Starting a new business is not an easy task. It’s not for anything that 20% of new businesses fail in their first year, 30% fail on their second year and 50% fail after five years in business.
That’s why you see that you wise business owners keep reading books all the time. After all, it’s like they say:
“Smart people learn from their mistakes, but wise people learn from the mistake of others”.
Now what are the best books you can read in order to learn from those mistakes that other entrepreneurs have made? Here’s our top 5 recommendations:
1) Choose by Ryan Levesque
One of the biggest reasons why so many new businesses fail is because in the quest to decide what business to start, most of the conventional wisdom is wrong.
Instead of obsessing over what–as in what should you sell or what should you build–you should first be asking who. As in who should you serve?
The what is a logical question that will come soon enough. But choosing your who is the foundation from which all other things are built.
That is what this book is all about.
If you’ve ever had the dream to start your own business, become your own boss, or do your own thing–but have been afraid to take the leap and screw up your already good life–this book is for you.
2) The Power of Broke by Daymond John
The instant New York Times bestseller from Shark Tank star and Fubu Founder Daymond John on why starting a business on a limited budget can be an entrepreneur’s greatest competitive advantage.
Daymond John has been practicing the power of broke ever since he started selling his home-sewn t-shirts on the streets of Queens. With a $40 budget, Daymond had to strategize out-of-the-box ways to promote his products. Luckily, desperation breeds innovation, and so he hatched an idea for a creative campaign that eventually launched the FUBU brand into a $6 billion dollar global phenomenon. But it might not have happened if he hadn’t started out broke – with nothing but hope and a ferocious drive to succeed by any means possible.
Drawing his own experiences as an entrepreneur and branding consultant, peeks behind-the scenes from the set of Shark Tank, and stories of dozens of other entrepreneurs who have hustled their way to wealth, John shows how we can all leverage the power of broke to phenomenal success.
3) Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition by Jay Abraham
A trusted advisor to America’s top corporations and recognized as one of today’s preeminent marketing experts, Jay Abraham has created a program of proven strategies to help you realize undreamed-of success! Unseen opportunities face each of us every day. Using clear examples from his own experience, Jay explains just how easy it can be to find and/or create new opportunities for wealth-building in any existing business, enterprise, or venture.
This book focuses on helping you spot the hidden assets, overlooked opportunities, and untapped resources around you, and gives you, and gives you fresh eyes with which to see and capitalize on them. You’ll also learn how to adapt and apply these tools to your unique circumstances to maximize your income, influence, power, and success.
4) The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies by Chet Holmes
Chet Holmes helps his clients blow away both the competition and their own expectations. And his advice starts with one simple concept: focus! Instead of trying to master four thousand strategies to improve your business, zero in on the few essential skill areas that make the big difference.
The Ultimate Sales Machine shows you how to tune up and soup up virtually every part of your business by spending just an hour per week on each impact area you want to improve—sales, marketing, management, and more.
5) How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
This one is a classic. First published in 1926, Carnegie’s book has sold 15 million copies worldwide, which makes it one of the all-time bestsellers. How to Win Friends provides helpful tips on how people can influence the perceptions of others—both in friendship and in business.
If you’re going to start reading about becoming a better entrepreneur, this is the book to begin with. You’ll learn how to help foster meaningful conversations with others, avoid unnecessary disagreements, and to forge genuine relationships with those around you. Carnegie laid down the foundation upon which nearly every other book of its kind is modeled.
6) The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferris
This one is a very good one. The New York Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Body, Tim Ferris, shows readers how to live more and work less, which is a crucial if you want to get more things done in the long term as an entrepreneur.
After reading this book, your life will never be the same again. People often complain about struggling to balance their work life and not finding enough time for leisure.
Tim Ferris lays out a brilliantly simple plan for taking your new “big idea” to market: pick a specific topic you know and have experienced more about than your audience; test different types of positioning and find out what your audience needs help with; then develop a product that meets their needs.
7) The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley’s most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, offers essential advice on building and running a startup—practical wisdom for managing the toughest problems business school doesn’t cover, based on his popular ben’s blog.
While many people talk about how great it is to start a business, very few are honest about how difficult it is to run one. Ben Horowitz analyzes the problems that confront leaders every day, sharing the insights he’s gained developing, managing, selling, buying, investing in, and supervising technology companies. A lifelong rap fanatic, he amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs, telling it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in.
Filled with his trademark humor and straight talk, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is invaluable for veteran entrepreneurs as well as those aspiring to their own new ventures, drawing from Horowitz’s personal and often humbling experiences.
We hope this list is useful to you. If you want any more book recommendations just reach out to us from our Contact page and we’ll be more than happy to help you out with what you’re looking for.