The Power of Full Engagement was one of the first books that helped me to start to understand myself, and to work to embrace how I feel and be intuitive. The key concept in the book is that you should be either fully engaged in a task, or fully disegaged and finding renewal. For example, finding the natural dips within your day and thinking about rituals and changes you could make. Maybe you go for a 20 minute walk at 3pm when you naturally find yourself less productive.

Joel Gascoigne

Co-founder/Buffer

A time management book. Personally, I like Manage your day-to-day by 99U. It is an extremely quick read, but provides some good insights for those who need some basic guidance regarding time management, especially in creative fields.

Andrew Elliott

Founder/GoDesignerGo

Elizabeth runs a successful consulting business that helps people make more meaningful use of their time. If you’re looking to focus less on the unimportant and more on what really matters, this book offers tested advice for achieving this goal.

Cal Newport

Author

An essential book for anyone trying to think, work, or live better.

Ryan Holiday

Media Strategist, Author, Founder/Brass Check

Amy Jen Su's helpful frameworks apply to the complicated issues we all grapple with as leaders. The Leader You Want to Be enables readers to show up as their best selves at work, at home, and as they go out into the world.

Jim Massey

Global Vice President / AstraZeneca

The book changed the way I plan and work towards my goal. It’s a one-stop source for achieving high productivity in work life.

Deepak Hariharan

Founder & CEO/MentorYes

Another favourite of mine, although is not like a real book, is Management Tips from Harvard Business Review. This is the handbook for every manager. It is full of actionable insights and the beauty of it is that you can apply them immediately. I always have it on me because each page contains a tip and I write the date on the page every time I use it. I promise you that using this system will supercharge your management powers in no time.

Radu Marcusu

CEO/Upswing

Laura is my go-to expert for time management and Juliet's School of Possibilities is a delightful book. You can read it in a couple of short sittings, then go away with a lifetime of application.

Chris Guillebeau

Author

Super Thinking is meant to be a comprehensive collection of mental models needed for good personal and professional decision making, most of which are not effectively taught in schools. I believe if you can master these 300 concepts — yes, it is a lot, but they are very interrelated — you will completely level up your thinking. It’s the book I wish someone had given me earlier in my career, but it is good for anyone. As the anonymous saying goes, “The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.” It comes out 6/18 and you can pre-order it now and find out more info (including the full list of models). They are grouped into nine narrative chapters, each with its own theme (e.g. time management, people management, unintended consequences, etc.) so it is easy to digest and refer back to.

Gabriel Weinberg

Founder & CEO/DuckDuckGo

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

For every minute you spend inside this book, you'll get back ten. Off the Clock will show you how to spend your hours more meaningfully, reclaim vast amounts of wasted time, and live a better life. Picking up this book will be one of the most valuable investments you make in yourself.

Chris Bailey

Creator/A Life of Productivity

This book taught me a valuable lesson about focusing on what’s most important and saying no to everything else. This approach freed up my time dramatically; suddenly focusing on sales and strategy was something I did, not something I wanted to do. If you’ve ever found yourself stretched too thin, feel simultaneously overworked and underutilised, or, and this one was a biggie for me, feel like your time is constantly being hijacked by other people’s agendas, then Essentialism is the game changer you’ve been looking for. This book changed my life and the business.

Heather Baker

CEO/TopLine Comms

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

Here are some of the guests and some of their books, in no particular order. I recommend all of the below books. If I didn't like a book, I wouldn't have them on the show.

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

The best book on productivity and time management that I’ve read.

Adam Johnston

CEO & Co-Founder/Last Call Trivia

I've been a fan of Cal for a long time. His book So Good They Can't Ignore You is one of my favorites, but it's his new book that's probably had the biggest and most immediate impact on me. For those of you who enjoyed Tyler Cowen's Average is Over, you already know how important the ability to focus, be creative, and think at a high level is going to be in the future. This is a book that explains how to cultivate and protect that skill--the ability to do deep work. One thing I've already started doing since reading this book is recording the number of hours of deep work I do each day in my morning journal. It's a way of keeping a running tally and monitoring if I begin to get distracted or slow my pace. Anyway, great book!

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

We have a poster at our company that reads ‘The systems you have in place are perfectly organized to produce the behaviors you are currently experiencing.’ If you are seeking new behaviors and better results, new systems are the only way to get there. Creating an Effective Management System is just the book to get you started. The decades of experience-based wisdom that Graupp, Steward and Parsons share will set you on a new path to a more joyful organization and the tangible results it will produce.

Rich Sheridan

CEO/Menlo Innovations; Author

This book shall become the bible on how to build your dream business, without working yourself into an early grave!

John Lee Dumas

Host & Founder/Entrepreneur On Fire

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

Agile Selling shows you how to become an overnight expert, capable of bringing a continuous string of sales-inducing ideas to your clients. Get it to develop superpowers your competitors will envy.

Genevieve Bos

CEO/IdeaString

Cook loves this book so much that he often gives out copies of the same to his colleagues and recommends this book to the hires.

Tim Cook

CEO/Apple

Within Buffer, we have a concept where anyone is able to make any decision, provided they get advice from people who will be affected by the decision. It is the way we've found to envision a company without managers or bosses. We're still at the beginning of this journey, it's an exciting one to be on and I think we're creating an incredible company to be part of.

This decision making concept originates from a company called AES. I already mentioned Joy At Work, AES co-founder Dennis Bakke's first book and this is a fable he wrote to describe a company changing how they work and adopting the Advice Process.

Joel Gascoigne

Co-founder/Buffer

Question: What are your must-read books for business leaders?

Answer: Time to Think by Nancy Kline and Thrive by Ariana Huffington.

Catherine Hodgson

CEO/Hodgson Group

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

Kristen Hamilton

Co-founder/Koru

Busyness is meaningless. What matters is consistently executing the work that actually matters. This book shows you how.

Cal Newport

Author

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

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Entrepreneurial professionals must develop a competitive advantage by building valuable skills. This book offers advice based on research and reality--not meaningless platitudes-- on how to invest in yourself in order to stand out from the crowd. An important guide to starting up a remarkable career.

Reid Hoffman

CEO/Linkedin

I would say because it influenced me and created an imperial impact on my career path. An amazing book to read as it teaches you How to reprogram your mind in minutes to eliminate fears and phobia. Being a sales and marketing professional. I adopted many great changes in me and used some of the best techniques which are explained very well in this book by Grant Cardone.

I would definitely recommend it to everyone who wants growth. Be focused and keep fueling the fire of success with your tries and learnings!

Haris Siddique

Co-Founder/Artimization

Another worthy mention would be The 80/20 Manager: The Secret To Working Less And Achieving More, by Richard Koch.

Cristian-Dragos Baciu

Direct Response Copywriter

Work the System (Carpenter), which is one of the best books you can get on scaling yourself & your business. It’s excellent & wish I had read it earlier in my career.

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

Tom Peters at his best--the book that will push you to do the safe (risky) thing you must do to make your products remarkable.

Seth Godin

Author & Entrepreneur

In Managing Oneself Peter Drucker talks about how different people have different ways of receiving information. I realised that hearing is much more effective for me than reading and so since then I only really listen to audio books. Incidentally, that book is 100% free on audible and is shorter than most podcasts. Well worth your time.

Lewis Smith

Entrepreneur & Developer/BodyTracker

Ben Horowitz recently published another book called What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture.

When we were starting MavenHut, company culture was one of the things I struggled with.

I mean, I worked 70 hours/week, should my employees do the same (no, of course not!). My business parteners were working weekends as well during the early days of the company, I didn't want to. But people say that the leaders of the company should be part of the culture. So?

I just found out about the book so I only read the first few chapters, but it goes some ways I didn't think about.

The first part of the book is about the slave rebellion that created, in the end, Haiti. What is so interesting about this? Well, it's apparently the only slave rebellion in the world that was successful in creating a new country. How is it connected to company culture? I have no idea yet. 

There's, apparently, another chapter on a prison gang. And another on Genghis Khan. 

If you are confused, you're not the only one. But since I trust the author, I'm sure it will make sense at some point.

Bobby Voicu

Founder/The CEO Library

The best book I've read on To-do lists!

Gennady Batrakov

CEO & Founder/Strivechat & BubblesPlanner

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

I remember during the days when I was in National Service, between the ages of 19 to 21. I had a lot of time on my hands. I managed to stumble upon the author by the name of John C Maxwell. He was really popular during that period of time and he had so many good titles like “Developing the leader with you.”, “Today Matters.”, “The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership.”. These series of books really mold me into who I am now. These are very deep character building books. And they came at the right time when I was at an age ready to be mentored and guided.

Lex Na Wei Ming

CEO/Bountie.io

First, a word on career paths. In time, I realised that career paths are like one-way streets. Magic happens in unexplored territories. Plus life is how you choose to live every moment, every day. So today, rather than building a career, I prefer to make lateral moves in life, working with great people and being part of ambitious projects impacting the world. There are a few books that got me here: [...] Frederic Laloux Reinventing Organizations.

Cristina Riesen

Founder/We Are Play Lab

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

Over the years he’s [Tony Hsieh] recommended well over 20 business books — including his own, the 2010 bestseller Delivering Happiness and you can always find what he’s currently reading atop his cluttered desk. Start with Why is amogst those titles.

Tony Hsieh

CEO/Zappos

This is the bible for starting and running a restaurant. I recommend you get the printed version and the Kindle version. Use the Kindle version for quick reference and the printed version for study.

Chuck Rogers

Owner/Chuck Rogers Consulting

It's always interesting just to learn different perspectives, but to be careful of not trying to just say, 'Oh this book is the Bible, and we should copy that,' [...] Instead, I want us t0 take the parts that make sense for Zappos and try to incorporate them.

Tony Hsieh

CEO/Zappos

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

In Search of Excellence focused my daydreaming mind into what it takes to build truly great companies.

Alden Mills

CEO/Perfect Fitness, Navy SEAL, Author

Fast-growing companies - not small ones or big ones - create almost all the jobs and innovation in our economy, and Verne has been an invaluable guide to leaders of such companies, like me. Scaling Up helps us put in place the disciplines critical to building a significant business.

Graham Weston

CEO/Rackspace

As a marketing & strategy addict, I'll go beside all the books mentioned above with Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down by John P. Kotter and Lorne A. Whitehead, The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber.

Irina Botnari

Managing Partner & Co-Founder/Bucur's Shelter Hostel

It’s a very simple & interesting read. It takes a different approach about reaching your goals and dreams it pushes you to not just prepare & work on yourself but to put yourself out there & interact with leaders to learn from them & to figure out what kind of leader you are.

Nadia Al Sheikh

Founder/Deal’n

I still use some of the methods this book teaches around productivity. It also teaches some very important lessons around how to break out of 'analysis paralysis' and actually execute on ideas.

Andreas Zhou

Co-Founder/Askable

This is that rarity, a useful book.

Warren Buffett

CEO/Berkshire Hathaway

I've seen so many people thrust into management in high-growth companies with so little guidance. From now on, I will hand them this book. Its practical wisdom is immediately useful for the newly minted manager — and us old ones.

Ev Williams

Co-Founder/Twitter, CEO/Medium

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

One of the best 3 books I've read in 2019

The CEO Library Community (through anonymous form)

Reader

For a long time, I didn't see myself as an entrepreneur. I worked for an organization where I felt fulfilled, loved the work I got to do, and was amazed by who I got to do it with. Then five years ago, my husband started our first gym and I began to see behind the curtain of entrepreneurship. I stumbled upon Startup Life by Brad Feld and Amy Batchelor, it gave me great perspective on how to support my husband, how business affects a couple on multiple levels, and how we could evolve our roles and relationship.

AnneMarie Schindler

Founder/Small Wins Consulting

Favorite business or leadership book in a long time.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

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 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

I would say is the book that had the biggest impact on me and showed my life path. The amazing thing about this coaching book, that I did not find in any other book so far, is that it does not try to give you a certain path that you need to follow, quite the opposite. This book gives you the “tools” in order to find by yourself what you are looking for. Each and every person can interpret the information in the own way and adapt it to their own needs at the time being. Whether you want to find your path (which was my case), want to grow your business, develop yourself in your personal life, professional life or both, this book gives you the necessary tools to do so.

Tudor Teodorescu

Founder/Transylvania Uncharted

Perhaps the only business book I’ve read and truly loved is Taiichi Ohno’s “The Toyota Production System”. It’s referenced a lot as the origin of the “Lean” movement, but it’s a much more enjoyable read than that makes it sound. Rather than management guru speak, it’s a wonderful book about the hard-won lessons Taiichi Ohno learned on the factory floor at Toyota. It won’t teach you what kanban means in modern management, but learning about Ohno’s desire to build an information nervous system for Toyota’s plants is so much more interesting!

Grey Baker

Co-Founder/Dependabot

Ricardo Semler took over his father's business, Semco, in 1980 under the condition that he could change it completely. On his first day as CEO, he fired 60% of all top managers. Since then he has introduced a wide range of unconventional practices, such as having no official working hours, employees choosing their own salaries, and having no vision (instead wanting employees to find the way using their instinct).

For me, The Seven-Day Weekend opened my eyes and helped me to question every business practice that exists today. Semler aimed to operate as a 'sevant leader' and made a conscious effort to make zero decisions himself.

Joel Gascoigne

Co-founder/Buffer

I promote range and diversity. Thus, I recommend readers to expose themselves to as many different topics as possible. I usually have 2-4 books I refer back to at any given time. They range in topics from management, art, spirituality and philosophy. Trying to get the engineering thing going but don't much of a mind for science.

Henry Medine

Co-Founder/Space Jam Data

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

Michael Bungay-Stanier’s The Coaching Habit was the first book I read when I received the altMBA6 “care package.” It delivers a system for developing worthwhile habits and engagements that I found compelling and effective. I use the seven question system Michael teaches in my work as a guitar teacher, life coach, and musical collaborator.

Scott Perry

Author, Stoic Guitarist

This book is about one super-important concept. You must learn about Strategic Inflection Points, because sooner or later you are going to live through one.

Steve Jobs

Founder/Apple

I promote range and diversity. Thus, I recommend readers to expose themselves to as many different topics as possible. I usually have 2-4 books I refer back to at any given time. They range in topics from management, art, spirituality and philosophy. Trying to get the engineering thing going but don't much of a mind for science.

Henry Medine

Co-Founder/Space Jam Data

Joy At Work provides great insight into the journey of Dennis Bakke and AES, the company he co-founded. Bakke and his partner Roger Sant started the company and strived to live to a core value of Fun. It is a fascinating read in terms of their definition of fun (making important decisions and being given trust, not ping pong tables and snacks), and also in how difficult they found it to run the company unconventionally in order to be true to their values.

AES reached over 40,000 employees all across the world and they created a significantly different corporate structure than many organizations of today. At Buffer, AES and Bakke have been a big inspiration for us in staying true to our own values.

A large part of the process of staying true to the value of fun for Bakke was for him to be a sevant leader and to help individuals in the company make as many important decisions as possible. They devised the Decision Maker method of making decisions as a team, where the person closest to the problem (rather than a manger) makes key decisions. He also wrote a fable called The Decesion Maker around this concept, which I have also included in this list.

Joel Gascoigne

Co-founder/Buffer

The perfect is not just the enemy of the good; the pressure to be perfect is the enemy of girls around the world. Reshma Saujani, the founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, examines how to free girls—and women—from the shackles of social expectations.

Adam Grant

Author

Ruimin cites Shirky's book as another example of contemporary thought leadership influencing Haier's direction. In the book, Shirky offers examples of companies which have thrived in the absence of traditional organizational structures. The ideas have clearly influenced Ruimin. He tells strategy business: We used to have a pyramid-style structure for our sales in China. The people in charge of sales had to manage business at the national, provincial, and city levels. After the arrival of the internet age, we realized that under this triangular hierarchical structure, people had a difficult time adapting to the requirements of the times. So we reorganized ourselves as an entrepreneurial platform. We flattened everything out, taking out all the middle management. We decentralized the structure to one with more than 2,800 counties. Each county organization has seven people or fewer.

Zhang Ruimin

CEO/Haier Group

I promote range and diversity. Thus, I recommend readers to expose themselves to as many different topics as possible. I usually have 2-4 books I refer back to at any given time. They range in topics from management, art, spirituality and philosophy. Trying to get the engineering thing going but don't much of a mind for science.

Henry Medine

Co-Founder/Space Jam Data

Business books come and go, with the times and trends but anything by Peter Drucker, as in the collection of The Essential Drucker.

Audrey Russo

President & CEO/Pittsburgh Technology Council

The single most important book on leadership of our time. This insightful, innovative, original perspective is an absolute must-read for anyone who wants to identify the best leaders for their business and to be the best leaders they can be themselves--men and women alike. This book is now going to be my go-to gift for everyone I know, in business and in life.

Cindy Gallop

Founder/IfWeRanTheWorld, MakeLoveNotPorn

This is one of the most provocative, lucidly written books I’ve read on work, by a renowned thought leader and an influential talent executive. Be prepared to throw your strategic plan out the window and become well-lopsided instead of well-rounded.

Adam Grant

Author

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

Getting Things Done by David Allen. He recently spoke at our Zappos all-hands meeting and gave me a signed copy of his book.

Tony Hsieh

CEO/Zappos

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

Answer:

• 50 Signs You Know You Are An Entrepreneur - John Rampton and Joel Comm
• Giftology - John Ruhlin

John Hall

CEO & Co-Founder/Influence & Co

Imagine working in an organization where the aim of your colleagues is to help you achieve your results. I could not believe it possible. After reading this book I just had to bring Arbinger to the UK to teach our people. What an experience! We are all better people for it. This book touches the very foundation of culture, teamwork, and performance.

Mark Ashworth

CEO/Butcher’s Pet Care

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

Gary Bury

Co-Founder/Timetastic

The book is all about self-development, building a strong mindset that helps you to conquest problems and obstacles. We can’t be successful until we keep on learning and implementing new techniques to make them strong skills for us. The book is not only ideal to read just but also epitome enough for practical implementations.

The idea to change begins from thoughts. When you start anything from scratch, you follow a thought process to give practical execution to your idea and for that, you need strength, wisdom, power, courage, inspiration, and guidance.

This book is not only for entrepreneur or marketer instead it’s for everyone who loves to develop themselves to achieve heights in life. It has tons of practical knowledge on leadership; easy to put into practice in your life and career. Read this book and charismatically feel the change inside you.

Haris Siddique

Co-Founder/Artimization

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

Answer:

• Radical Leap by Steve Farber
• Becoming a Category of One by Joe Calloway
• Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith
• Killing Marketing by Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose
• Waiting for your Cat to Bark by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg
• The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath

Drew McLellan

Founder/McLellan Marketing Group & Agency Management Institute

Brilliant. Buy ten copies and give one to everyone you work with. It's that good.

Seth Godin

Author & Entrepreneur

For too long, stat geeks like me ignored the 'development' side of 'scouting and development.' The MVP Machine is the book that's going to change that. Travis Sawchik and Ben Lindbergh persuasively and entertainingly demonstrate that a baseball player's success is less about God-given talent and more about innovation, hard work, and the willingness to take a more scientific approach to the game. Read it, and you won't think about baseball in quite the same way again.

Nate Silver

Founder & Editor-in-Chief/FiveThirtyEight

If you have to read just one business book to understand the global corporate world we live in today, I think this is it. And I think Bill Gates said this first. Alfred P. Sloan was the CEO of General Motors in its early beginnings, and he went through all the stages of the growth, going bust, growth and then consolidation of the beginning (when some companies were creating mechanical horses - no kidding) to the '60s, when he retired.

Bogdan Iordache

Co-Founder/How to Web

Certainly, hearing how Google started. It was called “The Google Story”, can’t remember the authors of that one. It’s quite an old book now, would probably need to be updated.

Yaro Starak

Founder/Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

“A guide to using data to measure everything from customer satisfaction to the effectiveness of marketing. Amazon employees must support all assertions with data, and if the data has a weakness, they must point it out or their colleagues will do it for them,” Stone writes.

Jeff Bezos

CEO/Amazon

Buffett said that Security Analysis, another groundbreaking work of Graham's, had given him a road map for investing that he has been following for 57 years.

Warren Buffett

CEO/Berkshire Hathaway

Ultralearning is like a superpower in our competitive economy. Read this book! It will change your life.

Cal Newport

Author

I read this book after completing my exposition of overcompensation, how a stressor or a random event causes an increase in strength, in excess of what is needed, like a redundancy. I was also looking for evidence of convex reaction to stressor, or the effect of a mathematical property called Jensen's inequality in domains and found it exposed here (in other words, why a combination low dose (most of the time) and high dose (rarely) beats medium dose all the time. The authors presents the evidence for the phenomenon in the following: 1) acute stressors cum recovery beat both absence of stressors and chronic ones (this includes thermal variations); 2) stressors make one stronger (post traumatic growth); 3) risk management is mediated by the deep structures in us, not rational decision-making; 4) winning causes an increase in strength (the latter are more complicated effects of convexity/Jensen's Inequality).

Great book. I ignored the connection to financial markets while reading it. But I learned that when under stress, one should seek the familiar.

Bravo!

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Flaneur

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

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

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

Om Malik

Founder/GigaOM

A leadership fable about a failing Silicion Valley tech company who brings in a new CEO. Kathryn attempts to unite a highly dysfunctional team and through his narrative Lencioni explains the five key ways that teams struggle, and how to overcome the hurdles. I read this book at a key point in time where we were just discovering that we needed to put our values into words and shape the culture of Buffer. The book helped to clarify that through culture, provided we lived it, we could solve problems of trust and enable much better teamwork within the company.

Joel Gascoigne

Co-founder/Buffer

[One of the books that had the biggest impact on Maya.]

Maya Zlatanova

Co-Founder & CEO/FindMeCure

In 2014, I read The Education of a Coach, a book about Bill Belichick which influenced me immensely (coincidentally, the Patriots have also read my book and were influenced by it). Anyway, I have been chasing that high ever since. Bill Walsh’s book certainly met that high standard. Out of all the books I read this year, I marked this one up the most. Even if you’ve never watched a down of football, you’ll get something out of this book. Walsh took the 49ers from the worst team in football to the Super Bowl in less than 3 years. How? Not with a grand vision or pure ambition, but with what he called the Standard of Performance. That is: How to practice. How to dress. How to hold the ball. Where to be on a play down the very inch. Which skills mattered for each position. How much effort to give. By upholding these standards—whatever they happen to be for your chosen craft—success will take care of itself.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

When it comes to books, one of the great injustices of our time is that --or, rather, how-- Walter Isaacson wrote Steve Jobs's official biography. I was almost angry when I finished the book. It was well-researched, yes; but Isaacson only used that research to

Gabriel Coarna

Founder/Readable

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

Ray Dalio has provided me with invaluable guidance and insights.

Bill Gates

Founder / Microsoft

With Dare to Lead, Brené brings decades of research to bear in a practical and insightful guide to courageous leadership. This book is a road map for anyone who wants to lead mindfully, live bravely, and dare to lead.

Sheryl Sandberg

COO/Facebook

Zig is your grandfather and my grandfather. He's Tony Robbins' grandfather. None of us would be here if it weren't for Zig.

Seth Godin

Author & Entrepreneur

My list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make sense of life and Science fiction to picture what the future could be like (not always utopian).

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

I had been suffering from acute anxiety and panic attacks for 5 years without knowing what the hell was wrong with me while assuming I had every life-threatening disease under the sun. Then one day I picked up a book, When Panic Attacks by Áine Tubridy, and read the back. I immediately said to myself, holy shit, that's me! Needless to say, I went straight to the counter and made the purchase.

Nicky Cullen

Writer, Anxiety Coach

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

Maverick is Semler's earlier book, which goes into the full details of how he took over Semco from his father, fired over half of the executive team, diversified the business and revolutionized the way an organization could be run.

I especially enjoy how Semler challenges some deeply ingrained assumptions and beliefs about how business needs to be run. Things like whether growth is even a good thing, and how rules and policies can quickly snowball and grind companies to a halt. It has helped us to reach one of our most powerful phrases we use at Buffer, as an often used alternative to policies: use your best judgement.

Joel Gascoigne

Co-founder/Buffer

It’s interesting to learn about what is stopping people from getting what they want and surprisingly most of the time the resistance is self inflicted and in order to succeed in business it’s important to learn how to overcome these social defense mechanisms.

Nadia Al Sheikh

Founder/Deal’n

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

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

I’m currently reading “In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works and Shapes Our Life and am excited on gaining more insight into how google is changing the world and hopefully to get some valuable understanding I can use to maximize business decisions and read future trends while assessing investment opportunities for my company, ABM Investments.

Alan Pierce

CEO/Ansuz Balder Magni Investments

Great book that discusses a balanced and essential approach to innovation.

Indra Nooyi

Board of Directors/Amazon

Question: What books would you recommend to young people to be prepared for the future workplaces?

Answer: So many! So many by Seth Godin (Linchpin, The Icarus Deception, Purple Cow) Essentialism by Greg McKeown, Deep Work by Cal Newport, The Choice by Og Mandino, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, No More Dreaded Mondays and 48 Days To The Work You Love by Dan Miller, The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran, Will It Fly by Pat Flynn, The Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews, QBQ by John Miller, The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. Wow, there are so many more, but that’s a start.

Vincent Pugliese

Author & Professional Photographer

My next book for A Year of Books is The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation.

I'm very interested in what causes innovation -- what kinds of people, questions and environments. This book explores that question by looking at Bell Labs, which was one of the most innovative labs in history.

As an aside, I loved The Three-Body Problem and highly recommend it. If you're interested in Chinese history, virtual reality and science fiction -- I'm three for three! -- then you'll enjoy this book. I'm going to try to fit in the sequel before the end of the year as well.

Mark Zuckerberg

CEO/Facebook

Currently reading a fascinating book about the brain science of creativity, The Net & the Butterfly

Joe Gebbia

Co-founder/Airbnb

Just finished this on the train back to Kyoto. Felt like I took the deepest inhale of fresh air. @jasonfried @dhh grateful for your clarity and conviction, as always!

Claire Lew

CEO/Know Your Company

Since Kapwing is still a very young company, The Storyteller’s Secret helps me think about how I can communicate the origin story of Kapwing to our users and other people. I’m enjoying both!

Julia Enthoven

Co-Founder/Kapwing

John explains how OKRs [Objectives and Key Results] work and shows how you can apply them in all sorts of situations. I’d recommend John’s book for anyone interested in becoming a better manager (and I’d say that even if I hadn’t been interviewed for a super-nice chapter about the Gates Foundation).

Bill Gates

Founder/Microsoft

I’m currently reading Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture: What the World's Wildest Trade Show Can Tell Us About the Future of Entertainment by Robert Salkowitz. I want to learn more about how I can create a diehard fan base that loves and is passionate about our brands and will support us all the way. During our latest IT’S THE SHIP 2017 festival, we had 8 guests that got our IT’S THE SHIP tattoos on their bodies – this shows that this festival has and will continue to impact people’s lives. I want to try and implement similar things like this for all of our events.

Iqbal Ameer

Co-Founder/Livescape Group

Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

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

After reading Lean In and listening to Sheryl, I realize that, while I believe I am relatively enlightened, I have not consistently walked the talk. I think each of you, on reflection, will identify opportunities to operate at a new level with your women employees, leaders, customers, partners, and peers ... 1) please read the copy of Lean In you will be receiving shortly, before we get to the SVP/VP off-site and 2) determine 3-4 specific things you will do differently.

John Chambers

CEO/Cisco

John has been a mentor and teacher for me for many years and what I love most about him is that he has pushed and helped me personally go through the 5 Levels of Leadership!

Kevin Turner

COO/Microsoft

I just finished reading Pre-Suasion, or I should say I just finished skimming Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini. I don’t think I needed to read the entire book to get the point, but it was still good to read what I did.

Naval Ravikant

CEO & Co-Founder/AngelList

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

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

Jeff Gibbard

Chief Brand Officer/From The Future

[From The Everything Store, written by Brad Stone] “An influential computer scientist makes the counterintuitive argument that small groups of engineers are more effective than larger ones at handling complex software projects. The book lays out the theory behind Amazon’s two pizza teams,” Stone writes.

Jeff Bezos

CEO/Amazon

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

I don’t read “business books”. I may read books which were classified as “Business”, “Leadership”, etc; but, if I do, I do so in spite of the category they’ve been deemed to belong to, not because of it.

I generally split books into three main categories. Here are the titles –sorry, but I simply can’t pick just one– that currently hold the top spots in each:

[...]

Biography/Memoir: Andre Agassi’s and J. R. Moehringer’s “Open“; Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love“; and Salman Rushdie’s “Joseph Anton“.

Gabriel Coarna

Founder/Readable

In this book, Esther has beautifully captured the essence of successful lasting change. The seven rules provide a framework for engaging with people and systems in a way that honors everyone and creates the kind of safety necessary for change to take root, all without glossing over the hard parts. A must-read for anyone seeking to have a lasting impact or bring about change.

Elisabeth Hendrickson

Vice President, Research and Development/Pivotal

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

Answer:

• Radical Leap by Steve Farber
• Becoming a Category of One by Joe Calloway
• Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith
• Killing Marketing by Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose
• Waiting for your Cat to Bark by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg
• The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath

Drew McLellan

Founder/McLellan Marketing Group & Agency Management Institute

In proper combination, innovation creates marketing opportunities, which create innovation, which creates marketing opportunities, which create innovation, which creates marketing, and on and on.

Kevan Lee

Marketing Director/Buffer

• Tibor, Tibor Kalman
• Chip Kidd Book One, Chip Kidd
• Once Upon a Time, Slim Aarons
• Our True Intent is for Your Delight, Martin Parr

These are a selection of my favorite creative minds who visually inspire me like no one else.

Karen Pfaff Manganillo

Co-Founder/By Karen and Jess

The longer I look at architecture, the more I appreciate the genius of Louis Kahn, the designer of the Yale Art Gallery in New Haven, the Salk Institute in La Jolla and the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth. He was miraculously capable of creating bold, uncompromising spaces that are at once completely original and utterly comfortable. This book exposes the man and his work in a way that illuminates both.

Michael Bierut

Founder/Design Observer

Winston Ma

Managing Director/China Investment Corporation

This book is written by the founder of Pixar and is about his experience building a culture that fosters creativity.

His theory is that people are fundamentally creative, but many forces stand in the way of people being able to do their best work.

I love reading first-hand accounts about how people build great companies like Pixar and nurture innovation and creativity. This should be inspiring to anyone looking to do the same, and hopefully there will be lessons we can apply to connecting the world!

Mark Zuckerberg

CEO/Facebook

Author Steven Johnson argues in his 2010 book that innovation comes from the collision of ideas. This can happen when an individual working in isolation builds off years of existing knowledge to fuel his insights, or it can happen much more quickly when several creative types bounce ideas off each other in a community like Silicon Valley.

This theory is one of the reasons why Hsieh decided to invest $350 million of his own money in 2010 into the Downtown Project, which is building a community of entrepreneurs in Zappos' neighborhood.

Tony Hsieh

CEO/Zappos

This book showed me the importance of transparency in business (making everyone understand the “game” of business”), and then how essential it is to give your employees some skin in the game. This book is why we adopted a profit-sharing program at O2E Brands called GGOB (Great Game of Business).

Brian Scudamore

Founder and CEO/1-800-GOT-JUNK? & O2E Brands

Read some wonderful and enlightening books this year.

Doug McMillon

CEO/Walmart

CEO Marilyn Hewson recommends this book because it helped her to trust her instincts in business.

Marillyn Hewson

CEO/Lockheed Martin

It's a short but deep book about John Boyd and his strategies, the most famous of which is the OODA loop.

Bill Earner

Founder/Connect Ventures

These books and their core ideas have stuck with me the most and continue to guide me when I hit crossroads along the way.

Andra Zaharia

Freelance Content Marketer/The Content Habit

Tindell is actually close friends with Mackey, who is the co-author of this book and co-CEO of Whole Foods Market. According to Tindell, both men believe in conscious capitalism. They say that when everyone wins, the business is most profitable and there should be no losses.

Kip Tindell

CEO/The Container Store

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. [...] Yes! 50 Secrets from the Power of Persuasion sticks in my mind as one I particularly enjoyed reading. [...] very entertaining and a great insight into people's minds, marketing and selling. I was writing a lot of web copy at that time and this book really helped me get to grips with the ‘what’ and ‘why’ I was writing.

Gary Bury

Co-Founder/Timetastic

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

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

I was riveted (and appalled) by Tiger Woods and probably talked to more people about this book than anything else I read this year.

Ryan Holiday

Media Strategist, Author, Founder/Brass Check

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

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

The Minto Pyramid Principle: For would-be consultants, a (very dry) book on how to write effectively for business.

Patricia Reed

Technology Growth Leader & Mentor

Shockingly professionals are still following the advice of the sales gurus of yesteryear who preached the importance of asking for referrals. Yet, when is the last time anyone responded to this question by immediately jotting down the name, number, and email address of a good friend or family member? Matt has tapped into the mindset of the affluent helping marketers and sales professionals understand the far more subtle techniques that build long-term loyal clients who happily refer –without being asked. The Art of Selling to the Affluent II is an easy read with actionable takeaways. It cements the fact that relationship management strategies combining business and social interactions are the secret to an endless source of introductions.

Susan Theder

CMO/Cetera Financial Group

This book has everything: new ideas, bold insights, entertaining history and convincing analysis. Not to be missed by anyone who wants to understand how ideas change the world.

Daniel Kahneman

Nobel Prize Winner, Author

There are the normal ones that everybody loves. There would be Rich Dad Poor Dad, Who Moved My Cheese?; I love all the Dale Carnegie books; The One Minute Manager. I love newer ones like Blue Ocean Strategy and all the Freaknomics books.

Daymond John

Founder/FUBU

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

Changed my view of how the world works.

Daniel Kahneman

2002 Nobel Laureate/Economy

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

It questioned the delusions of business books and the pseudoscience that some use. It reminded me that the advice given in business books may not necessarily be right for you, your team, your business or the current situation.

Steven Stokes

CSO/DUKE

Brian Gunia is an expert on negotiating, and he does something unusual here: he offers insights about bargaining that are both novel and useful.

Adam Grant

Author