“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go”said Dr. Seuss and rightly so.
This also works when you are an aspiring entrepreneur. There are books that have been written by successful entrepreneurs who have been generous enough to share the secrets behind their success and fame.
- The 7 Day Startup: You Don’t Learn Until You Launch by Dan Norris
If you are on the verge of starting a new venture and are introducing your product for the first time in the market than this is the book that should be read. Dan Norris has based the book on his experiences as an entrepreneur. According to Dan “A startup is a bit more exciting. It has:
1. High impact potential.
2. High levels of innovation.
3. High levels of uncertainty.”
The book is based on two basic ideas, ‘bootstrapped business idea’, where a product when introduced into the market can fetch immediate profits. Dan encourages the reader to find a profitable idea and hustle and launch the Minimal Viable Product in the market rather than waste time in unnecessary planning and research. Dan explains “Hustle is relentlessly pursuing what needs to be done at the time” and is very essential if you want to sell your product fast.
- $ 100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
Reinvent the way you make a living, Do what you love, and create a new fortune. The subtitle of the book says it all.
Chris Guillebeau has built a life for himself by using his ‘expertise’ and in the process churning out money for himself and leading a life of his choice. He “began a lifelong journey of self-employment”, never taking on a traditional job. His book is based on his experiences and of people who have made a fortune starting their own ventures with nothing more than 100 dollars in their pocket.
Chris is a firm believer of exploiting your skills or as he calls them ‘expertise’ to make money. He follows what Karl Marx said ““Catch a man a fish, and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to fish — and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity”. According to Chris “most budgets start by looking at income and then defining the available choices. I did it differently—starting with a list of what I wanted to do, and then figuring out how to make it happen” and he found what he was looking for “freedom”, freedom to do what he wanted.
The book talks about “value”. Chris Guillebeau explains that “value is created when a person makes something useful and shares it with the world”. He lays a lot of emphasis on how you view and treat your customer. You have to identify what the people want and then give them just that and if you feel you are still not making the money you expected, it’s time to ‘tweak’ it up a bit which in turn will lead to a big impact.
Chris Guillebeau, in this book, shares his various experiences and that of others who put their skills and not their money to use and made a fortune.
Clayton Christensen, a professor at Harvard and a businessman, got his book The Innovator’s dilemma published in 1997 and received ‘The Global Business Book Award’ as the best business book of the year in 1997.
In his book, Clayton Christensen has given an in-depth understanding of why big companies lose their market leadership and at times even fail, when new competitors enter the market despite all measures taken by them from ‘investing aggressively in new technology and “listened responsively to their customers”. He explains that though being customer-centric is essential for the success of any company but in the long term the basis of success changes. Companies fail to adopt important disruptive innovations, because it is rejected by the ‘mainstream’ customers, and this is what leads to failure because these very innovations would have led to continued success in the long term. The reason for the failure of these big companies was not because they lacked the technology to produce the new product but it was the “delay in making the strategic commitment to enter the emerging market”.
- Rework by Jason Fried
A New York Times bestseller is not a book based on academic theories but on the business experience of the author who has successfully run his company for more than a decade, in which the company survived “two recessions, one burst bubble, business model shifts, and doom-and-gloom predictions come and go”. It’s a book for “those who have never dreamed of starting a business to those who already have a successful company up and running.”
In the book, Rework, Jason Fried the founder of 37 signals, a software firm, has abandoned the old business philosophies like planning, budgeting, and marketing and has established new maxims for successfully running a business. According to Jason, “The easiest, most straightforward way to create a great product or service is to make something you want to use.” The book also states that planning is a waste of time and also to avoid outside investor and to focus on self rather than competition.
5. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Well, This is a unique book where Eric has used his concept of Lean Manufacturing from Toyota and applied it to startups. This book will give you good insights into Product Marketing and it will tell you how to plan for customer review and embed the features in your product. He explains clearly how failures can be prevented. The Japanese had pioneered Lean Manufacturing in Supply Chain. Eric Ries has pioneered in explaining the concept to budding Entrepreneurs. He talks a
6. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build a Future by Peter Thiel
Zero to one is a book where the author is talking about creating new things, exploring new avenues instead of just replicating and improvising what already exists. Moving from nothing to something, zero to one progress is technology instead of zero to n, which means just copying or improvising what already exist.
Peter Thiel believes that “Unless they invest in the difficult task of creating new things, American companies will fail in the future no matter how big their profits remain today”. He is also of the belief that economies like America needs technology to succeed in the business world and
“new technology tends to come from new ventures- startups.”
7. START with WHY by Simon Sinek
You should not miss this book as it explains to you the purpose of starting up. Although this is a general book that emphasizes finding your “WHY” to start a great business and a motivated team. Although this is not a startup book, it’s a must-read for all Budding Entrepreneurs. He also explains biologically how your thought process affects your decisions.
Well, these 7 Books will help You Jump Start Your Startup. But you should not miss the book on startup failure. Note that you may still fail even if you read and understand the concepts shared in these books. You might be curious to know what happens after the startup failure? You must read:
MY FIRST ATTEMPT TO FAILURE by Satyam Sinha
While most of the motivational books on startups are written in the west, this book on start-up failure is written in India. Satyam has explained the emotional aspects of dealing with startup failure. It would be nice to read the other side of the story.
Hope you would like our curated list of books. Happy Reading 🙂