Best 12 books every entrepreneur should read before their 30s
Everyone has heard of the saying that Knowledge is Power. It’s a saying that has stood the test of time and has been proven time again. As a serial or budding entrepreneur, you should always strive to acquire as much knowledge as you possibly can. For knowledge is an ever flowing river from which one can never drink their fill. Although there are many ways that knowledge is preserved and passed on and across, books have been one of the oldest and effective means of preserving and propagating knowledge. In this post, we are going to share a list of 12 best books that we feel everyone should read and do so, ideally in their youth. So let’s dive right into the list:
How to win friends and influence people — By Dale Carnegie
You are going to meet people throughout your life and you are going to interact with them in numerous ways. This book teaches you how to deal with them. How to make them like you and how to win them over. The book imparts knowledge on how to lead and encourages you to see things from the point of view of others. As you can see, a must read for all the obvious reasons.
The Black Swan — By Nassim Nicholas Taleb
This is a book about outliers and unexpected events — pretty much what an average life is full of. The author warns about the trusting experts, getting used to the repetitive nature of things and ignoring warnings of oncoming events. You learn about building resolve in order to face the unexpected and positioning yourself to take advantage of it.
Can’t Hurt Me — By David Goggins
The author of the book is relatable to many and shares many hard life lessons. Life usually doesn’t go the way you want and this book teaches you how you must persevere and pay the dues needed to reach your goals. It talks about avoiding shortcuts and teaches relentlessness. It talks about how small victories lead to big dreams and how you must be willing to push through the pain to attain success. All these lessons are wrapped around the author himself who is now a world class endurance athlete despite having the odds stacked against him throughout his life.
Mastery — By Robert Greene
This book is a must read if you want to learn what it takes to master a craft. It talks about the journey we take when learning something. How things are exciting and mixed with some fear at first. But the book encourages us to continue observing and learning to push past it. It talks about how in the next phase we start gaining confidence and become fluent in the trade as you will continue to take on bigger challenges, eventually to become a master of the craft.
Atomic Habits — By James Clear
The theme of this book is similar to the last one but it approaches the topic from a different perspective. It talks about how routinely practicing a habit slowly evolves into something much bigger thanks to its compounding growth effect. But it also warns about how this works in case of bad habits as well. It emphasizes on how small, seemingly unimportant changes can turn into remarkable results over a span of several years. The book teaches you how to form good habits and also how they shape you as a person.
As a man thinketh — By James Allen
This book on the list is an interesting one as it was authored over a century ago and is less than 50 pages. Yes the lessons contained within it are still precious and relevant. The book talks about how powerful the human thoughts are. How they shape your actions, which in turn shape the world around you and how they can even keep you young or make you age. This book will make you realize how important it is to cultivate your mind.
Unshakable — By Tony Robbins
This book is a great read especially if you intend to explore the stock market (and why wouldn’t you?). Even though there are numerous lessons to be found within this book, some of the key takeaways include the search for patterns in the market which can help you make sound investments. The book teaches you about the importance of not losing instead of winning (and there is a difference). Looking for the sweet spot between risks and rewards. Taking taxes into consideration when reaping benefits. And the importance of diversifying your portfolio.
Factfulness — By Hans Rosling
Our instincts have distorted our perception of reality which in turn make us react to situations in ways that makes them worse. This book talks about ten of these instincts and teaches us how to moderate them. Some of these instincts might be easy to recognize such as fear, generalization and sense of urgency. But there are others which are easily overlooked. You may not even realize it but you might be a victim of one of these perceptive behaviors and be limiting yourself in many ways.
Zero to One — By Peter Thiel
The author of this book has serious real world credentials. He was the co-founder of PayPal along with Elon Musk and was Facebook’s first outside major investor. This book is a must read for entrepreneurs who are serious about startups. In this book, Peter shares his wisdom acquired over the years about startups and technology. He talks about creating monopolies, scaling empires and becoming successful among numerous other gems.
The Lean Startup — By Eric Ries
This is another valuable book when it comes to learning the ropes of any successful business endeavor. It talks about things to keep in mind when starting a business. How to define it. Constant need of experimenting and learning. Taking leaps of faith at times. Importance of growing, adapting, pivoting and innovating — all these concepts and more can be found within this great book.
The Intelligent Investor — By Ben Graham
Ben Graham, the author of this book was a successful investor who benefited many by sharing his knowledge. One of the most successful beneficiaries of this was his student, the great Warren Buffett himself who calls this book the best book on investing ever written. The book shares some key insights relating to successful investing. These include: playing the long game, protecting yourself from losses, never trusting the market and dollar cost averaging.
The 4 Hour Workweek — By Tim Ferris
This book is great for those looking to escape the traditional 9–5 working model. The book imparts the secrets of becoming efficient using tools like automation and embracing the freedom of mobility. This book on the surface may not be applicable to you and where you may be in your life. However, it teaches you ways to start thinking about inching towards acquiring the lifestyle needed to become free from the conventional ways of working.
Conclusion
So there you have it. A list of 12 best books that are a must read when it comes to learning some key lessons for success in life. If you are aspiring to become or already are a serial entrepreneur, then some of the books on this list are a must read. Though some of the wisdom imparted within these books may appear to be common sense, however, when presented as examples and actual life lessons, they are retained better by our minds. So do add these to your must read lists and hang on to the pearls of wisdom.
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