Holiday book list: 20 essential resources for entrepreneurs
In early November, an entrepreneur asked me which books and
resources that I thought would help him become a successful CEO for
a large e-commerce company.
While I agree that nothing teaches like experience, failures, scars
and reflection, I also truly believe that we can learn from others’
experiences and scars by reading their talks, articles and books.
Below are 20 books that I think are some of the most powerful for
learning how to become a business leader, at any startup.
(Hint: they're also great gifts for entrepreneurs, and if you buy these books through smile.amazon.com, Amazon will donate to a charity of your choice when you buy qualifying items).
Leadership
Developing good leadership really only happens with
practice, and not by reading books, but the following books will
help you reflect about the topic more deeply. (A lot of classic
literature books are also great, but I will keep my recommendations
to non-fiction).
1. The
Essential Drucker: This is a collection of
articles by Peter Drucker, the famous management consultant,
on management and leadership.
2. The
Art of Possibility: A gripping book about
managing to everyone’s ultimate potential.
3. Mandela’s
Way: Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage: fifteen
crucial life lessons distilled from interviews with Nelson
Mandela.
4. Leadership
Without Easy Answers: Somewhat academic, but still a
great read about the core of leadership.
5. Delivering
Happiness: Tony Hsieh, the Founder of Zappos, is
known for creating great work cultures that lead to unparalleled
service.
Scaling and Iterating
It's also critical for founders to develop a
good understanding of how organizations, companies and startups
develop.
6. Founders
at Work: A series of fascinating stories and lessons
from founders of high tech startups ranging from Flickr and
Craigslist, to Yahoo!, PayPal and Apple
7. The
Startup Owners‘ Manual by Steve Blank offers a
scientific approach to developing a business model;
entrepreneurs can also take his free class on
Udacity
8. Crossing
the Chasm: The ultimate reference for taking a product
from niche to mass market.
9. The
Fifth Discipline: This book is somewhat academic as
well, but it teaches you how to think about organizations as
systems
10. The
Innovator’s Dilemma and
The Innovator’s Solution: Clayton Christensen is the
definitive reference on the theory of disruption and his books help
entrepreneurs understand how to take advantage of a current
industry’s inability to react.
Product Design
A well-designed product is key for building great
companies, and a well-designed user experience is the best way to
reach customers. These books go into detail about the process of
design and optimization for the user.
11. Sketching
User Experiences: This book focuses on the overall
design process.
12. Landing
Page optimization: A how-to guide for maximizing
exposure and conversion rate.
13. Conversion
optimization: Both of these books go into the process
of understanding how users interact with websites and how to make
it easier for them to achieve what they want.
Follow the Greats
Finally, a great way to learn is to follow very smart people that
understand what it takes to start and scale a tech company:
14. Bill Gurley: abovethecrowd.com
15. Chris Dixon: http://cdixon.org/
16. Paul Graham: paulgraham.com
17. Fred Wilson: http://avc.com/
18. David S. Rose: http://www.rose.vc/archive/ and
Follow him on Quora
19. Steve Blank’s Tools
for Entrepreneurs
20. Tom Eisenman’s
compilation about the best posts on managing startups
One last caveat, while reading is a great way to learn, make
sure you are differentiating between the resources that are
teaching you something fundamental, that perhaps comes with
recommendations, and the noise, which is a core skill for a busy
founder.