For those interested in the stock markets ~G.C Selden's 1912 (yes 1912!!) The Psychology of the Stock Market. Human emotions and thought processes remain the same. Greed and fear. Even though my business is in fitness and wellness most of the books are pretty awful and I haven't been influenced by individuals in this sphere. i keep hearing younger trainers talking about bodybuilders and their online presence, videos, etc but that doesn't interest me. No I haven't watched Pumping Iron. There are some very good marketers to be sure such as Pat Rigsby and Ryan Lee who I have bought material from but no book per se has influenced this career.

David Sisk

Founder/David Sisk Fitness

In his 2014 shareholder letter, Buffett recommended reading this book over listening to the advice of most financial advisers.

Warren Buffett

CEO/Berkshire Hathaway

I remember reading this shocking book and thinking, holy shit. This book will make you sick.

Charlie Munger

Vice Chairman/Berkshire Hathaway

To invest successfully over a lifetime does not require a stratospheric IQ, unusual business insights, or inside information. What's needed is a sound intellectual framework for making decisions and the ability to keep emotions from corroding that framework. This book precisely and clearly prescribes the proper framework. You must provide the emotional discipline.

Warren Buffett

CEO/Berkshire Hathaway

She’s talking about how business schools teach students, the best and brightest business students in America and the world, they teach them to manipulate the stock market, not to grow businesses. That’s why I dropped out of business school. They’re teaching kids to be financial engineers, which creates derivatives, and all these toxic things. Student loan debt and all this. But they don’t teach them how to grow a business. Today our stock market is propped up because CEOs are using debt to prop up the stock price and sell their options and exit. It screws the investors and the workers. That’s what they’re teaching at business school today.

Robert Kiyosaki

Best-selling Author

Maggie Mahar had the courage to take a look at what was behind all of this religious belief in markets. Clearly I do not understand how she was able to work as a journalist when she has the attitude and mindset of a truth-seeker. I spent some time looking at the difference between her book and Lowenstein's: not even possible to start comparing. One needs to be a trader to value her work.

Read this book now; wait a while then read it again.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Flaneur

Read this if you want to learn more about the stock market.

Patrick Swalls

Founder/StarterStory

Ruimin mentions this book in response to a question about long-term success. From Ruimin's point of view, the chief challenge is for leaders to maintain their entrepreneurial spirit, year after year. He admits it isn't easy:

Zhang Ruimin

CEO/Haier Group

As Secretary of the Treasury, Bob Rubin ranked with the best. This drama-packed account of his years on the job should be read by all who are interested in what happens when politics and economics intersect.

Warren Buffett

CEO/Berkshire-Hathaway

The reason why this is my favorite book is that it is an advanced version of Rich Dad Poor Dad which explains in further details how the rich are getting richer by understanding the tax system and real financial education. [...] When I chanced upon Why the Rich Are Getting Richer, I finally understand why I have been running my own tax consulting practice for such a long time. The global tax system is set up to benefit the rich people because they are the ones who contribute to the growth of the economy by putting investments into the economy as well as creating job opportunities.

Jack H. M. Wong

Trainer & Author

I am relieved to finally find a book that deals with Black Swan Events in a new way. Ayache brings a reverse-probabilistic perspective: instead of considering that a price is the result of probabilistically derived expectation, he reverses the issues and investigates these artificial constructs as probabilities and expectations as secondary, derived, fictitious concepts that we bring about to explain prices, decisions, and other things.

This, of course, is just the beginning, so one has to be understanding about the speculative aspect of the effort --so view this as a gutsy look at the end of probability and how we will need to envision the world once we get rid of this artificial, antiquated tool. I am also glad to see that those of us trained in the trading of options can have views original enough to influence the philosophy of probability and the philosophical understanding of contingency.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Flaneur

I am currently reading The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. I was introduced to the author, Scott Galloway during his appearance on the aforementioned Recode Decode podcast, specifically episode released on September 14. His opinion and thoughts on the big 4 (Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google) lead me to research him. I put a hold on his book from my local library and waited a few weeks. A great thing about this book is its recency, for example, it includes Amazon’s recent acquisition of WholeFoods. So far, it has covered, in entertaining detail, Amazon and Apple. The author writes with great knowledge, mixed with the right amount of wit. The author argues that Apple is sex, Google is God, Facebook is love and Amazon is our gut. By aligning with these roles in our lives, they have become wildly successful. I hope to hear an expansion of his positions he discussed on the podcast, and hope to apply some of strategies into my own startup.

Craig Pearce

Co-Founder/Kid Genius

I don't know how many times I read that book when I was broke but, of course, the sidewalk, slow, and fast lane, I borrowed that for the SSF method that I talk about sidewalk, slow, and fast lane for lead generation. He talks about it from a financial perspective, so almost completely, entirely unrelated but that book was very, very life changing for me. So, two of those books, by far, the best books that from a level of changing my life at the right time.

Scott Oldford

Founder/LeadCraft

How do you explain Warren Buffett? Everyone knows that in a deep and liquid capital market like that of the US, it is just about impossible to beat the stock market averages over anything more than the short term. But Buffett has been ahead of the curve for most of the past 50 years, making him one of the world’s richest people. Alice Schroeder’s massive authorised biography, The Snowball, provides some clues about how he’s done it.

Richard Lambert

Director-General/Confederation of British Industry

This book is a great attempt at finding some universality based on systems in a critical state, with departures from such state taking place in a manner that follows power laws.

The sandpile is a great baby model for that. Some people are critical of Bak's approach, some even suggesting that we may not get power laws in these sandpile effects, but something less scalable in the tails. The point is :so what? The man has vision. I looked at the reviews of this book. Clearly a few narrow-minded scientists do not seem to like it (many did not like Per Bak's ego).

But the book is remarkably intuitive and the presentation is so clear that he takes you by the hand. It is even entertaining. If you are looking to find flaws in his argument his pedagogy allows it (it is immediately obvious to us who dabble with simulations of these processes that you need an infinite sandpile to get a pure power law). Another problem. I have been ordering the book on Amazon for ages.

Copernicus books does not respond to emails. I got my copy at the NYU library. Bak passed away 2 years ago and nobody seems to be pushing for his interest and that of us his readers (for used books to sell for 99 implies some demand). This convinces me NEVER to publish with Springer.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Flaneur

As a speculator I learned to take the best from books and ideas without arguments (many readers seem to be training to be shallow critics)--good insights are hard to come by. One does not find these in the writings of a journalist. There are some things personal to the author that might be uninteresting to some, but I take the package. The man is one of the greatest traders in history. There are a few jewels in there.

The man did it. I'd rather listen to him than read better written but hollow prose from some journalist-writer.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Flaneur

An important examination on how technology can shape a better future by one of the smartest thinkers on the subject.

Eric Ries

Founder/Long-Term Stock Exchange

This book wants you to be rich: in money, in time, and in life. You have come to the right place. Kristy and Bryce take you through the process step by step, with actionable things that you can do no matter what your age, location, background, or education.

J L Collins

Author

Collins briefed Amazon executives on his seminal management book before its publication. Companies must confront the brutal facts of their business, find out what they are uniquely good at, and master their fly wheel, in which each part of the business reinforces and accelerates the other parts, Stone writes.

Jeff Bezos

CEO/Amazon

Several friends, who know I both love to sleep and am intrigued with how sleep works, recommended that I read Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. It was excellent. While my self-assessment of my sleep habits are very positive, I learned a few things. More importantly, I now have a much better understanding of the “Why” surrounding sleep, especially around sleep’s importance to a healthy and long life.

Brad Feld

Co-Founder/Foundry Group

The future of work is distributed. Automattic wrote the script. Time for rest of us to read it.

Om Malik

Founder/GigaOM

In addition to walking you through, in great detail, how a board functions, Brad has adopted many of the Lean Startup approaches to building, operating, and managing your board in a way that resembles continuous deployments. Any practitioner of Lean Startup would do well to use this approach to building their board.

Eric Ries

Founder/Long-Term Stock Exchange

Just as the The Lean Startup has become a must-read for founders, Entering StartUpLand should be required reading for any joiner. The book is a sweeping and insightful view into a startup's full range of operations and entry points. I highly recommend it.

Eric Ries

Founder/Long-Term Stock Exchange

As someone who’s helped a small company become a huge, valuable company, I know firsthand the power of the startup ecosystem and entrepreneurship. This book is the definitive book on navigating VC as part of that.

Eric Schmidt

Ex-CEO/Google

This might feel like a weird book to include, but I think it presents another side of strategy that is too often forgotten. It’s not always about bold actors and strategic thrusts. Sometimes strategy is about subtle influence. Sometimes it is framing and small tweaks that change behavior. We can have big aims, but get there with little moves. This book has excellent examples of that kind of thinking and how it is changing politics, government and business. My favorite example is about the bumblebee that they started putting on urinals–which drastically reduced the amount of spray and spillage because it changed where men aimed when they peed. It’s not exactly the coolest strategy but it solved a problem. So we can learn from it.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

I'm currently reading a biography of Alan Sugar, a U.K. entrepreneur who created Amstrad from scratch. I'm trying to get my creative juices flowing on launching a new product and this very much sets that tone.

Scott Johnson

Freelance Software Engineer

This book is amazing—it didn't change my mind, so much as it has changed the way I think. It helps to understand the difference between the way you make quick decisions, versus considered decisions—it takes different mechanisms in the brain. Understanding which you're doing at any given time can have a profound impact on what you ultimately decide.

John Lilly

Partner/Greylock Partners

A fantastic, proven formula for moving from idea to prototyping to decision making within five days, based on a process he developed while working at Google and later GV.

Eric Ries

Founder/Long-Term Stock Exchange

A prominent whistleblower chronicles her experience fighting discrimination against women and people of color in tech.

Eric Ries

Founder/Long-Term Stock Exchange

This reads like a thriller, but is an urgent and important story about the dangers of Putin’s Russia and the events leading to the Magnitsky Act.

Eric Ries

Founder/Long-Term Stock Exchange

If you want to get into stock trading or in case you want to become an investor, then I definitely would recommend to read the book I already mentioned and in addition: A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel.

Michael Hebenstreit

Founder/MH Themes

Anyone interested in politics may be attracted to Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—but Some Don't. Silver is the New York Times columnist who got a lot of attention last fall for predicting—accurately, as it turned out–the results of the U.S. presidential election. This book actually came out before the election, though, and it’s about predictions in many domains besides politics. Silver knows a lot about baseball, and I especially liked his explanation of hold’em poker. A few pages – where he talks about how early computers supposedly made everything less efficient—are utter nonsense. I wish he had gone into more depth on some things, like why it is that voters are increasingly polarized. I liked the book, though I wish he’d gone deeper on a number of topics.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

A fascinating book about the one thing that the greatest sports teams in history have in common and the critical aspects of leadership they share.

Eric Ries

Founder/Long-Term Stock Exchange

Kelly spent a record-breaking year in space and this book is a fascinating account of that time and what he learned about humanity and himself.

Eric Ries

Founder/Long-Term Stock Exchange

I already posted a full review of Tap Dancing to Work, a collection of writings about Warren Buffett put together by his friend Carol J. Loomis. I can’t resist an opportunity to recommend this book again. It's very, very good. The pieces go back more than 40 years some of them, and it’s very interesting to see how Warren framed things years ago and how he’s dealt with certain challenges since. You get to see how consistent Warren’s framework has been, how he has always looked at the world in terms of integrity and financial valuation. There are some speeches in here that offer great insights into how Warren evaluates stock markets over time and how to assess the margin of safety available in investments at any point in time. I thought the book was super good.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Four Pillars has a good methodology for thinking about how to save and invest personally so definitely useful.

Bill Earner

Founder/Connect Ventures

Grant Cardone: The 10X Rule, Sell or Be Sold, If You're Not First You're Last and Be Obsessed or Be Average. Grant is the real deal. He helped me realize that I've been dreaming far too low!

Mark Struczewski

Host/The Mark Struczewski Podcast

The Islamic population of the world has been neglected by marketers in a totally unwarranted way for far too long. Paul Temporal knows the subject and knows the consumers. This masterful book fills a huge gap in the understanding of this 'last frontier' of marketing.

Miles Young

CEO/Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide

Not exactly a business related book but to me the concepts and lessons highlighted within are highly relatable in the business world such as the value of patience in striking at the right market timing and also reading the price tape which equates to understand the flow of the market your business is in in order to better deal with it and grow as a business.

Aviers Lim

CEO/Gashub

Question: What five books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path & why?

Answer:

I know this is sounds self-serving but I’d recommended both of my books, the soon to be released,

• “Niche Down: How to Become Legendary by Being Different”

and

• Harper Collins’ “instant classic,” “Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets”

In addition:

• The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker
• The E-Myth, by Michael Gerber
• Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott
• Back from the Dead, by Bill Walton
• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, by Al Ries and Jack Trout

Christopher Lochhead

Host/Legends and Losers Podcast

I don't think there are many people who know more about small business marketing than John does, and I'm certain that there's no one more generous in sharing tips and insights. What, exactly, are you waiting for? This book will pay for itself in one day

Seth Godin

Author & Entrepreneur

Robert Kiyosaki's “Rich Dad Poor Dad” stopped me from making a mistake and buying a car - because it wasn’t an asset. It also convinced me to invest in shares, while the books “Rule no.1” and “The Snowball” taught me how to choose them.

Robert Hajnal

Founder/Trail Running Academy

In my opinion this book is one of the best investment books ever and I highly recommend it to everyone who is interested in stock and commodity trading. The book is a biography of Jesse Livermore who is such an interesting character and the book is full of insights and advice while you learn about the crazy life of Jesse Livermore.

Michael Hebenstreit

Founder/MH Themes

Middle Market M&A is a must-read for business development professionals serving the middle-market M&A sector. This is a comprehensive resource that provides valuable insights that are certain to increase your deal-making success.

Patti Gillenwater

CEO/Elinvar

There are five books that, when taken together, form the majority of my perspective on business: [...] Groundswell.

Jeff Gibbard

Chief Brand Officer/From The Future

This is a key component in my Purple Cow thinking, but with a twist. I'm not as worried about the chasm as I am about the desire of marketers to go for the big middle.

Seth Godin

Author & Entrepreneur

Question: What books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path?

Answer:

• Rework, Getting real and Remote - The combo from Fried and DHH.
• Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso
• From Impossible To Inevitable by Aaron Ross & Jason Lemkin
• How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross
• Content Machine by Dan Norris
• Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance
• Contagious by Jonah Berger

 

Vincenzo Ruggiero

CEO/Prospect.io

For business, I've read Influence by Robert Cialdini 3 times, and Traction by Gabriel Weinberg twice, so if number of times read indicates favor, then those are it. There are a whole bunch of others, like The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman, Confession of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy, The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, and Running Lean by Ash Maurya, that I've also enjoyed and recommend to people.

Ola Olusoga

Co-founder/Populum

One of the five books Jeff recommends to young people interested in his career path.

Jeff Gibbard

Chief Brand Officer/From The Future

Sell More Faster is the sales playbook every startup founder needs to read. Whether you're searching for product-market fit or have found it and are starting to scale, this book will give you the play by play approach of what you need to do to build an awesome sales organization.

Brad Feld

Co-Founder/Foundry Group

Then, again when I was younger, at the beginning of 2000s, Seth Godin’s Purple Cow and The Cluetrain Manifesto were two pieces of work I’d always refer to, as well as Eric Ries’ The Lean Startup, later on when I was looking at how to become a better tech entrepreneur.

Dragos Novac

CEO/Nordic 9

Like Charlie Munger once said: “I’ve long believed that a certain system - which almost any intelligent person can learn - works way better than the systems most people use [to understand the world]. What you need is a latticework of mental models in your head. And, with that system, things gradually fit together in a way that enhances cognition. Just as multiple factors shape every system, multiple mental models from a variety of disciplines are necessary to understand that system. You can read this book to start building a latticework of mental models in your head.

Ola Olusoga

Co-founder/Populum

Ray Dalio has provided me with invaluable guidance and insights that are now available to you in Principles.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

The book starts like a punch in the gut, but the story and the reality dose of this book are something that we all need from time to time in the Tech Startup Age. It helped me look beyond the excitement of working on new projects as a goal in itself and keep at least one foot on the ground. Plus the writing is extraordinary!

Irina Marinescu

Product Manager & Co-Founder/Save Potatoes

My PR book has become a staple within the industry, as well as required reading for many college courses throughout the country. The book details how valuable public relations is - how public relations can define brands; help companies and individuals court the press or avoid it; grow business; resolve crises quickly; improve search results on Google and so many other things. Effective PR makes such a difference, and I have many case studies and great stories to illustrate it.

Ronn Torossian

Founder, CEO/5WPR

I have lots of books to recommend, but they are not related to my career path. The only one that is remotely related is Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. That said here are books I would recommend.

Fabrice Grinda

Serial Entrepreneur, Investor

If you want to do social media start with “Jab Jab Jab Right Hook” and move forward to “Ask Gary Vee” by Gary Vaynerchuk. Even if Gary has admitted that he has a ghostwriter writing his book, you can see Gary’s personality and also his experience in the social media field in this book. These are some great books to start with in social media.

Robert Katai

Founder/Instagramology

One of the must read books.

John thinks that Digital Marketer founding CEO Ryan Deiss' 2015 book is a great introduction to sales tactics for the new entrepreneur.

Daymond John

Founder/FUBU

Michael Lewis's ability to boil down the most complicated subjects is like a magic trick. You can't believe your own eyes. He takes on important issues - from the 2008 Wall Street crash in The Big Short to parenting in Home Game - and breaks them down to the deepest truths. His combination of an extraordinarily analytical mind and a deep understanding of human nature allows him to weave together data and events to offer a fresh and insightful narrative. Whatever the topic, the result is always compelling and even thrilling. I am in awe of him.

Sheryl Sandberg

COO/Facebook

Then, when it comes to telling stories and putting things together in a structure, “The Brain Audit” is a good book; “Then Coffee and Kale Compete” – that’s about jobs to be done; “The Ask Method” – that’s also another very important one, pretty good when it comes to putting your thoughts together and putting marketing templates together, like landing pages, anything like this.

Louis Grenier

Podcaster in Chief/Everyone Hates Marketers

Finally, a book that tells you how to put up a velvet rope in front of your business and get more of the clients you want and deserve! Whether you're building a services business or a personal brand, this book provides a roadmap to making bank, in a smart and authentic way. Pia is a total pro (and a laugh riot). I can't wait to recommend this book to every entrepreneur who feels stuck. Pia got unstuck, and so can you.

Julia Pimsleur

Founder/Little Pim

I thought I might put my money where my mouth is. I keep whining that young people are not in touch with some essential books on advertising that have helped me shape the way I practise my trade today, but I never did anything about it. So I am starting here the ultimate books to read list. I will add to it as I get suggestions and as more good books get written.

Bogdana Butnar

Head of Strategy/Poke

It's solid, realistic advice from someone who definitely knows what he's talking about.

Kristen Hamilton

Co-founder/Koru

The case studies you’re about to explore and the tools you’re about to gain have never been more relevant. This is an ideal moment to be reading this book.

Bill Gates

Founder/Microsoft

Wall Street-esque battle between Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn over unlikely target Herbalife. Sip a delicious Herbal Aloe Shake while reading.

Marc Andreessen

Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz

One book that actually helped me a great deal in the way I was communicating with my products and marketing, is Contagious by Jonah Berger, in which he describes “why things catch on” or “how to create viral content”. I did apply lots of his ideas and even inspired my team to work on those principles both online and offline. I remember reading it and taking notes (things I actually rarely do when I read, I like to be in it and absorb without being distracted by nothing) and really trying to soak in those principles. and I think I did.

Nicolas Jouvenceau

CEO/Pink Diamonds Boutique

Autodidact extraordinaire Ryan Holiday strips away the ridiculous obsession with contemporary bestsellerdom and gets to the heart and soul of individual genius, creating timeless classics that change people's lives year after year after year. For those of us who wish to summon the courage and forgo instant validation in favor of deep and original creation, this book offers not just the Why, but the Who. A must-read for creators of all persuasions.

Shawn Coyne

Co-founder/Black Irish Books

This primer on how to hack the media zeitgeist is so incredibly accurate, it just might render mainstream media completely useless. As opposed to mostly useless like it is now.

Drew Curtis

Founder/Fark.com

One of the five books Jeff recommends to young people interested in his career path.

Jeff Gibbard

Chief Brand Officer/From The Future

How to make amazing products. Super fun to read too.

Lewis Smith

Entrepreneur & Developer/BodyTracker

Marketing no longer means advertising, and brand no longer means logo. Your brand is the promise, the experience, the interactions, and the expectation people have for you. Maria Ross understands this, and teaches you how to think about this essential element of your business.

Seth Godin

Author & Entrepreneur

One of the five books Jeff recommends to young people interested in his career path.

Jeff Gibbard

Chief Brand Officer/From The Future

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T Harv Eker has also had a radical impact on me in recent years and on my attitude towards money. I find it almost embarrassing to recommend because the ideas are very radical and woo woo, but if you stick with it, it can change your perspective totally.

Lewis Smith

Entrepreneur & Developer/BodyTracker

In Buffett's 2002 shareholder letter, he explains how accounting standards and audit quality have eroded in recent years. Specifically, he cites the downfall of Arthur Andersen accounting. The details of this sordid affair are related in Levitt's excellent book, Take on the Street, Buffett writes.

Warren Buffett

CEO/Berkshire Hathaway

Question: What books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path?

Answer:

• Rework, Getting real and Remote - The combo from Fried and DHH.
• Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso
• From Impossible To Inevitable by Aaron Ross & Jason Lemkin
• How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross
• Content Machine by Dan Norris
• Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance
• Contagious by Jonah Berger

 

Vincenzo Ruggiero

CEO/Prospect.io

A book called Design to Grow studies the difference of large corporations who have scale versus small startups who have agility. As the CEO of Mailbird, a small tech startup looking to take on email domination for the world, there were some valuable lessons to learn from how big corporations like Coca Cola learned to design their systems, localize them and iterate to scale their business going from a cola company to an all beverage company.

Andrea Loubier

CEO/MailBird

The top three for me would be Napoleon Hill Outwitting the Devil, basically any Napoleon Hill books. Think and Grow Rich, How to Sell Your Way Through Life, The Laws of Success. Really, really amazing books, especially when you're an entrepreneur. It's like I think a must to read.

David Henzel

Co-Founder/MaxCDN

Recommended by Marc Goodman in Tools of Titans.

Marc Goodman

Founder/Future Crimes Institute

It taught me so much about marketing and human psychology. I keep referring back to that book all the time. It has been instrumental in inspiring the marketing strategies I used to propel Rails and Basecamp.

David Heinemeier Hansson

Co-Founder/Basecamp

Matthew Paulson is the real deal. I've made millions using the same strategies that he outlines in Internet Business From Scratch, and this guide will give new and experienced internet entrepreneurs alike a roadmap for success and profit. The best part is that this model is incredibly sustainable - this will work today, tomorrow, and for years to come - unlike most strategies that most people teach. Had I been given this roadmap when I started my career, I would have avoided years of struggle and lost revenue. This is a must read for anyone who has something to share and wants to get paid for it.

Ryan Daniel Moran

Founder/Freedom Fastlane

If Brené Brown and Simon Sinek had a book baby together, you’re looking at it right now. Stop Making Sense is a new manual for learning true leadership. Fanuele’s set of simple principles that changed my life over the last quarter century will change yours in a matter of hours

Andrew Zimmern

Chef, Co-creator/Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern

Reading Keynes will make you smarter about securities and markets, I'm not sure reading most economists would do the same.

Warren Buffett

CEO/Berkshire Hathaway

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

I'd just go with something that's a bit of a more light read, like Dan Kennedy's Ultimate Sales Letter, or Joe Sugarman's The Adweek Copywriting Handbook. Either one of these will give you a solid building block that you can then expand upon with the more advanced courses, like Breakthrough Advertising, or Clayton Makepeace's Ultimate Desktop Copycoach.

Cristian-Dragos Baciu

Direct Response Copywriter

Question: What books do you recommend for people starting out or just resources? What are the ones that you go to?

Answer: First book that I think of is Mark Roberge's book, Sales Acceleration Formula. Mark came from an engineering background and really thought about things mathematically, and not just from like a sales dude sleezy car sales perspective. That's the first one and it's really good. And it also talks a lot about who are your first hires for your sales organization, how do you incentivize them, ultimate sales machine.

Anton Sepetov

VP of Sales/Sumo

I thought I might put my money where my mouth is. I keep whining that young people are not in touch with some essential books on advertising that have helped me shape the way I practise my trade today, but I never did anything about it. So I am starting here the ultimate books to read list. I will add to it as I get suggestions and as more good books get written.

Bogdana Butnar

Head of Strategy/Poke

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

The book shares several theories and tips which can be easily implemented in life for a success journey.

Haris Siddique

Co-Founder/Artimization

I expected a book written by the person who has led Disney for decades to be defined by both gripping storytelling and deep leadership wisdom. Bob Iger delivers, and then some! The Ride of a Lifetime is leadership gold—you won’t forget the stories or the lessons.

Brene Brown

Author

My title, The Stoic Creative Handbook, draws heavily on both Steve and Seth’s work. It was Seth’s altMBA program and The Marketing Seminar that helped me develop the posture and mindset of a thriving artist in all the work I do as a musician, teacher, and writer. Reframing what it means to be “successful” has led me to true prosperity and re-engaged my passion for the work I do.

Scott Perry

Author, Stoic Guitarist

As a devoted reader, the president has been linked to a lengthy list of novels and poetry collections over the years — he admits he enjoys a thriller.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

Rand Fishkin is the real deal. This book is an honest, generous and useful look at what actually happens when you build a company, including the downs as well as the ups... I wish I had read it thirty years ago.

Seth Godin

Author & Entrepreneur

Digital gold presents the most extensive history of bitcoin thus far, making it an invaluable page-turner for crypto aficionados and newbies alike. This is a must read for anyone interested in understanding what many consider to be the greatest invention since the internet.

Hong Qi Yu

Founder/TOKENIZE Exchange

It's difficult to pinpoint an exact moment because all of the books helped me in a way. Probably a recent example was the book The Internet of Money by Andreas M. Antonopoulos. He is talking about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. After reading this book I was, damn that's the future and I need to start investing in this technology. Didn't stop ever since.

Ionut Danifeld

Co-Founder/DevMark.co

Most recent (like several years ago) was about blockchain technology. After reading many articles about blockchain, bitcoin and cryptocurrency I had a Eureka moment when reading Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott. That moment when I realized the potential of this technology and the massive changes that can literally transform the world we are living. A true paradigm shift.

Antonio Eram

Founder & CEO/NETOPIA mobilPay

Great book on pitching, and more generally, sales. Funny too. Has some ideas very reminiscent of Thinking Fast and Slow.

Michael Herrmann

Founder/Terminerinnerung

In this look at how telepresence and telerobotics will increasingly let people cross international borders from the comfort of their own homes, Nadella sees analogies to Microsoft’s HoloLens headset, especially as the technology matures and its cost comes down.

Satya Nadella

CEO/Microsoft

An amazingly thorough compilation of distilled wisdom regarding the elements for success in consulting. The most experienced consultant will harvest many valuable tips, and the newcomer won't be able put it down.

Jack Zenger

CEO/Zenger Folkman

Steven Pressfield shares his #1 lesson for anybody in the working world.

Ben Casnocha

Founder/Comcate

The funny thing is that the books that had the biggest impact (like my Verne’s favourite) are not necessarily the best books, objectively speaking. They were good enough to present a new worldview that I was not aware of. Timing probably was more important than their intrinsic literary qualities. They “managed” to fall into my lap at the right time. Such a book was Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, a mediocre book by my standards of today, but deeply inspirational by the ones from yesterday.

The other book on selling is an oldie but goldie, never goes away: SPIN Selling, by Neil Rackham. It's the one when a founder is trying to learn how to sell, belly to belly, I tell them to check out Spin Selling.

Mark Roberge

CRO/Hubspot

My favorite business book is the Effective Executive by Peter Drucker. No question. Business literature is full of nonsense. Drucker doesn’t tolerate nonsense 🙂

Drucker defines an effective executive as anyone who gets the right things done (an “executive” for Drucker is broad — it’s essentially what we would call knowledge workers). It’s actually a really important point: being effective is not about your personality. The only thing that matters is if you get the right stuff done.

Steve Benjamins

Founder/Site Builder Report

The most recent business book I found that had a transformative impact on my business is Profit First by Mike Michalowicz, which completely changed the way we manage our finances at Grammar Factory.

Jacqui Pretty

Founder/Grammar Factory

I am currently reading two business books: Radical Candor by Kim Scott which I expect can help me build better relationships with my colleagues, and Lean Customer Development by Cindy Alvarez which helps me have more open conversations with clients and better define our product roadmap.

Thomas Graziani

Co-founder/WalktheChat

If you want to make the transition into business, sales is a must. Most sales books are bloated and spand many thousands of pages without much insight, but there are a few that are different and you MUST read:

• Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness
• SPIN Selling

Santiago Basulto

Co-Founder/rmotr.com

Gary Vaynerchuk is one of those entrepreneurs who has discovered the secret to combining passion with business. He is always an inspiration and always entertaining. You owe it to yourself to read this book!

Tony Hsieh

CEO/Zappos

Essentially a reference book for product designers, the universal principles is a smartly curated and neatly presented guide to the key terms you'll come across as a designer, with examples and diagrams. A beautiful book.

Benjamin Humphrey

CEO & Co-Founder/DoveTail

Question: What books had the biggest impact on you? Perhaps changed the way you see things or dramatically changed your career path.

Answer:

• “Zen and the Art of Making a Living: A Practical Guide to Creative Career Design” By Laurence Boldt
• “Horse Sense: The Key to Success Is Finding a Horse to Ride” by Al Ries and Jack Trout
• “What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School” by Mark McCormack

Christopher Lochhead

Host/Legends and Losers Podcast

How Google Works is a good insight to a large corporate in the tech world.

Gary Bury

Co-Founder/Timetastic

This [reading something helpful] happens with pretty much every book I read. Most recently it happened to me when I was reading “Mastering Bitcoin” by Andreas Antonoupolous. I had no idea what the components of a Bitcoin wallet address were and he elegantly explains them in detail in chapter 4. It’s particularly relevant because we started CBlocks and we focus almost exclusively on wallet generation for our customers.

Auston Bunsen

Co-Founder/CBlocks

For non-business, my favorite is To Kill a Mockingbird. It's the first book I ever read over and over until the cover fell off. It changed how I thought about leadership and courage.

Jennifer Rock

Co-author/B.S. Incorporated

Both Melinda and I read this one, and it has sparked lots of great conversations at our dinner table. Harari takes on a daunting challenge: to tell the entire history of the human race in just 400 pages. He also writes about our species today and how artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and other technologies will change us in the future. Although I found things to disagree with—especially Harari’s claim that humans were better off before we started farming—I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who’s interested in the history and future of our species.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Few technical books and a bit of everything. The following books are currently sitting on my bedside table: The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Predictable Revenue, Manufacturing Consent, Agile Application Security. Oauth In Action, Serious Cryptography.

Louis Nyffenegger

Founder/PentesterLab

It's important that we make this transformation, because of what Clayton Christensen calls the innovator's dilemma, where people who invent something are usually the last ones to see past it, and we certainly don't want to be left behind.

Steve Jobs

Founder/Apple

Chernobyl: A Documentary Story by Iurii Scherbak has some amazing stuff from a Ukrainian and Soviet perspective, including some remarkable exchanges with Legasov himself.

Craig Mazin

Creator, Writer, Producer/Chernobyl TV Series

Entrepreneurs largely celebrate the end of the dreaded 9-to-5 and are ready to dive headfirst into a world where they call the shots. The End of Jobs argues that rapid advancements in technology and globalization are leveraging points in the accumulation of wealth, meaning and freedom. This eye-opening book will give reluctant entrepreneurs the nudge they need, with sobering statistics on why the century-long growth in wages stopped in 2000, and why MBAs and JDs can't land jobs, let alone pay off their significant debt.

Sujan Patel

Co-Founder/Web Profits

The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream by Tyler Cowen who is not only one of my favorite authors, he is a personal hero.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

For business insight, check out Alibaba's World by Porter Erisman and Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant.

Vanessa Keng

Co-Founder/The Golden Concepts

In terms of web design, Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug — so important for anyone learning how to build websites.

Tracy Osborn

Founder/Wedding Lovely

If you are reading to learn skills that can be implemented in your startup, I’d recommend The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful by Eric Reis and actually avoid its predecessor The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products That Win by Steve Blank until later in your career.

Craig Pearce

Co-Founder/Kid Genius

Chaos Monkeys was a fun one that I read recently. About kind of M&A, and growing a business in Silicon Valley over the last five years.

Mike Dudas

Co-founder/Button

This book belongs in the hands of every small business owner serious about beating their competition and becoming more successful than ever imagined. Building a Big Small Business Brand shows how with real-world examples and plenty of eye-candy to make it worth reading over and over again. It also belongs in the hands of every graphic designer, providing tools to help communicate to their clients the ever increasing importance of branding.

Glenn Taylor

Owner/ChromaGraphics

One of the five books Jeff recommends to young people interested in his career path.

Jeff Gibbard

Chief Brand Officer/From The Future

After reading The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber and The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch, I decided that extreme questions were the forcing function I needed.

Tim Ferriss

Author & Entrepreneur

There are quite a few good business books on technology, and I'll list below some I find to be a good starting point. Personally, I like biographies a lot and I mostly read biographies of dead people, because those are the most honest ones. So because the computer age is still very young, there won't be a lot of biographies in my list.

Bogdan Iordache

Co-Founder/How to Web

Beth Comstock has written a wonderful book, full of excellent insights and lessons from her hugely successful career. She has recently been elected to the advertising all of fame, and after reading this you will know why. This book is of great value to almost virtually any leader and her stories and examples are told in a breezy way that makes it a joy to read.

Phil Knight

Founder/Nike

I find it difficult to say I have a favorite business book, there is no perfect book in my opinion, each has its own elements to take away, and each will inevitably have elements that don’t apply to you or you disagree with. Getting Real by 37Signals is undoubtedly a book I refer back to and recommend to others. [...] was an important book for me, the ideas were defying conventional wisdom and teaching. I’m not a fan of large multi national businesses and the focus on corporate transactions, so to read something that aligned with my small business beliefs and focused on simplicity was gratifying. It was the kind of book that I read thinking, ‘yes, this is what I’ve been thinking all along, but never been able to vocalise’.

Gary Bury

Co-Founder/Timetastic

Sorrell, CEO of the communications house/ad agency, WPP, has a rather eclectic mix this summer:

 

• Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency—James Andrew Miller
• Universal Man: The Seven Lives of John Maynard Keynes—Richard Davenport-Hines
• Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future—Ashlee Vance

 

Sir Martin Sorrell

CEO/WPP

I chose this book because it taught me how important it is that your business represents you and that you passionately believe in it. I also learned from it the importance of organizational culture, and that the endpoint of a sale should always be customer's happiness, not the money-product/service exchange.

Robert Hajnal

Founder/Trail Running Academy

I tend to jump from book to book and may switch if I am interested in some new topic. This is a pleasure for me (which I also do benefit work wise from too). It’s quite a random list because I have eclectic interests (or just scatterbrained most likely) on tech business, AI, general global economy, geopolitics, rising Biotech economy & history. I'm basically 15% to 50% into all these books.

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

I encourage you to read his autobiography “Losing My Virginity” as well as his book “Business Stripped Bare” if you haven’t gone through them yet. Uber-inspiring. For people who want to become Remarkable Entrepreneurs – and express their absolute best.

Robin Sharma

Founder/Sharma Leadership International

If you’re intentional about upskilling or upgrading, The Execution Factor gives you the framework and traits to get there. Through her own wealth of examples and applicable process, Perell has created essential reading that cracks the code on how to drive success in your life and work.

Jonathan Auerbach

Vice President, Chief Strategy, Growth Officer/PayPal

This book was recommended by Antonio when asked for titles he would recommend to young people interested in his career path.

Antonio Eram

Founder & CEO/NETOPIA mobilPay

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

It’s unusual for modern biographies to be this good. It’s especially unusually for the subject of the biography to approach the biographer in the way that Steve Jobs did (thinking that he was the intellectual heir of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein). But despite those two things, this bio is and will likely forever be a classic. It shows Jobs at his best–determined, creative, prophetic–and at his worst–petty, selfish, tyrannical and vicious. You can learn just as much about what kind of leader you probably don’t want to be from this book as you can from anything else. That’s what is so strange about Jobs and this biography. You read it and you’re blown away and impressed but I think very few of us think: yeah, I want to be that guy. I want to treat my kids that way, I want to be obsessed with trivial design things that way, I want to hate that way, and so on. You admire him but you also see him as a tragic figure. That’s how you know that Isaacson did an amazing job with this book. TC mark

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

Re-reading a classic 🙂

Ovidiu Drugan

Owner/Set Sail Nautic School

I read this book at a time when Udemy was rapidly growing—over the 18 months where we went from 30 to 200 people. It was helpful to read about Horowitz's challenges, worries, and triumphs when addressing the same types of issues at a similar stage of growth. There are so many big decisions you need to make where there's just no clear-cut, right or wrong answer. There are a lot of gray areas. You gather information from your team, but the hard decisions rest with you. This book helped me realize that while I needed to carefully and objectively consider feedback, I was responsible for making a decision in the end—even when it was an unpopular one.

Dennis Yang

CEO/Udemy

There was a moment where I was on a quest for self-discovery. I felt lost and wasn't sure if I was who I was because I made the decision to be me, or if my identity was programmed by culture, society and setting. Because of that, I started reading self-help books to reconstruct identity and mold who I wanted to be. This book helped me.

Ola Olusoga

Co-founder/Populum

This book is an exceptional step-by-step guide any entrepreneur can learn from because Stacy does an awesome job covering the right lessons with the right detail. The end of each chapter includes Sign Posts to help you take action on critical points along your path. And Chapter Two, in my opinion, is where the rubber meets the road for any business owner--learning how to deal with self-doubt, negativity, self-sabotage, and then the lessons of how to define your priorities and giving yourself permission to fail. Outstanding!

Stephen Woessner

CEO/Predictive ROI

Frankl is one of the most profound modern thinkers on meaning and purpose. His contribution was to change the question from the vague philosophy of “What is the meaning of life?” to man being asked and forced to answer with his actions. He looks at how we find purpose by dedicating ourselves to a cause, learning to love and finding a meaning to our suffering. His other two books on the topic, Will To Meaning and Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning have gems in them as well.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

I do goal-setting. The first time I read about this was in Napoleon Hill's 'Think and Grow Rich,' I was 16 years old.

Daymond John

Founder/FUBU

There is no living writer (or person) who has been more influential to me than Robert Greene. I met him when I was 19 years old and he’s shaped me as a person, as a writer, as a thinker. You MUST read his books. His work on power and strategy are critical for anyone trying to accomplish anything. In life, power is force we are constantly bumping up against. People have power of over us, we seek power ourselves that we might be free enough and influential enough to accomplish our goals—so we must understand where power comes from, how it works and how to get it. But pure power is meaningless. It must be joined to mastery and purpose. So read his book Mastery so that you can figure your life’s task and how to dedicate yourself to it.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

I really enjoyed Brad Stone's The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. Anyone who wants to better understand the dynamics of disruption or just gain a better understanding of the website we've come to love, must read this book.

Shane Parrish

Founder/Syrus Partners

If given a choice between investing in someone who has read Rework or has an MBA, I'm investing in Rework every time. This is a must read for every entrepreneur.

Mark Cuban

Co-founder/HDNet & Broadcast.com

Follow these precepts and you will revolutionise your life.

Steven Pressfield

Author/The War of Art

Question: What books had the biggest impact on you? Perhaps changed the way you see things or dramatically changed your career path.

Answer:

• “Zen and the Art of Making a Living: A Practical Guide to Creative Career Design” By Laurence Boldt
• “Horse Sense: The Key to Success Is Finding a Horse to Ride” by Al Ries and Jack Trout
• “What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School” by Mark McCormack

Christopher Lochhead

Host/Legends and Losers Podcast

Harari’s new book is as challenging and readable as Sapiens. Rather than looking back, as Sapiens does, it looks to the future. I don’t agree with everything the author has to say, but he has written a thoughtful look at what may be in store for humanity.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft