Every businessman needs a self-help book at some point.
Starting something from scratch can be daunting. There have been people before us who have tried and failed and some who have succeeded. It’s all about how much we know and how much of it we are ready to learn from others’ experiences. Being an entrepreneur sounds all fun until you realise that you may not have the same knowledge as somebody who has been in the business for long. Fret not, there are books for everything. Here is a list of books that will help grow what you started!
Getting Things Done by David Allen is a book about productivity. He talks about work-life balance and how to capture focus, clarity and confidence in the work you do. Getting Things Done runs on five fundamentals that once you master can redefine the way you approach your life and work.
A must-read for all entrepreneurs, this book highlights the importance of financial education and will provide you with one without being a snooze fest. When you start off any business young, the lack of financial stability will make you vulnerable in comparison to those who have been at it for years. Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a book that provides valuable insights on how being a successful entrepreneur doesn’t depend on school or grades, but on your own financial making.
People—they are always around. Be it your employees or clients, you have to have conversations with individuals every single day. No entrepreneur can go about daily life without interacting with his/her people. Dale Carnegie in How To Win Friends And Influence People talks about how you can navigate through having conversations with people and getting them on board. Small things like remembering birthdays, in fact, is an effective way of building relationships with your tribe!
Our human brain responds to situations in two ways as per author Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow. He says we have the fast-thinking emotional response and the slow-thinking logical one. Each of them is important in perceiving threats and situations in your entrepreneurial journey. How you respond to things when you are put in a spot, defines what kind of a leader you are. This book is a must-read for those who want to climb up the ladder without sacrificing too much on things that bother them.
Everybody starts somewhere. Chris Guillebeau toured more than 175 countries without a real job or paycheck. He, in fact, turned his ideas into income. He found out early on and what he describes in the 100$ Startup, as a way of turning what they do into a gateway to self-fulfillment. It’s finding the intersection between your expertise and finding people who will pay for it. This book helps you find what you are good at and pushes you to work towards building the idea. You don’t need loads of money, just a good idea.
Have an idea that you know the market lacks? You have the necessary funds and resources required to make it work, what next? You have to make sure the idea actually works. The Lean Startup by Eric Reis is a book on how to validate your business before it hits the market, without investing too much time and money. He talks about building a prototype of your idea and getting feedback from the clients before putting it out there for you to learn the hard way. You can constantly adapt and change things from what you hear from your first clients and improve it ten folds. It’s a must-read for young businessmen who don’t want to unnecessarily jeopardise their work, effort, time or money.
Most companies that you know, sell the same product to the same target audience, through the same channels! Everyone is doing the same thing: Authors Renee Mauborgne and W Chan Kim wanted to swim against the tide. That’s where the idea of being the ‘black sheep’ of the industry came in. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant talks about standing out by marketing yourself differently. How to approach customer demands differently than that of price and quality. It talks about heading into an uncontested marketplace that no other competitor has created or thought about yet.
Not all can be learned from books, as you learn the most from personal experience. Books, however, are an easy passage to learn new things and explore possibilities. Reading these will surely help you get a head start on the Dos and Don’ts of entrepreneurship.
[Featured Image Credit: @bellas.tale]
Shraddha Shetty