life Advice and Part 1 of Comedy, this piece makes you worry and anticipate what’s to come, especially when you hear it from Audible. Another thing I like about Manson’s style is that he doesn’t care about respecting industry jargon or business slang, and actively ridicules him.
15. The difficult task of the difficult task: Building a business when there is no easy answer Ben Horowitz.
This is one of my favorite business books I have ever read. Author Ben Horowitz is a co-founder and general partner of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Over the years, he has written on his personal blog, providing practical business advice and sharing his experiences in building and running startups. In this business book, he has edited most of his original posts into a stunning narrative about how to navigate the unavoidable challenges of starting and growing a business (especially in your daily work).
Horowitz analyzes the challenges leaders face every day and shares insights gained along the way. He talks straight through topics like starting a business with a friend, firing a friend when things are not going well, pushing a competitor, and developing a CEO mindset. Perhaps what I like the most about Hard Thing About Hard Things is that he amplifies the story with the lyrics of his favorite rap song.
16. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business Charles Duhigg.
I remember when The Power of Habit was published in 2014 and particularly appealed to American readers. The book reached number one on most bestseller lists and spent more than 60 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. In this business book, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charles Duhigg takes us to the edge of scientific discovery and explains why habits exist and how they can be actively changed to create positive outcomes in our lives.
In this business book, Duhigg highlights how important habits are to our success. Habits are an essential key to achieving meaningful goals (blog goals for me). It is good practice to exercise regularly and provide the structure and training to keep you moving towards more productive and larger life goals. Without good habits, it’s too easy to give up when things get difficult. This business book provides the foundation for creating successful driving habits.
17. I Love You So Much They Can’t Ignore You: Why Cal Newport describes Trump’s passion in her quest for what you love.
This is the second business book by author Cal Newport that I made this year’s must-read list (for very good reasons ). So Good They Can’t Ignore You is based on a philosophy I wholeheartedly agree with. “Follow your passion” is one of the worst pieces of advice we’ve ever heard. More importantly, following this bad advice and then failing to “predetermine” passion can lead to anxiety, chronic remote work, and, at worst, depression due to lack of achievement.
In this business book, Newport argues that true passion is discovered only after working hard to develop strong skills. It’s actually your innate talent and sophisticated skills (such as your blogging skills) that need to determine the type of business idea or career path to start working on in the first place.
18. Money Master Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom by Tony Robbins.
Tony Robbins is internationally renowned as a world speaker for his inspiring speeches, transformational workshops and courses. Over 4 million people have attended his live events over the past 20 years. As Robbins told me in an interview last year, he sincerely believes that his success in business has more to do with psychology than skills, experience, or any other single trait. “ The success of a business is 80% psychology and 20% mechanics,” he said. And to be honest, most people’s psychology isn’t about building a business.”
In this business book, Robbins turns his attention to how we can improve our lives through more effective money management. He gained insights from interviews with 50 of the best financial experts, gained his own experience growing a multi-billion dollar business, and created a 7-step process to follow to move towards financial freedom in Money: Master Game. The reviews are pretty mixed and seem to polarize the reader. What they have in common is that many people struggle to get through the first 50 pages, but those who cross that point love the book’s message to the end. Personally, I would definitely recommend it.
19. Don’t make the difference: Negotiate as Chris Voss and Tahl Raz’s lives depend on it.
Just imagine the pressure you would be under if very delicate negotiations with the hijacker depended on your negotiating skills. Correct it. The hostage is freed and you are the hero of the moment. Misunderstood will hurt the hostage and you will become the villain. At least in my mind. In this surprising business book, author Chris Boss knows the feeling all too well.
He knows what this is like. Voss was a former FBI international hostage negotiator, faced with bank robberies and terrorists, and ultimately became the FBI’s leading international kidnapping negotiator. In Never Split The Difference, he shares the skills that have helped him succeed and how he uses these strategies to become more persuasive as an entrepreneur.
20. Zero to One: A Note on Startups or How to Build the Future of Peter Thiel and Blake Masters.
This business book takes a closer look at the power of innovation. PayPal founder and first Facebook investor, Peter Thiel, shows us how we can still create new things. I completely agree. We haven’t invented everything yet. In Thiel’s view, we’re actually living in an era of tech stagnation. Because everyone is blinded by shiny objects and new gadgets. There is more to innovation and progress than computers and Silicon Valley have to offer, and many of the best business ideas are still waiting to be built.
According to Thiel, the key to progress is learning to think for yourself. It goes from 0 to 1 when doing something new (hence the title). His thesis in this book is that the next successful generation will not only update existing products, but create entirely new ones. In this business book, Zero to One, he shows how to train yourself to be an innovator.
21. Tipping Point: How little things make a big difference by Malcolm Gladwell.
Another this business book by Malcolm Gladwell is his assertion that there is a magical point where a business idea, movement, or the like begins to spread like wildfire beyond the threshold of adoption. It could be a small iPhone app that peaked at number one on the App Store chart within a weekend, or it could eventually become a global phenomenon. Why is this happening? They cross a turning point.
Gladwell argues that there are certain personality types that intentionally work to push ideas to the tipping point. This includes trendsetters and the world’s best salespeople. In this business book, Gladwell explains what these magical people do in a natural way to find a turning point, and provides readers with practical strategies for reproducing their success. This includes his three rules for creating his own tipping point: the Law of Few, the Sticky Factor, and the Power of Context.
22. Extreme Ownership: How Jocko Willink and Leif Babin’s US Navy SEALs lead and win.
You may be wondering why a book about US Navy SEALs is on the list of the best business books. In a word, leadership. Through their experience with SEAL units on the Iraqi battlefield, writers Jocko Willink and Leif Babin have learned firsthand that SEAL team leadership training is the best in the world, both in combat and in business. As an entrepreneur, developing leadership skills is one of the most important factors in determining the success or failure of a venture.
Extreme Ownership applies the lessons these writers learned on the battlefield to other real-world situations, especially business. Each chapter takes the principles demonstrated by great leaders and shows how those principles work in practice.
As the title of the book suggests, the key to successful leadership is that the team leader must take ownership of everything the team does. No one can blame anyone else. Take personal responsibility for your team’s failures and be rewarded when your team succeeds.
23. Hooked: How Nir Eyal Builds Habit-Forming Products.
In Hooked, Wall Street Journal bestselling author Nir Eyal explains why some companies and individuals consistently create products that capture the public’s imagination from day one, while others launch new products to the sound of crickets. Let’s take a look.
In this business book, Eyal describes what he calls the Hook Model. It is a four-step process that successful companies follow when creating products, subtly incentivizing (and rewarding) consumers to do desirable behavior for the company. Tech companies and games like Facebook, Twitter, and Candy Crush that perfectly follow the Hook Model can create products that keep consumers coming back without expensive advertising.
24. Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares.
Starting a business, especially for the first time, is a lot like putting together a puzzle—one that doesn’t necessarily have a clear ending. In this business book, authors Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares pull from their own experiences building and selling multi-million dollar companies to teach other entrepreneurs how to find and focus on the right growth levers that’ll scale their businesses quickly.
Traction presents the compelling argument that the key to success in business isn’t just coming up with “the best idea,” having a brilliant team, or raising more funding than your competitors. Business success is directly related to how consistently you can acquire new customers (or users) for your product or service—a serious challenge if this is a side hustle idea that doesn’t get your undivided attention. That’s true traction and once you’ve unlocked your growth lever, it makes everything else significantly easier. When you have traction, you can raise funds on your own terms, hire the best talent, garner press, establish partnerships and sell to whomever you choose. Traction is proof that your business is on the right track.
25. How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
This business book is a leadership classic and has been more than seventy years—but there’s a reason. As the title suggests, it teaches you how to effectively work with other people, how to become a better manager, leader and connector. Author Dale Carnegie provides readers with time-tested strategies for you to manage relationships more effectively, build friendships and to encourage people to agree with your way of thinking.
Carnegie covers much more than just trying to convince people to agree with you in this book. It’s a guide for how to get along with people. It also shows that if you want to get along with people, you have to be genuinely nice to them and show an interest in their lives.
26. The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business by Josh Kaufman.
International bestselling author Josh Kaufman is not a fan of the formally-taught Masters in Business Administration (MBA) programs offered by the universities in the US, which often run in excess of $140,000 or more to get your degree. In this business book, Kaufman shows how they’re often teaching irrelevant theoretical information that doesn’t further graduates abilities to succeed in business—at insanely high costs.
Instead of getting an MBA, Kaufman explains that you can learn about business with practical experience, as long as you read and learn about the fundamentals of modern business practice along the way. This business book is designed to educate you about business on your own time at comparatively little cost (for around about how much it costs to blog). It’s a Personal MBA that won’t send you into a mountain of debt.
27. Choose Yourself! Be Happy, Make Millions, Live the Dream by James Altucher.
This business book, my favorite from prolific writer and ridiculously hilarious entrepreneur James Altucher takes a refreshingly honest look at the difficult world we’re living in, where there are no guaranteed jobs, no certainty of a comfortable retirement and no probability that a college degree will lead to the lifestyle you want. He believes that the only person you can fully believe in is yourself. One side effect of this “Brave New World,” is that it’s easier than ever to turn your own strengths, skills and interests into a business where you can employ yourself.
Altucher focuses on helping you improve your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing while finding your way towards uncovering potential business opportunities you’ll be uniquely qualified to pursue. In this business book, he asks why you would put your trust in others who don’t care about your future as much as you do—and gives you the tools to take control of your own life.
28. Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin.
In this business book, multi-bestselling author and marketer Seth Godin teaches readers that the Purple Cow is the fourth P of Marketing–after Price, Product and Publicity.
What exactly is a purple cow? It’s a metaphor for something that’s phenomenal, counterintuitive and even unbelievable. Godin believes your common-place cow to be brown and boring—the “industry standard.” On the other hand, if you were to see a purple cow out in a field, you’d stop and take notice. Anyone who sees a purple cow would never forget it. In Purple Cow, Godin outlines the importance of creating a purple cow with everything you build and do—and he gives you tactical strategies on how to make your business remarkable. And if you’re in the midst of learning how to drive traffic to your blog, creating something truly remarkable is the best long-term blog strategy you can ever invest in (check out my picks for the best blogging courses to get even more about building a blog readership).
29. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini.
This is a classic business book for marketers and people looking to build their marketing skills. Dr. Robert Cialdini first published this in 1984, yet it’s still just as relevant today as it was then—I still read it about every other year. Influence discusses how you can use the power of persuasion to influence how other people react. There are six universal principles at the core of Cialdini’s thesis of how to become a successful persuader: Reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity.
Influence teaches you how to master these principles of persuasion, as well as how to identify when others are attempting to use these tactics on you.
30. Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki.
I consider this business book to be centered mostly around financial advice and author Robert Kiyosaki claims it to be the #1 personal finance book of all time. Interestingly enough, it seems to polarize most readers. People either feel that it has revolutionized their way of thinking about finances or alternatively feel that it takes 200 pages to tell a message that could have been told in 20. Here’s what I think: It depends on what your baseline knowledge about personal finance is at the time you start reading Rich Dad Poor Dad—and if you’re towards the beginning of your journey to personal finance mastery (or even something as simple as better managing your blog taxes), Kiyosaki’s message can lead to helpful breakthroughs.
In this business book, Kiyosaki focuses on how you should let your money work for you, rather than spending your life working for your money. He also emphasizes that you should avoid placing your money into objects, possessions and investment instruments that’ll cost you and incur more expenses in the long run, like flashy cars and big homes. The core message of this business book is that if you want to grow rich, buy things that generate income .
31. What If It Does Work Out?: Turn your passion into cash, make an impact in the world and live the life you were born to by Susie Moore.
Author Susie Moore has written this business book as a motivator for readers to get pumped up about pursuing the life they really want to live. We all have hobbies, talents, and skills which we enjoy, but usually don’t go as far as turning them into a money-making venture. Her point her in this business book is that it’s so easy to think about all the possibilities and then shut yourself down with the question, “What if it does n’t work out?” In this book, we’re asked to instead consider, “What if it does work out?”
This business book aims to motivate you for overcoming your fear of failure and doubts about whether or not it’s the “right decision” to start a business of your own and begin going through the difficult process of building a profitable side hustle.
