2016's
Best Books for Entrepreneurs
Started your own business (or just thinking
about it)? These are this year's must-reads.
Today's column provides the best books for
entrepreneurs and people who want to start their own businesses. Just to keep
you up to date, here are the rankings so far:
1. #AskGaryVee
Subtitle: One Entrepreneur's Take on Leadership, Social Media, and
Self-Awareness
Author: Gary Vaynerchuk
Why You Should
Read It: This book is inspiring, fun and full of
insight. It will help you commit to your career and your business in new ways
and with new enthusiasm. Trust me on this.
Best Quote: "There are too many people who are average at what they do,
and then confused by their average results... If there's any advice I can offer
that will change the entire trajectory of your career, it's to start pushing on
both edges. Raise the bar on your business philosophy, dig deeper into your
craft. You want to be an equally good architect as you are a mason. You've got
to be able to simultaneously think at a high level and get your hands
dirty."
2. Venture Deals
Subtitle: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist
Authors: Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson
Why You Should
Read It: I'm gonna warn you right up front: this
book isn't an easy read. However, it's got the crucial "nuts and
bolts" knowledge that you definitely want under your belt if you're
considering venture capital as part of your growth plan.
Best Quote: "While it would be desirable to do venture capital deals with
a simple agreement on price, a handshake, and a short legal agreement, this
rarely happens. And while there have been plenty of attempts to standardize the
term sheet over the years, the proliferation of lawyers, venture capitalists,
and entrepreneurs, along with a steadily increasing number of investments, has
prevented this from happening."
3. Born for This
Subtitle: How to Find the Work You Were Meant to Do
Author: Chris Guillebeau
Why You Should
Read It: Every year at least 100 people ask me
for career advice. Most of the time, they have no idea what they really want to
do with their lives, which makes it really difficult (i.e. impossible) to give
them decent advice. This books helps you center on what you really want to do,
after which building a business around it becomes a tactical detail.
Best
Quote: "Have you ever lost track of time when
immersed in a project you love? Have you ever taken on a role that was
paid--but you liked it so much, you would have gladly done it for free? We'll
call this condition flow: the art of maximizing skill and getting lost in
something you're really good at. This condition, like joy and money, is
essential to the work you were meant to do. There are lots of things that we
could do somewhat well, or even pretty well. Flow work is different. You don't
do it somewhat well or even pretty well: you do it really well. It comes
naturally and easily to you. When you do this kind of work, other people are
impressed or even amazed by how effortlessly you seem to achieve great results.
'How does she do that?' they wonder."
4. The Third Wave
Subtitle: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future
Author: Steve Case
Why You Should
Read It: I'll be entirely honest here. I found
Case's views to be very mainstream and not particularly original. However, this
book does provide a solid picture of conventional thinking in high tech--a
useful perspective if you're planning to launch a business, or secure funding,
in this sector. (See "The Revenge of Analog" below for a more
insightful view of future techno-trends.)
Best
Quote: "The Third Wave is the era when the
Internet stops belonging to Internet companies. It is the era in which products
will require the Internet, even if the Internet doesn't define them. It is the
era when the term "Internet-enabled" will start to sound as ludicrous
as the term "electricity-enabled," as if either were notable
differentiators. It is the era with the concept of the Internet of Things - of
adding connected sensors to products -- will be viewed as too limiting, because
we'll realize that what's emerging is the much broader Internet of
Everything."
5. The Art of Startup Fundraising
Subtitle: Pitching Investors, Negotiating the Deal, and Everything Else
Entrepreneurs Need to Know
Author: Alejandro Cremades
Why You Should
Read It: Many entrepreneurs wrongly believe that
if they simply had access to venture capitalists, they'd easily be able to
raise money. This book puts that idea to rest by explaining, in useful detail,
what it REALLY takes to get financing.
Best Quote: "The company announcements of successfully closed rounds of
financing that you see and hear about are not the reality. They come from only
a few companies out of the many, many ventures that are launched each year.
Raising capital is an art. Every single ingredient needs to be perfectly
balanced in the process in order to secure capital successfully."
6. Main Street Entrepreneur
Subtitle: Build Your Dream Company Doing What You Love Where You Live
Author: Michael Glauser
Why You Should
Read It: While many of us tend to think about
entrepreneurism in "Shark Tank" terms, most startups are local
businesses created to serve a local need. This book is an excellent and
inspirational primer for would-be entrepreneurs who don't seem themselves as
the next Zuckerberg.
Best Quote: "Nearly 90 percent of those surveyed view small businesses
favorably, with 53% giving them a "very favorable" rating. In
addition, nearly half of Americans say small-business owners exhibit high
ethical standards; only 6 percent say the same about CEOs of large
corporations. Perhaps most important, two-thirds of us would rather shop at
small businesses even if the prices are slightly higher."
7. The Revenge of Analog
Subtitle: Real Things and Why They Matter
Author: David Sax
Why You Should
Read It: If you're missing the backlash against
digital technology and the desire for high-quality analog technology and
experiences, you're being as silly as those people in the 1960s who thought
that computers were a fad. This trend is a BIG deal, all the more so because
it's blind-siding the techno-utopists of Silicon Valley.
Best Quote: "Surrounded by digital, we now crave experiences that are
more tactile when human-centric. We want to interact with goods and services
with all our senses, and many of us are willing to pay a premium to do so, even
if it is more cumbersome and costly than its digital equivalent... While analog
experiences can provide us with the kind of real-world pleasures and rewards
that digital ones cannot, sometimes analog simply outperforms digital as the
best solution. When it comes to the free flow of ideas, the pen remains
mightier than both the keyboard or touchscreen."
By Geoffrey
James
http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/2016s-best-books-for-entrepreneurs.html?cid=nl029week47day22
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