entrepreneurs books

5 books the most influential entrepreneurs strongly recommend

Reading books is crucial for entrepreneurs and business leaders all over the world, simply because of the fact that –among others- they constantly try to learn, hoping to expand their mental capabilities, so that they can discover new ways to do things and improve themselves.

So, today we would like to share with you five books top modern entrepreneurs and CEOs –some tourism industry leaders are also among them- have read and strongly recommend:

1. “Zero to One: Notes on startups, or how to build the future”By Peter Thiel and Blake Masters

Summary: The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In this book, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things. Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself.

Recommended by: Mark Zuckerberg (CEO/Facebook), Elon Musk (Founder/SpaceX), Bogdan Iordache (Co-founder/How to Web), John Doherty (Founder/Credo), Casey Neistat (Founder/368 Creative Space)

entrepreneurs books

2. “Do more faster: Techstars lessons to accelerate your startup”By David Cohen and Brad Feld

Summary: TechStars is a mentorship-driven startup accelerator with operations in three U.S. cities. Once a year in each city, it funds about ten Internet startups with a small amount of capital and surrounds them with around fifty top Internet entrepreneurs and investors. “Do more faster: TechStars lessons to accelerate your startup” is a collection of advice that comes from individuals who have passed through, or are part of, this proven program. Each vignette is an exploration of information often heard during the TechStars program and provides practical insights into early stage entrepreneurship.

Recommended by: Gillian Tans (CEO/Booking.com), Magda Marcu (Co-founder/Sailo)

3. “Good to great: Why some companies make the leap and others don’t”By Jim Collins

Summary: How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great? Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years.

Recommended by: Jeff Bezos (CEO/Amazon), Bogdan Iordache (Co-founder/How to Web), Joel Gascoigne (Co-founder/Buffer), Rand Fishkin (Founder/Moz)

entrepreneurs books

4. “The innovator’s dilemma: When new technologies cause great firms to fail”By Clayton Christensen

Summary: His work is cited by the world’s best-known thought leaders. In this classic bestseller -one of the most influential business books of all time- innovation expert Clayton Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right—yet still lose market leadership. Christensen explains why most companies miss out on new waves of innovation.

Recommended by: Steve Jobs (Founder/Apple), Jeff Bezos (Founder/Amazon), Michael Bloomberg (Founder/Bloomberg Group), Drew Houston (CEO/Dropbox), Bogdan Iordache (Co-founder/How to Web), Tim O’ Reilly (Founder/O’ Reilly Media), Garrett Moon (CEO/CoSchedule)

5. “Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action”By Simon Sinek

Summary: In 2009, Simon Sinek started a movement to help people become more inspired at work, and in return inspire their colleagues and customers. Since then, millions have been touched by the power of his ideas, including more than 28 million who’ve watched his TED Talk based on “Start with why” – the third most popular TED video of all time. Sinek starts with a fundamental question: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others?

Recommended by: Richard Branson (Founder/Virgin Group), Tony Hsieh (CEO/Zappos), Bryan Choo (Founding Director/The Smart Local), Theresa Evanoff (Founder/Gift-it-Forward)

entrepreneurs books
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