5 books for every Entrepreneur
Starting a business is one of the most challenging things you would embark on. From launching the business to marketing, sales, customer service, human resource and finance, you would always have to solve one problem or the other. As an entrepreneur, one of the things you should consistently pursue is knowledge, as this will set you apart in your business. One way to acquire knowledge is by reading books.
The greatest businessmen today such as Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg have formed the habit of reading copious amounts of books from diverse fields. Reading can help to improve our brain structure, improve our thinking capacity and give us interesting insights. In a six-month daily reading program from Carnegie Mellon, scientists discovered that the volume of white matter in the language area of the brain actually increased.
Looking for the right books to read? Here are five entrepreneurial books you should read.
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Authors: Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
About the book: Zero to One is one of the most interesting books on startups and entrepreneurship. The book forms part of Thiel’s class notes for his lectures at the University of Stanford in 2012. Peter Thiel advises entrepreneurs to be innovative and come out will unique products. He writes on monopoly and why startups need to operate like one by creating solutions that have no direct competitor. He also writes about sales and gives practical ways to grow sales for B2B and B2C companies.
Losing my virginity
Authors: Richard Branson
About the book: This is an autobiography of the British businessman Richard Branson, which was published in 1998. If you are looking for riveting biographies of successful businessmen, then this should be your pick. Richard Branson is no ordinary businessman, he started his business at a young age and went on to build a $5 billion empire comprising of over 400 business in airlines, bank, railroad, music and retail stores.
7 Habits of highly effective people
Author: Stephen R. Covey
About the book: Arguable one of the greatest self-help books in the world. This book gives practical steps on how to become effective by aligning oneself to principles based on character ethics that are universal and timeless. The habits described in his book include; be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put things first, think win-win, seek first to understand, then to be understood, synergize, and sharpen the saw. The book was first published in 1989 and since then it has become a bestseller.
Leading change
Author: John Kotter
About the book: Driving change in any capacity can be difficult. This book presents 8 step processes for leading change. This book is a research finding done by John Kotter when he observed several leaders and organizations as they were trying to transform or execute strategies. John Kotter is regarded as an expert on change management and his book presented a lot of insights on change management.
Blue ocean strategies
Author: W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
About the book: This book talks about blue ocean strategy, a marketing technique where a firm seeks to create competitive advantage and “uncontested market space”. The book goes against popular marketing strategy where competitors fight to gain dominance. The book was based on studying 150 strategic moves spanning over hundred years and thirty industries.
